Okay, so I liked the humour on this one, but there's something that's disturbing me. The thing is that the game is too easy, you can just click everything on screen or just connect the hints and eventually, you'll get it right, maybe even not needing to reason at all. The artstyle could be so much better, but being honest, I prefer this one rather than the new Hercules Poirot ones, the closest to 2D, the better. And I can't complain about the story, Agatha Christie is always on point with crimes, I'll go read the book and leave this here.

Este juego se supone que se basa en la novela de Agatha Christie de mismo nombre, pero hace demasiadas cosas mal para poder recomendarlo. Cosas que paso a enumerar porque son muchas en el poco tiempo de juego que da el título:
- Pantallas de carga cada dos pasos. Que si, que duran pocos segundos, pero es que en cada puerta hay una pantalla de carga con un consejo estúpido que no ayuda en nada o recordándote que has conseguido un logro que acabas de ver
- Lentitud extrema en el movimiento y en general en todo el juego. El 90% del tiempo estas o esperando a que Poirot llegue a donde le has dicho que ande, o mientras hablan lentamente en conversaciones que no llegan muchas veces a ningún sitio.
- Algún que otro bug de sonido en el que conversaciones no se escuchan.
- Repetir un puzzle hasta 3 veces EXACTAMENTE igual, sin cambiar ni un solo ápice del mismo. La primera vez está curioso, pero cuándo debes darle a la misma secuencia parece que se está riendo de ti.
- Cada dos por tres dice literalmente: "Hay que poner las células grises a trabajar" para hacer un puzzle mental de arrastra las pistas a la pregunta que hace, pero queda super tonto y falso que no pare de decirlo al final de muchas de las conversaciones. Y siempre con la misma frase tonta.
- Logros de bigotes porque si, no hace falta tener 50 logros donde 40 son estúpidos. De verdad, no hace falta.
- Obligarte a salir de un puzzle para coger información que no sabías que necesitabas y al volver el puzzle está como al principio, se resetea entero cada vez que quieras conseguir más información.
- Hay veces que quiere parecerse a un The Room, pero no le llega ni a la suela de los zapatos.
- No le puedes dar a las cosas hasta que no estás cerca, por lo que recorres todo con esa mencionada lentitud buscando a ver si le tienes que darle a una mesa que está en la otra punta. Aunque tu la veas perfectamente, el detective necesita estar a dos metros de todo para saber si puedes o no interactuar con eso.

En definitiva, una enorme decepción.

A de amor
B de baixinho
C de...sei lá... Chacina?

"Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders" é um título divertido, especialmente para aqueles jogadores que são apaixonados pelos livros da autora ou por livros de mistério.

O jogador enfrentará diversos puzzles quando estiver fazendo suas investigações, alguns deles são bem simples de serem resolvidos, outros já são mais demorados de entender. Os objetivos são movidos em forma de perguntas do tipo: “Essa pessoa tinha um motivo? A que horas a mulher foi assassinada? . A partir daí iremos trabalhar para responder todas as perguntas. Assim que encontrar todas as evidências, elas são colocadas para o jogador que precisa juntar quais são as corretas para responder a pergunta (Eu achei a mecânica de investigação do jogo super criativa, só poderia ser um pouco menos previsível).

Tá aí algo que infelizmente o game peca: É tudo muito previsível. A partir do último crime do jogo é muito fácil saber como a narrativa vai se desenrolar.

O jogo é no estilo cartunesco desenhado com cores vivas mas a interpretação dos bonecos durante as falas ficou bem ruim (E pra ser sincero nem os gráficos agradam tanto).

Além disso o jogo tem um estilo point-to-click muito óbvio (Tirando alguns poucos puzzles, o jogo é todo muito fácil).

Mesmo sendo um tanto clichê, é um game que vale ser jogado, principalmente se você conhecer os títulos da autora (Fora que o jogo tem 4 horas e meia) (Paguei 4,50 R$ com o desconto da Gold).

PRÓS:
- Referências aos livros.
- Personagens bem desenvolvidos.
- 4,50 R$.

CONTRAS:
- Plot twist fica previsível a partir de um certo ponto.
- Gráficos não agradam.

Initially beat this in 2017, but went back to it because it aligned pretty well with my current situation of "detective game itch / something to play on my Steam Deck / as a bonus a game I can get all achievements in". Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders was a pretty solid choice in that regard, as I only had a few more achievements to get from my initial playthrough, plus I had forgotten most of what this game was about.

As someone who has had no prior or subsequent experiences with detective Hercule Poirot, I can't say this is a good introduction to the character. Or maybe it is? Poirot doesn't have much of an interesting personality, he's just a rude dick and can also be an terrible detective based on the dialogue choices you pick and the writing in general in this is not great. An example for how dumb Poirot can be, the game sometimes asks you to deduce something via dialogue choices and the "wrong" dialogue choice pretty much makes Poirot sound like a 5 year old imbecile, like when you're asked about whether you know anything about the killer and can answer with "he is unpredictable", even though you just went through 2 hours of detective work with roughly 89 points of evidence clearly showing a pattern.

There is a nice bait and switch to the resolution of the ABC murder mystery here (probably more due to the source material rather than what the devs came up with), and a few of the puzzles are challenging in a good way, so I'm not going to say that this is a bad detective game. But the pacing is one of the issues I've had, being locked out of investigating thoroughly because you accidentally investigated the person/item that moved the story forward is not great, areas in this game are very tiny and lack much detail and as mentioned, the writing is forgettable.

It's probably below average all things considered, so I guess to sum up I would say: If there are other, more acclaimed detective / mystery games that you have not played (Disco Elysium, Return of the Obra Dinn, Her Story, Orwell, Ace Attorney, Judgment, LA Noire and lots more), I would suggest picking those. If Agatha Christie is in your library and you got very few other choices though, I guess the game is servicable enough to provide you with two afternoons worth of entertainment. But I doubt that's the case (The Wolf Among Us, Grim Fandango, The Council, Danganronpa, Paradise Killer, Subsurface Circular, Sexy Brutale, Ghost Trick Phantom Detective, AI The Somnium Files ... again, the list of games I'd rather recommend is pretty high).

When it comes to adventure games, Microïds has always had a series of ups and downs: while they are responsible for one of the finest turn of the century point&clicks, Syberia, they also made others that are almost-but-not-quite like Still Life, along with a landslide of barely passable mediocrity, which is where this Poirot game falls due to its inability to involve the player in the deductive process in any meaningful way.

It is the direct adaptation of a book by Agatha Christie, which is always a baffling choice: odds are that the sort of Poirot fan who would buy such a game would already be familiar with either the book or one of its many screen and radio adaptations, a pitfall that Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes games have expertly avoided by writing original cases for all of their games, which keeps things fresh even for the most hardcore of Holmes fans. Not so with Microïds' ABC Murders: if you're already familiar with the case, there is nothing for you here.

Assuming you aren't though (like I wasn't), there is a really good mystery to be unraveled here, or would be, if only the game saw fit to effectively involve the player in the process: simply put there is no way you can fail the investigation or reach the incorrect conclusion, despite the presence of a deduction board to organize your clues and reach a number of absolutely linear conclusions with no possible deviation. Essentially what the game does is present you with a list of elements of varying relevance you have to fill into three slots. if you pick the correct elements the conclusion is reached and the game progresses. This means you can indeed carefully ponder each clue and select them judiciously... or you can pretty much just click at random for a few minutes until you chance upon the correct combination, with no real brain power required. The result is that you feel more of a spectator than a detective at all times.

The saving grace in this dismal scenario comes in the form of puzzles, usually involving some sort of The Room style elaborate contraption you can pleasingly rotate and examine from all relevant sides as you look for the secret to its workings: you might have to unscrew the ornament off a grandfather clock to make a panel pop on the side, where a combination lock allows you to open a second panel containing a key. It's nothing original, but it's all very satisfying and unguided, with the game leaving you free to experiment, though an optional hint system is available.

Even that is somewhat spoiled by the fact the interface is not ideal: in a baffling show of incompetence, the developer has managed to misalign the cursor with its active point, meaning the tip of the finger of the hand that constitutes your pointer does not correspond to where the click will be registererd, making precise interactions more cumbersone that they should have been. Despite this flaw, these puzzle boxes are the highlight of the game and they will be welcome every time they show up.

Visuals are low detail but pleasing enough, with a good rendition of Hercule Poirot and very good looking 1930s English environments, definitely the best the art direction has to offer. Sound design is lackluster, with unremarkable music and voice performances ranging from passable to middling absolutely appalling (see the sick old lady for reference). A low budget production through and through.

There are also a number of infuriating bugs, with people refusing to interact with you, camera angles failing to change properly or items not registering being used on others. These are all fixed by quitting and reloading, but they are frequent enough that, combined with the fact an autosave system is the only way to save your progress, it prompted me to back up my save files for fear of any nasty game breaking bugs.

One mildly amusing feature is an extremely superficial role-playing mechanic which encourages you to behave as Poirot would, somewhat rewarding pregressed knowledge of the character: grooming in front of every mirror you find, being inconsiderate, obsessively rearraging things to achieve symmetry, the works. There are a handful of these interactions but all they do is grant points that build up to an achievement and nothing more.

All in all an unremarkable adventure game with shabby presentation and no real investigation to speak of, only salvaged by some good practical puzzles.

The title tries to make up for Christie's surprising absence from the video game world, with a classic and finely chiselled adventure: nevertheless, the pace is particularly slow and the controls quite bastardised. While the variety of puzzles – very reminiscent of the object manipulation in Ace Attorney – is to be underlined, the mechanics remain simple and if you know the culprit, some of the charm disappears. But a somewhat pleasant game for a rainy Sunday, after watching an episode with David Suchet.

A Poirot adventure game! How wonderful, what could possibly...

Oh dear. The voice acting is horrid and without emotion. The gameplay switches from very light adventure gaming (ok) with choose your line interviews (though this only seems to affect your Poriot points) to strange lock box puzzles (not what I wanted, nor what I enjoy).

The little grey cell sections were fine and it'd be nicer if the game just had this and some adventure game/interview mechanics.

What links the three victims? That they all had amazing furniture custom built by a cabinet maker who is a genius. Japp, let us find this cabinet maker and we will most assuredly solve the case!