Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express

Review

Hercule Poirot, the famous Belgian detective, is urgently requested to return to London. Unfortunately, he is stranded in Istanbul, but thanks to Mr Bouc, an old friend and line director of the all-mighty train, the Orient Express, Poirot is offered a compartment to travel from Istanbul to Paris. There is plenty of time for both men to catch up during the upcoming voyage, but fate will not allow it, as a mysterious businessman is killed on the first night of the trip. This is a game set in 2023 where Hercule Poirot even uses a mobile phone to his advantage.

Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express is a point-and-click adventure with puzzle elements game developed and published by Microids on the 19^th of October 2023 on the Steam platform. The game is also available on PS4|PS5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X|S.

The game consists of 13 chapters in which you will play the famous detective in Istanbul, Venice, Geneva and, of course, on the Orient Express. Although the game is faithful to the original story, a couple of twists have been introduced, such as a female American detective, which you'll also be playing in the Boston and Geneva chapters. I will leave the other twists for you to discover. They cleverly implemented these elements into the game, making perfect sense and prolonging the story. 

The gameplay is what you would expect for the genre. I like how easy and comfortable the view movements are in this game, which enhances the ability to search areas and pick up and view items.

Mind maps will appear in each chapter, which you can access anytime using the TAB button on your keyboard. On these maps, it will tell you who you need to interrogate next to move forward. But, at a particular stage and after gathering information, you will be prompted to make a deduction about what happened at a precise time, or to recreate a sequence of events, or perhaps to confront a character about a lie. For the latest, you'll be given four sentences to choose from, while the other two will be mini-puzzles. These puzzles are among many others in the game, and for the most part, they are decent and well-structured. I struggled with one puzzle towards the end of the game in Geneva - it took me a while to figure it out. But you don't have to sweat if you don't want to, as you can access up to three tips per puzzle, which will give you the answer.

The characters' looks, personas, animations, and voiceovers are excellent. The fact that you will also be playing the Boston female detective gives you a bit of a breathing space, and is implemented at the right moment. They realised that it needed something other than moving back and forth between six wagons. I was truly entertained all the way through my 14 hours of gameplay.

I also like the informative anecdotes on Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot between the loading screens, which were quick.

However, I encountered a weird issue in chapter two. At one point, you have to interview Mrs. Hubbard and search for clues in her compartment. Up until then, as I was away from home I used my laptop, promptly got stuck, and couldn't search her cabin. When I got back home, I tried with my desktop - I could click on a couple of places but then got stuck again. So I swapped back to the laptop, clicked on a few places, and - you guessed it - got stuck again. I went back and forth between both devices at least five times before I could finally exit the room. And yes, I did verify the integrity of the files on both devices. But from then on, it was smooth sailing.

The graphics are fantastic, and I enjoyed the background music. The voiceovers are spot on, and overall, I am happy to say that this is probably the best Agatha Christie game I have ever played.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com

Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express Steam Store Page