Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders

As a die-hard Agatha Christie fan this game has been on my wishlist since it was announced. The game is based on one of the most famous, and diabolical, of cases solved by Christie's famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. Fans will rejoice at the chance to play Poirot and solve this teasing of mysteries, and will also enjoy the addition of fan favourites Hastings and Japp. However the game itself will only really be enjoyed by die-hard fans, casual gamers, or those new to the genre, although even the latter too will probably find the game frustrating at times. Charming artwork and excellent background music aside, the game simply feels clunky and plays like an old-fashioned choose-your-own-adventure game with added bells and whistles. The player never really feels like the game is a sandbox and is shepherded from one clue to another, from one witness to another; in short: the game is on rails and very obvious ones. This is an absolute let-down because only the most unobservant of players will fail to find all the clues or achieve the correct outcome. Clunky controls and unnecessary (and unnecessarily complicated) puzzles which do nothing to further the story or which even fit the scenarios will constantly break the feeling of immersion that a game like this simply should have. All this makes for a game which should have been charming, challenging and a sure-fire hit given the captive audience it would already have... however it ends up being a disappointment and a chore to play. I would only really recommend this to die-hard fans and, even then, would warn them to go into the game expecting to be frustrated.

This game is something every adventure player should like. You play the role of Monsieur Poirot, the detective. Your main tasks are to find clues and ask people the right questions, instead of the wrong ones. They are more cooperative that way and you gain more points. You can win trophies, too. Some points and trophies are harder to gain, some are very easy. But I still think that this addition makes the game more interesting and I might even play it again, just to improve my score and see what the other trophies are for. Another task is, to draw conclusions from the clues that you found. This is normally quite easy, but still kind of satisfying. Also, there are a few riddles to solve, but again, not too difficult. I did not consult a walkthrough during the whole game, but still felt challenged in some situations. I could not give the full five stars, because overall it is a little bit too easy and short. It took me about 7 hours, I think. In addition some things were a bit repetitive, others do not really make sense. And there is no combining of inventory items, something I missed a little bit! To sum it up: I recommend this game. It is a fluent story, no endless searches for tiny clues, not frustrating at all but relaxing and fun.

The general low-polish, low-budged feel is acceptable, especially since adventure games tend not to be the most popular genre with core gamers. Instead, the game's main problem are: excessive handholding and out-of-place mechanical puzzles. Firstly, about the handholding. Rather than thoroughly explore the locations at your own pace, looking for clues, you're constantly being set explicitly stated objectives that dictate the order in which you conduct your investigation. Furthermore, the game stops you on its own at specific points to have you connect clues to a given question. It makes the game accessible for beginners, but may frustrate some players. As with the course of the investigation, I'd have preferred to address those questions at my own pace. While it would've extended the length of the game, it would also give me more satisfaction for having finally answered those, perhaps in the form similar to the quiz at the end of each section of Sherlock Holmes and the Silver Earring. In their current form, the questions have some problems as well. For instance, when presented with a vague "What do we know about [the suspect]?", you are to present two clues out of several you have to choose from. Out of those, at least five could answer this vague question, but the game requires two specific ones out of those. Secondly, the mechanical puzzles are just so unnaturally placed and generally unnecessary. At several points in the game, you'll encounter ridiculous contraptions, typically locks on a cabinet, luggage, box, etc., that are impractical, elaborate and unrealistic. Worse yet, some of them belong to people not likely wealthy enough to protect their secrets with such intricate mechanisms. Admittedly, numerous adventure games suffer from this problem, but that's not enough to absolve it.

im trying to like this game, a big fan of Poroit and was excited to get this game. I love point and click adventures as well. So whats the problem? Pros: some interesting puzzles, nice to play as Poroit and I like the evidence gathering to reach conclusions. Graphics are ok, cartoony but fits. can play with french with english subtitles which is cool or vice versa Cons: egads. well, mostly at every turn the devs rip you out of immersion, every game transistion... meaning walking into another room, opening submenus, plot points etc they splash a huge monitor covering screen with oft repeated game tips... no art, nothing, blank screen blabing how to do a simple game mechanic already explained for the umpteenth time. Game often interrupts your liimited exploring to declare its time to deduce, then walks you thru it heavy handedly, in the end you just shove a clue into a vacant spot and wait for the deduction to finish because it has no intrigue or grey matter involved, its just busy work to pad out the game. Exploring the scenery is also weird, you get a mouse icon that you have to gradually target until game decides you are at the right pixel to get it to advance. why they did that instead of just a single click to explore hot spots i dont know, it feels like a mobile device mechanic. its stupid frankly, you just end up sliding the mouse around until it snaps into some vague place to progress. the worst bit is that the game quickly becomes a chore of making the UI work. I spent an hour trying to get one puzzle to work due to funky hotspot targeting. Movement and puzzles seem to be for mobile games, its just clunky, huge and ugly. Any charm of the game is quickly lost due to lack of immersion, terrible english voice acting and exploration being interrupted by game telling you what to do next and where. blah. aint got time for this, on to next game