“Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders” — Poirot Steams to PC!
Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders is a new 3rd-person detective adventure game, starring the famous Hercule Poirot, developed by Microids and released on Steam on February 5, 2016.
The game, which is set in 1935, sees the famous detective and his partner Hastings traveling throughout the United Kingdom in an effort to track down the mysterious killer known only as “ABC” and to put an end to his murder spree. Based on a 1936 novel of the same name, this new PC offering is sort of like a very-enhanced remake of the 2009 Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders on the Nintendo DS.
The game is very narrative-driven with very good voice acting and the typical gameplay sections are presented in very pleasing third-person point-and-click style. The graphics are polished and look very good (I love the cel-shading and how it worked out for this game) and the soundtrack is spot-on. What makes the game really interesting, though, is the diverse activities that are required to piece together the mysteries. Poirot will be able to examine scenes in order to find clues, which includes close inspections of notes, books, and pretty much any object of interest, and he will have to solve puzzles set before him for many varied purposes (in the video here, you’ll see one involving piecing together a secret code to crack a cash-register and another where we have to open a trick wooden lock-box by sliding panels in a certain order). Moreover, there’s a deduction system where the player can piece together bits of evidence gathered from observations, collections, and interviews with suspects and other people of interest and put together a timeline of what they believe has happened so far while also making assumptions about the nature of ABC himself and his motives behind the killings.
I’m also really impressed that the game has full ultra-wide 21:9 support and that it looks beautiful at that aspect ratio – the developers really gave us a treat with it.
Overall, I am very pleased with this game and I think it’s a compelling adventure that demands that I sit through it and complete it. Currently, you can get a copy on Steam for $29.99 and this seems fair given the reported average completion time. I’d say it’s worth the price, but if you are on the fence about it, I’d also be comfortable saying you may wish to hold off until it goes on sale at some point.
At any rate, I hope you enjoy this gameplay sample and stay tuned – more fun like this will be on the way really soon!
