Starting strong with a literary classic adapted to video game! While I can’t call myself a huge reader of Agatha Christie’s works, I have read a few of her stories – but not today’s. Good! That means I’m not spoiled!
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It's a Poirot story - it's always a murder. (And for those not
in the know, that's pronounced "pwah-row"). |
Developed by Artefacts Studio, published by Microids, and released on February 4th, 2016 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One (and on Switch in 2020),
Agatha Christie – The ABC Murders is adapted from the Hercule Poirot novel of the same name. The quirky, mustachioed Belgian detective was hoping to enjoy retirement with just a few simple cases from now on. This peace is troubled when his London office receives a typewritten letter signed A.B.C., discussing an upcoming murder in the town of Andover. A challenge for the aging gentleman! The first victim’s initials are A.A., and she is found dead with an ABC (a dictionary-sized book of train departure times to all destinations in England) on her, left open at the A section. Aided by his friend Captain Arthur Hastings and Scotland Yard inspector James Japp, Hercule Poirot might be able to see beyond the mind games and find the culprit.
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Poirot concludes that this woman is both sad and angry.
He's a better reader than I am. |
Poirot can inspect people’s appearances to reach conclusions about their mental state, and then interrogate witnesses and suspects to get information. Most body observations stop at three details to spot on the person. Investigating scenes goes the same way – bring the cursor to an area, hover on it long enough, and a detail will be “noticed”. This is how you can find clues and information.
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| We've figured out the how, now to figure out the who and why. |
Occasionally, Poirot will “put his little grey cells to work” and tie pieces of information together to reach logical conclusions. Some questions appear ahead of time, and you can try to solve them before the plot mandates it, though you may be missing the clues/observations needed for completion. There are no consequences for failing, so if a question has you stumped but you have all the clues, you can keep trying different combinations of clues until you catch the right one.
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| All this for a piece of paper? Can't I just pull it out? |
The centerpieces are the puzzles, in which objects are tampered with to find new clues advancing the investigations. Some require information found in the current chapter (like a safe’s code), while others require keen observation to figure out how to take them apart. Most of them aren’t too difficult, but a few are tricky if you can’t spot the one detail you need to see to proceed. I did get stuck on one or two of these, but most weren’t so bad.
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Careful, it's best to not piss off the suspects, just in case
they're volatile. |
The biggest weakness of this game is that, while its story covers the entirety of
The ABC Murders, it’s also very rigid about progress. Outside of moments where youmay not notice a clue or a way to move onwards, the game is otherwise easy, with most sequences being impossible to lose (and, in the case of the puzzles, the only failure is being unable to finish them). There are no repercussions for mishandling an interrogation. You gain some “experience” by behaving like Poirot, which means conducting everything to perfection and being gentle when asking questions (or showing narcissism by making him stare at himself in every mirror, I got a kick out of that), but it doesn’t offer advantages.
It's the kind of game where I love the story (or, at least, how it interprets the story it adapts to an interactive medium), but gameplay is very much a mixed bag. Observations of relevant characters are always too easy; observing relevant objects on various visited locations can be a tiny bit trickier, but you can just focus on what feels relevant and you’ll quickly get through them as well. Much of the game is just too easy – but if you’re just in it for a classic Hercule Poirot story, you’ll get exactly what you want.
Agatha Christie – The ABC Murders is available on Steam for 14.99$.
