Clue: Secrets and Spies

How to Play the Clue Secrets and Spies Boardgame

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Playing the Board Game Clue: Secrets and Spies

The Clue: Secrets and Spies board game has little to do with the original board game of Clue in terms of gameplay and/or rules. It has minor thematic similarities, but even the theme for this new board game is dramatically different from the original. The similarities extend to the names of the various secret agent characters in the game, and that's about it.

It's unusual to see a game with the name of another game that's so dissimilar to its predecessor. Hasbro could just as easily have named this game Secrets and Spies, but they wanted to attach the brand name of Clue to the game in order to attract more customers. Is that a smart marketing strategy? I'd have to guess that it is a smart marketing strategy, as it earned this new board game a place in the Clue section of our website. (If they hadn't used the brand name of the earlier game, Secrets and Spies might have wound up lost in our listings of other games, of which there are many.)

How to Play Clue: Secrets and Spies - Rules, Instructions

Learning how to play Clue: Secrets and Spies won't give you too much trouble, but knowing how to play Cluedo probably isn't going to provide you with much of an advantage.

The thematic and physical elements of Clue: Secrets and Spies include text messaging and invisible ink, espionage and secret identities. In fact, one of the selling points of this new game is that it was advertised as the first text messaging enabled board game. Believe it or not, I don't have a cell phone, so I guess I couldn't play the game. (Actually, the text messaging aspect of the game is optional, so Luddies like me could still find a way to play.)

Clue: Secrets and Spies Cards

Each player has a secrete identity which is determined by drawing a card. The agent names are based on the character names from Cluedo, so you have Agent Plum, Agent Scarlet, etc. During the game, the players move their secrets agents on the gameboard. There's also a nonplayer character named Agent Black, who works for a spy agency named, appropriately enough, C.L.U.E. (The acronym stands for Criminal League for Ultimate Espionage.)

The game also includes activity cards and mission cards. Players start the game with 3 activity cards and 1 mission card. The activity cards enable movement on the board.

Players can also use an action to steal or swap items, or to give away items. These items replace the murder weapons from the original game, and include things like laptops, cell phones, guns, etc. You can only carry 2 items. The items you're carrying should match the items on your mission card, and when they do, you score points and get a new mission card.

Besides the activity and mission cards, the game also has secret meeting cards. These include a location and the name of an agent. (The agent's name is in invisible ink, which can be read under a black light pen, which is provided with the game.)

The game also has a scoring chart. As you complete missions, you move your token up the chart. Agent Black moves his token down the chart. Once a player's token winds up on the same square as Agent Black, the game ends.

As the players travel around the game board, they've assigned missions and given clues via text message. As they accomplish these missions, they gain points. At the end of the game, the player how's completed the most missions before being discovered by Agent Black wins the game. (In the game rules, it tells you that you've achieved the role of "world's number one spy.")

Clue: Secrets and Spies is intended for 2 to 5 players age 9 and over, and the game retails for $25. (When I check at Amazon, you could buy the game at a tremendous discount, for just $6.70.) A cell phone is NOT included. The game was originally released in autumn of 2009.

Clue: Secrets and Spies Online - A Free Game

A video game version of Clue: Secrets and Spies is available on Pogo.com. It's a hidden object game, where the player has to find a hidden object in each scene of the game. Once you've found all of the hidden objects, you've won the game. The online Clue: Secrets and Spies game is split into multiple episodes, but they don't have to be played in order. Episodes are timed--you only get 60 minutes to complete each episode. The episode names are cool and evocative, like "The Mole in Morrocco," and "The Cairo Caper." I can't promise that you'll love the Internet version of Clue: Secrets and Spies, because it seems like the video game version is somewhat different from the board game. But signing up at Pogo is free, so it might be worth a try.