Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 653: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆ (8/10) [i]Agatha Christie – Murder on the Orient Express[/i] is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a very good murder mystery. The story is excellent, the characters are memorable, and the writing does a great job capturing the atmosphere of the original novel. Honestly, I was perfectly happy to just sit back and let Hercule Poirot do his thing, which is both the game's greatest strength and one of its weaknesses. The mystery is compelling, but the actual gameplay isn't particularly difficult. There are plenty of clues to examine, suspects to question, and deductions to make, but the game pretty much gives you all the clues needed. [b][h2]Pros:[/h2][/b] ✅ [b]The story is excellent.[/b] I mean, it's [i]Murder on the Orient Express[/i]. The premise is iconic for a reason, and the game does a good job preserving the central mystery while giving you plenty of opportunities to poke around the train and investigate the passengers. Even when I already knew where things were going, I still enjoyed watching the pieces fall into place thanks to the inclusion of Joanna Locke and seeing how her story is married to Poi…

The most boring Agatha Christie's game I've ever played. It's a very poor attempt to introduce "mind map" like in Sherlock Holmes games with the difference that all the answers are linear and questions are incorrectly articulated. I've played around 2h and I am afraid I cannot do it anymore. The graphic is nice though and the train depicted beautifully, the small positive in the ocean of negatives of this game. Honestly, Nansy Drew is million times more exciting than this.

I didn't like anything about this game. The gameplay feels weak and not convenient.

I reaaaaaaaaally wanted to like this, but God, it is just a slog. The writing and all the voice work aside from Poirot himself, is comically bad, and whilst the addition of a secondary lead was interesting because it allowed for the plot to be expanded beyond just what is happening on the train, the way they chose to end the story what lost me. It was just baffling. They tried to go for a 'twist' ending but considering the very famous twist of the original story, it just falls so incredibly flat it's laughable. If I was not in the habit of 100 percenting all games I play, I would have dropped it when it logically should have ended in chapter 8. I really can't recommend it.

I played it with my wife, it started out slow but it was a great ride that I didn't want to end. It was pretty long but I like getting immersed in a good game. This game is far greater than the sum of its parts. I highly recommend.

Pros: -Having read the book, I appreciate how this game is faithful to the spirit of the book while also changing enough details to keep me guessing. -A very Poirot-like portrayal of Poirot. -Beautifully rendered Orient Express. -The interactive mind map is an engaging way to keep track of the case. Cons: -The story is presented linearly with few opportunities to choose how to investigate. It's fine for a cinematic experience, but I've been spoiled by open world investigation games like Paradise Killer and The Seance of Blake Manor. -Some of the mini-puzzles are unnecessary and downright silly. Does the great Poirot really need to guess whether something is a raspberry or a strawberry, or solve Towers of Hanoi to stack small boxes? (Seriously, stop putting Towers of Hanoi puzzles in adventure games, it's neither original nor fun...) I hope more Agatha Christie novels get the same treatment. Can we do And Then There Were None next?