Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders

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 grey cells’ as they attempt to catch the serial killer that has been taunting the P.I.

The story, lifted directly from the Agatha Christie novel of the same name, has been artfully recreated. Taking the painted cell styling similar to the Telltale series of games and adding its own 1930s flair; culminating in tableaux’s reminiscent of ads the likes of Coleman’s and Whitman’s  from the era. While perhaps not as immersive as photo-realistic mystery games such as L.A. Noire, it certainly sets the scene of this classic narrative, which is brought to life in an engaging script and with solid voice acting. But that’s just it, it is the classic narrative down to a T, and anyone already familiar with the tale will find little in the way of twists or variation.

Whether this will be a one-off, or the beginning of a series of classic short stories is yet to be seen, though I do hope that while the storytelling and artistic style is retained, the developers engage their ‘little grey cells’ and rework the interactive elements in future titles. There is also the question of why the lovably imperious detective, whom at a glance can identify the work of the serial killer would be bothering to question some of the supposed suspects. We’re chasing a serial killer across England, do we really think the butler did it?