Often considered as Agatha Christie’s most famous work, Murder on the Orient Express is now the second game in the Agatha Christie PC series. Last year, The Adventure Company brought And Then There Were None to Agatha Christie fans in the form of an adventure game. Like the previous game, the novel is included with the game as well so if you’ve never read the book, it’s definitely worth the read. This story takes place on a train traveling from Istanbul to Paris. Thanks to great voice acting and beautifully decorated interiors, the game sets the mood perfectly for the story that is about to unfold. Like the last game, And Then There Were None, I decided to read through the book first so I could compare storyline differences as I go along. You take control of Antoinette Marceau, a young representative who works for the train company that runs the Orient Express. Madmoiselle Marceau basically replaces M. Bouc from the book to make sure that the famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, arrives at his final destination comfortably. You begin at the train station in Istanbul, where you are to catch up to Poirot. Several people conveniently block your way, so you need to humor them a little by solving a few puzzles. Once you get on the train, Antoinette (you) and Poirot discuss the various characters on the train. Marceau seems to be a budding detective who will come in handy once the train is stopped by an avalanche and Poirot sprains his ankle. This is when the murder occurs and with Poirot’s guidance, it’s up to you to figure out what happened.
Your mouse cursor changes when there is an item that can be looked at or picked up so that makes things fairly easy. There aren’t that many screens to go through, especially once you’re on the train, so it usually isn’t that hard to miss an object. But since you are stuck on the train, the environment eventually becomes a little stuffy because you find yourself backtracking quite a bit. The inventory comes up with a right click but it doesn’t automatically close when you click on your screen, you have to click the close button first. It’s a minor inconvenience, but it would have been nice if you didn’t have to throw in that extra step. The difficulty in puzzles is variable. Some items that you pick up have obvious uses for them, but some require a little more thought. There are some pointless puzzles that don’t really add much to the storyline but I think they were put there for you to run around the area. One example is finding bacon for a frustrated chef. Most of the time you are taking anything that isn’t tacked down, and trying to combine items together hoping that the gear icon will show up and work.
The story takes place in 1934, and if you’re a fan of the time period you would probably enjoy the lavishly decorated train car. Even though there doesn’t seem to be much room in the individual cabins, the restaurant and salon cars both looked like places I wouldn’t mind spending a few days in if I had to travel by train. The characters were in line with the book, and the fantastic voice acting helped a lot as well. Dave Suchet, who voices the detective, had portrayed Poirot’s character on television numerous times. The diverse cast and their respective accents provided a (more or less) authentic multicultural feel. Since the game does rely a lot on dialogue, it’s a good thing that the voice acting is solid. It’s too bad the character movements were still stiff, and the cut scenes were not as sharp as you would expect from a game nowadays. There also doesn’t seem to be much in terms of music unfortunately. When there is music playing, it’s very fitting to the atmosphere, but most of the time it’s silent.
I’m sure that for Agatha Christie fans, the changes to the storyline aren’t always for the best. Those who haven’t read the book, I’d highly recommend it because it’s a fabulous mystery novel, and the game did translate a lot of the dialogue over and added a few humorous quips to it as well. The gameplay isn’t perfect, but the story is engaging enough to want to continue, even if it means a lot of backtracking and discussion.
I am a Canadian living in California with my husband and my precious baby Bailey (95lbs of labrador fun). I work full time and go to school, so finding the time to play video games is tough. I still manage to sneak some time in, whether it's playing on my GBA while I wait in line or sitting in the back seat of my car so I can use our dvd player to play the Gamecube on long trips. I've always been fairly decent at playing games to give my younger brother some competition. I started at the early age of 6 when I inherited an Atari 2600. I played any computer game I could get my hands on during those Commodore 64 days. Now I'll play anything from RPGs to first person shooters, racing games or basically anything that's fun and allows me to play with at least 3 other people.
