Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot - The First Cases
I finished Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot - The First Cases. The title is a bit of a misnomer because it's technically only two cases, with the first one mostly being a tutorial for the game, and the other one is the main case. Not what I was expecting, but that's fine. It's set during Poirot's early days as a detective. The story centers around this one family and there's blackmail involved, but I really wanted for there to be a murder, and yes it finally comes, so I wasn't disappointed.
The gameplay is pretty casual and more for the novice player. You search rooms for clues and question the characters. Each fact you pick up on forms Poirot's mind map, which you enter via a separate screen. It's similar to some Sherlock Holmes games, but I still didn't quite get how it worked at first. You have to look at the facts and make a connection between them by drawing a line between two facts. I eventually realized the connection would usually be between two facts that were close together, making some pleasing geometric patterns. You get three tries to make the correct connection, and after that the two facts you're supposed to connect flash, giving you the answer. I wish the game wouldn't do that because I wanted to figure it out for myself. It gives you the sense that Poirot is doing all the hard work for you.
The only other “puzzle” is the handful of times where you have to select the right dialog option when interrogating the characters. But even here, Poirot gives you a strong hint as to which dialog to pick. In other words, he states what your approach should be when questioning the characters. The biggest one of these dialog puzzles is at the very end of the game. It is possible to mess up and choose the wrong option and you're not able to go back and redo it. However, I don't know if it has much of an impact on the ending. I messed up a few times, but still got the best ending possible, IMO.
Despite the hand holding, I did really like the story. It's typical Agatha Christie with every character being a suspect and each have their own dirty laundry. The voice acting was good. Animations were OK. The one thing I really liked was the one time Poirot goes outside and leaves his trail behind in the snow. I thought that looked good. I did enjoy playing this one. The only time I got stuck was missing a couple hotspots that were hard to notice or not easy to highlight unless you got in just the right position. Otherwise, there was little challenge to the game, but it was fun. Here's a screenshot. There was plenty of drama between the characters.
Now I'm starting Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, which is about Sherlock Holmes's early days as a detective. I'm sensing a trend here. There's combat in this game, but fortunately it's skippable. I will try it of course, but I don't play these games to get into fights. I hope the actual detective work will be fun. I've only played around ten minutes so far, but it seems promising.
The gameplay is pretty casual and more for the novice player. You search rooms for clues and question the characters. Each fact you pick up on forms Poirot's mind map, which you enter via a separate screen. It's similar to some Sherlock Holmes games, but I still didn't quite get how it worked at first. You have to look at the facts and make a connection between them by drawing a line between two facts. I eventually realized the connection would usually be between two facts that were close together, making some pleasing geometric patterns. You get three tries to make the correct connection, and after that the two facts you're supposed to connect flash, giving you the answer. I wish the game wouldn't do that because I wanted to figure it out for myself. It gives you the sense that Poirot is doing all the hard work for you.
The only other “puzzle” is the handful of times where you have to select the right dialog option when interrogating the characters. But even here, Poirot gives you a strong hint as to which dialog to pick. In other words, he states what your approach should be when questioning the characters. The biggest one of these dialog puzzles is at the very end of the game. It is possible to mess up and choose the wrong option and you're not able to go back and redo it. However, I don't know if it has much of an impact on the ending. I messed up a few times, but still got the best ending possible, IMO.
Despite the hand holding, I did really like the story. It's typical Agatha Christie with every character being a suspect and each have their own dirty laundry. The voice acting was good. Animations were OK. The one thing I really liked was the one time Poirot goes outside and leaves his trail behind in the snow. I thought that looked good. I did enjoy playing this one. The only time I got stuck was missing a couple hotspots that were hard to notice or not easy to highlight unless you got in just the right position. Otherwise, there was little challenge to the game, but it was fun. Here's a screenshot. There was plenty of drama between the characters.
Now I'm starting Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, which is about Sherlock Holmes's early days as a detective. I'm sensing a trend here. There's combat in this game, but fortunately it's skippable. I will try it of course, but I don't play these games to get into fights. I hope the actual detective work will be fun. I've only played around ten minutes so far, but it seems promising.