Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot is an English detective created by the author in 1920. The series of novels and short stories featuring the detective are generally considered to be one of the most successful ever written, with more than 200 million copies sold.
Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot series is a collection of novels that follows the detective as he solves crimes. This particular book, Hercule Poirot: The First Cases is an introduction to the series and it includes six short stories.
Some of the greatest mystery books ever written have been penned by Agatha Christie. Her writings have been adapted into many films, television programs, and even video games. In principle, her work should be the foundation for some of the greatest detective thriller games available, but unfortunately, most of them have been poor so far, such as Microids’ previous Hercule Poirot-centric game, Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders. Is Microids’ newest game, Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot – The First Cases, going to be the one to steal the show? The answer is, unfortunately, a resounding “no.”
This game is not based on any of Agatha Christie’s novels, unlike Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders. Hercule Poirot – The First Cases by Agatha Christie is a brand-new story about Hercule Poirot’s early years, before he became the famous detective we all know and love. While I enjoy having a fresh narrative to go through, it isn’t very unique. Poirot is invited to the rich Van den Bosche house for the daughter Cassandra’s engagement party. He’ll soon learn that the family is mired in deception, extortion, and even murder. It’s up to Poirot to figure out what’s really going on at the Van den Bosche estate.
Our suspicions are listed below.
Hercule Poirot – The First Cases by Agatha Christie contains a number of flaws. The first is the fact that it is linear. In its most basic form, this is a point-and-click adventure. You’ll navigate Poirot about the house, interact with whatever you can, and talk to everyone to find out more information. That’s all there is to it.
You’ll be able to visit the Mind Map to begin putting things together after gathering as much knowledge as possible from individuals and objects accessible. The Mind Map is without a doubt the game’s weakest feature. What should be connected together has very little rhyme or rationale. Certain items that seem to be apparent connections will not be, while other seemingly unrelated observations will be linked.
The Mind Maps’ deduction method is the misery of my life.
There isn’t even a clue system like Blazing Griffin’s previous video game, Murder Mystery Machine. This implies that you’ll sometimes have to figure out how to link twenty to thirty nodes, many of which make no logical sense to connect. You’ll find yourself wasting time attempting to connect every conceivable combination of nodes in the hope of finding the right solution. It’s vexing, mind-numbingly dull, and slows down the overall pace of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot – The First Cases.
The second problem is that there is no real challenge. That is, unless you count mindlessly attempting to create the right connections. Apart from that, Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot – The First Cases is entirely devoid of any sense of difficulty or risk of failure. You won’t be able to go on in the narrative until you’ve had all of the required talks and thoroughly examined everything around you. This enables you to connect all of the dots required to go on to the next level of the case. You also can’t make any erroneous deductions. So you just click on everything and then battle your Mind Map for a bit until everything falls into place.
I’m sorry to tell you this, but your tiny grey cells aren’t very good at this game.
You’ll sometimes have to question someone who is on their guard. The only way to acquire the knowledge they have is to persuade them to relax their defenses. Poirot will begin by reiterating what he knows about this individual and their nature, before advising on the best course of action to pursue with them. If they’re being guarded, ask polite inquiries. Try praising them if they’re being self-indulgent. It’s simple to figure out which tone of voice will work best for each character. Furthermore, if you make a mistake during an interrogation, the game will just resume from the beginning. As I already said, there is no way to fail. When Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot – The First Cases has no stakes, there’s no way to have any pleasure.
It is impossible to flunk these interrogations, which is a game-breaking flaw.
It isn’t all bad, however. It’s very lovely to look at. Every room in the house has its own own style and arrangement, making each one seem unique. As the narrative continues, more parts of the home will open up, providing each chapter some variation. Character models are excellent, however they don’t stand out as much as their hand-drawn counterparts during conversation interactions. When they do move, their animations are likewise quite rigid. I’m also surprised that the framerate drops often while navigating Hercule Poirot about the house, given that the game doesn’t seem to be technically demanding.
Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot – The First Cases shines best in its sound design. The vocal performances are all powerful and compelling. Some of them are a little corny, but that’s to be expected in this kind of game. The music is modest, yet it serves to create a moody and tense atmosphere. The sound effects left a lasting impression on me. When walking on hardwood flooring, carpets, or slogging through snow, Poirot’s footfall sound quite different. The sound design played a big role in selling a lot of what was going on in the home, particularly because the animations didn’t always have the passionate motions you’d expect from individuals in this scenario.
Even while I like the conversation, there are no consequences for asking a question incorrectly. There are no incorrect questions in this section.
To be honest, Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot – The First Cases disappointed me a lot, particularly because I had been anticipating it for so long. The plot is one that every mystery lover has seen a hundred times before. You can see all of the twists coming from a mile away. The deduction method is abysmal and provides nothing but a vexing experience. Furthermore, there is no difficulty, making the game seem nearly pointless to play, particularly since you know how the narrative will finish well before it does. I can’t believe I’m suggesting this, but you should play Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders instead of Hercule Poirot. At the very least, the game offers enjoyable puzzles and a reasonable degree of difficulty.
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The character models are attractive, but they lack the dynamic quality of their hand-drawn counterparts utilized in conversation interactions. Surprisingly, moving Hercule Poirot about the house causes framerate problems. |
This is mostly a point-and-click adventure with some deductions to be made regarding each case. However, the deduction method is terrible. |
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The sound design is excellent. Throughout, the vocal performances are excellent, and the sound effects are outstanding. |
Many of the solutions to the cases you’re investigating are apparent early on, but you’ll still have to work your way through the rest of the narrative beats and interrogations to reach them. The deduction method is incomprehensible, and it often requires you to engage in lengthy periods of “trial by error” guessing. |
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Final Score: 4.5 |
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On PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot – The First Cases is now available.
PS5 was used for this review.
The publisher supplied a copy of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot – The First Cases.
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Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot is a detective game that allows players to play as the titular character. The game is set in 1920s London and features six cases that are based on real-life events. Reference: agatha christie – hercule poirot: the first cases game.
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