Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders

I love any story with Poirot, but I was unfamiliar with this one, which I would assume is a good thing. It's a nice point and click game that can be terribly frustrating at times - not too difficult, just some of the tasks are more timeconsuming than I would want. This is the games biggest flaw in my opinion, otherwise it has me charmed completely. It may not be David Suchet being Poirot, but it feels like a good old Poirot story all the same, and the trophies amused me. Worth it, in my opinion, even if it is a bit oldfashioned.

Being a big fan of detective fiction, I'll read almost anything & play almost anything related to the genre. It's a guilty pleasure I enjoy indulging in from time to time, & it's even better when it's presented as a point & click game - another genre I enjoy. So looking forward to solving an interesting murder mystery, I was disappointed when all I got was a point & click game that's so on rails, it plays itself. You're constantly told what to do, & when you're making a mistake the game tells you so, & any advancement in the investigation is garnered via a series of mini-games. Meaning that making the wrong deductions is impossible, & making the right ones is simply a matter of trial & error. In fact, I got 40% into the game by completely ignoring the plot & skipping the dialogue, & focusing solely on the mini-games. It doesn't help that the detective work in this game is laughable. Throughout the game Poirot will make observations about the people around him, & you'll have to prove those deductions in yet another mini-game. One such deduction is that someone is a heavy smoker, & the clues to that deduction is that she has a cigarette in her hand, & next to her are matches & an ashtray. Another deduction is that someone lives a simple life, by observing he has a plain-looking tap. It doesn't help that the voice-work in this game is simply god awful, bordering on parody. It's either over the top or emotionless, & the actors seem to be recording their lines independent from each other, leading to some weird responses to questions asked. Add to that the weird occasional bugs, & a loose interpretation of what you're clicking on, leading my character at times to go in the complete opposite direction of where I wanted it to go. Also some dialogue you can skip, while some you can't, & at times I seemed to be able to make my character's agonizingly slow walk quicker, & at times I couldn't. Leading to a half-baked game with an interesting plot hiding somewhere in there.

I was very impressed by this title. After trying the Sherlock Holmes ones; I was assuming that this one will be another disappointing click adventure with nothing interesting and a lot of graphical nonsense that would distract users from the real clues (as so commonly done in modern "find the clue" games). Instead I found it being well done, clean and the graphic has a cartoon style that really fits the game. You move around using your mouse; clicking move you to a location, like the old adventures from Lucasarts or Sierra. There is no commands here, since all the actions are contextual. So you will see a dot, that give you the chance to examine or talk to someone, if you hold downt he mouse on it. Then you will notice a pair of glasses, for areas or object that you can actually inspect. This will zoom on the area and tell you what parts of the scene are viewable. Some objects can be picked and examined, so you can rotate around them to discover clues. Then there are some mini games; the first you encounter are puzzles; and if you played "the room" games; you will feel at home. Most of the time is boxes or other objects that you have to open or unravel. I found them being interesting and clever; although not that hard for me. The second type of puzzle is based on putting clues together. The more you find clues, the more data you get, and this give you the chance to complete a "thought"; which may be the time at which the victim was killed; the motive and such. You see circles at the bottom of the screen, and each of those is a statement you collected/clue you found. You drag and drop these cirlces on the main board; and if you get the right circles, then you get a confirmation screen. You can try mixing up the various circles with the clues until you make it; because the game won't penalize you for making the wrong choice. Same for the reconstruct the scene minigame. Overall a great relaxing game, that is worth even full price for me. Hope to see more.

This game is so boring and short (and much too easy). Don't buy it, or buy it only when it's 80% discount and you want to play 6 hours game on weekend.

A great story with a few quite easy puzzles and the usual Agatha Christie plot twists.