Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders

The game started interestingly enough for someone who loves puzzles like I do. But it got tedious very quickly. The skill level required for the puzzles is very basic and they don't get any harder as the game progresses. I kept expected the levels to increase in difficulty but it never came. Very boring

It's more like an interactive movie - all is set, all is linear, there is no room to get stuck, and most of the game is, well, unnecessary - that counts for inspecting suspect that tells you, what you allready knew, all the "ego points", you will never use, "moustaches" and other archievement gained for things you have to do to progress... I think the game could be best descibed by the "riddle" where you compare letters - it is a nice idea, but it is very easy and you have to do it multiple times for no reason. Same goes for the mind net. If you do not know the story - the game could be interesting for you, because it follows the book with just little to none changes. But if you do know it, there is like no reason for you to play - there is not even an alternative ending like in the previous Agatha Christie games. The Good: Story (if you do not know is allready), subtle background music, atmosphere, voices (mostly), background graphics The Bad: Too easy, not really a game, no challenges, artificially prolonged content, hollow, constant annoying pop-ups The Ugly: Face animations, voices (some)

The game seems nice, as expected of Microids, story is interesting and puzzles while fairly easy are entertaining. However 9% into it I run into a game breaking bug where I couldn't click the item I needed to progress and since the game autosaves there was nothing I could do other than restart.

A series of easy mini games that gets a little harder in the end or it seemed that way because I have lost interest. I would only suggest this game for your child to play as entry point to adventure games.

So I bought this game at a discount even when I'm aware of the reviews for this game. I thought as a hardcore detective genre fan for the like of Poirot, Holmes, Edogawa, etc I can tolerate the shortcomings of this game. I was wrong. First of all I actually never read the ABC murder so I came to this game pretty fresh storywise but in the end it's it's still pretty underwhelming and the plot twist can be seen from a mile away. It's like the screenwriter for this game watched too much BBC's Sherlock and trying to be clever like the series but ended up with half baked story. For the gameplay, it also felt underwhelming. The puzzles are too easy and felt unnecessary. Hercule Poirot, compared to Sherlock rely more on dialogues and character buildings to create the mystery and twists. For them to use cheap easy puzzles to pad this game felt a bit too insulting for Poirot fans (except the grey cells part). And don't forget about the character interface. It felt like cheap mobile game where we are required to find some stuff by tapping around. Also Poirot looks like an awkward penguin when he's walking around. For God sake people Poirot is kinda portly but not overwhelmingly fat! The replayability is weak. The game keep reminding me that it got 50 trophies to gain but to be honest after finishing the game I have no desire to replay the game again. There's no smart or witty dialogue to keep me interested and Hastings and Poirot banter was supposed to be the glue that keep reader to stay. But in this game Hastings sounds like a spoiled teen. On the other hand pros are: Great artwork for this game, great dubbing and the grey cell part actually a highlight for this game as it's actually a good way to show how Poirot mind work. This is why I still give it 3 stars than 2 stars. If felt like I'm watching a TV movie about the ABC murder story. It's just okay and you can see the budget limitation everywhere.