Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders

Like every great detective story we must draw to a conclusion about Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders. The main problem is that its strongest points and successes come from what it is based on. The story, the twists and turns and the slow exposing of the killer have already been adapted – twice in fact, and both very well. The video game adaption brings a closer, but less subtle, look at the great detective but also delivers rather poor graphics, voice acting and animations. Despite those flaws however, Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders still provides a great and thoroughly engrossing crime stor...

I associate Agatha Christie with a paciness and lightness of touch. It was there in this game at brief intervals but would then get obscured again as a scene dragged on for too long or you had to hover your mouse over a cigarette someone was holding AND a box of matches AND an ashtray in order to deduce they were a smoker. Eventually it just felt like the interactive elements stopped being a mild diversion and became an obstruction.

I can’t really recommend Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders to anyone. Fans of the book will appreciate the alternate ending but be disappointed in the cartoony style, the lack of pace or urgency to the investigation, and the atrociously comical voice acting. Adventure game fans on the other hand may like the 3D object puzzles but otherwise be disappointed that it’s all so easy and filled with numerous time wasting moments and parts where they’re not trusted to come to a conclusion the...

I’ve been a long time fan of Agatha Christie’s novels, with And Then There Were None being one of my all time favorites. So naturally, I was drawn to a game based on one of her most popular books. Add in the fact that it’s an investigative puzzle game and it seemed like a match made in heaven. So how did Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders stand up to its source material? Let’s break out the mustache wax and take a closer inspection.

While there are more complex and intriguing crime games out there and it isn't the longest game, The ABC Murders still offers good entertainment for the interested and serves as a decent port into the murder mystery puzzle genre. Some core mechanics need fine tuning, but the balance between the different game elements is generally good. The interrogation scenes as well as the deduction phases could be a bit more elaborate and slightly longer (because they are - hands down - the best bits of the game) but the overall flow of the game is pleasant.

Its flaws will only be forgiven by stringent Agatha Christie fans. Those looking for a game to kill the wait for the next Professor Layton, however, will be disappointed.

Mr Hercule Poirot. Many of you may be familiar with this fastidious Belgian, brought wonderfully to life by David Suchet in the long running British ITV series ‘Agatha Christie’s Poirot’. And this familiarity will serve you well, as ‘The ABC Murders’ focuses primarily on the modus operandi of the sleuth, rather than actual mystery solving. Throughout the game players must observe crime scenes, question suspects and solves puzzles; all with Poirot-ian flair, using their ‘little gre...

A murder-mystery game based on the famous crime-fiction writings of Agatha Christie.