Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot: The London Case

Review

The Mary Magdalene, a valuable picture, has just been sold and will be the main exhibit at a Gala that will take place in a London Museum. You, Mr. Hercule Poirot, will be in charge of the transportation and security of the artwork during its voyage. Mr Mortimer Ailsworth, the new owner of the painting, has insured it through Lloyd's of London, and one of its representatives, a certain Mr Arthur Hastings, will also accompany the picture from the port of Antwerp to Dover and its final destination, London. Perhaps Mr. Ailsworth is afraid that his new acquisition will disappear during its transit or, even worse, a murder will take place. Of course, it is just speculation. Let's jump into Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot: The London Case, shall we?

Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot: The London Case is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Blazing Griffin and published by Microids on the 29^th of August 2023 on the Steam platform. The game is also available on PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.

The game consists of nine chapters, and the story will be told by visiting nine locations throughout the game.  The prologue takes place on the ship, which is one of the nine locations. Having finished the game, I am very pleased to inform you that the story is rather good and will keep you guessing who the murderer is until you reach the end of chapter 8. Although it is linear, you must follow the process step by step to move from one chapter to the next. You can always access this information via the mind maps, which will tell you what to do if you get stuck somewhere.

Point and Click games will always involve reading, finding objects and solving puzzles. I do like the way they present the puzzles. If you have played the previous game, you'll already know about this, but if you haven't, it is quite fun. You see, in most chapters you'll unlock mind maps. As you discover objects and clues, those findings will be placed in the mind maps of the current chapter. There are two types of mind maps. The main one is Hercule Poirot's deduction system, and the other is for his sidekick, Mr. Hastings, which you can access when you need his help. Ultimately, all findings will be transferred to Hercule Poirot's main deduction system. There, you'll have to link the appropriate findings to each other to uncover the truth. But you have to acquire link points to do so, which you'll get as you progress through the story.

Throughout the nine chapters, there are a few objects that you’ll find along the way and can use to assist your progress. I like the fact that you can zoom in on some of the objects and see around them to find clues.

My biggest problem with this game is the animation; there are bugs everywhere. The main one is Poirot's inability to stop walking when he reaches a place of interest, such as clicking on items or opening doors. He also keeps walking while the next scene starts to load. Additionally, in the apartment scenes, clicking for Poirot to go downstairs will occasionally trigger the opposite, and you’ll find yourself going upstairs. In conversation scenes, characters will have arms going through their bodies on multiple occasions. No need to be Hercule Poirot to notice this error. The voiceover is good and clear, but it feels like you are in an acoustic room. That would work for a scene in a museum hall, for example, but not in an office. It's odd.

The camera view is adequate, as you can move Poirot's perspective by 90-degree increments at any time, which is important as you need the ability to see each room you are in from different angles.

Despite the animation issues, I really like the graphics, and the story is pretty good too. The game has been translated into English, French and German at this stage.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com

Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot: The London Case Steam Store Page