I have a small confession to make. Normally I wouldn't admit this, but I feel like we've known each other a while now. I'm an avid reader. I especially enjoy suspense books at this particular time in my live. My library in the basement is over 6000 books, shelved alphabetically by author and title. I even have some Agatha Christie books amongst my collection. Here's the confession part - I've never read an Agatha Christie mystery of any kind. The closest I ever got was watching 'And Then There Were None' as a movie.
You may be thinking, "That's nice, who cares, and what does this have to do with computer games anyway?" That's a fair question. Peril at End House is a hidden objects game based on the Agatha Christie novel of the same name. After playing through this game, I'm leaning towards correcting this sad oversight and actually reading one of those books waiting so patiently in my library.
Normally with a hidden object game, you have a story that, to varying degrees, connects one scene from the game to the next. The quality of the graphics varies from game to game, as well as the difficulty of the hidden objects to be found. Many times there are mini-games between levels. They're usually only vaguely connected to the rest of the game and are there just to give you something else to do between finding objects. Peril at End House has stepped away from the pack, and done it with class and elegance.
In Peril at End House, the story is the paramount. You are the famous detective, Hercule Poirot. You are retired (so you claim) from your life as a famous detective. You are enjoying some vacation time in St. Loo (on the Cornwall Coast of England), with your faithful chronicler Hastings, and the year is 1927. You and Hastings are interrupted by a loud ping as you relax in the garden of the Majestic Hotel. Miss Magdala "Nick" Buckley (and the mystery) literally falls into your arms. It seems that Nick (as she is known to all of her friends) has suffered a series of bizarre accidents lately, such as nearly being crushed by a boulder and the brakes failing on her auto. Being the gentleman that you are, of course you're going to look into matters to save the poor woman's life.
A small map of St. Loo displays all of the locations we'll be visiting in the course of our investigation, from the Majestic to seaside locations, in and around End House and various locales in town. At each level of the investigation, our current area of interest is highlighted in gold.
It genuinely felt as if I were following along with Poirot as he uncovered each layer of the story. The locations were all elegantly designed - even with the clutter of a hidden object game; each thing seemed to belong in its place. The year is 1927, and everything I saw felt appropriate to that time. There were no obvious anachronisms to jar my immersion in the story. At each place I might discover a bit of physical evidence to consider, or learn something about the characters to further the story. I didn't ever feel as if I were just looking for weird objects to beat the clock. Every action seemed to have purpose within the context of the story.
After investigating each set of locales, there is a puzzle to solve. It might be piecing together a shredded newspaper to reveal another part of the story, or decoding a letter from our secretary, Miss Lemon. Over the course of the game I have had to crack the code to open a safe, reassemble a radio, and match one of my clues to the person, place or thing to which it pertains.
The music fit the story perfectly. Each scene was done 'just so' to fit the story. If I needed a clue to help me find an object, there were five available for each facet of the investigation, though I really wanted to not need them. After all, Poirot didn't get to hit the hint button. If you like hidden object games and enjoy a good mystery, you're not going to get much better than Peril at End House. I highly recommend it!
I’m a working mom – married with one child. My daughter is 7 and she has autism. Everything else in my life moves around this core. Online gaming has been a big part of my social life over the last several years due to the difficulty of going out and about. I have to say that my daughter Alissa is awesome at computer games. She has skills with electronics that amaze me. When I get away from the computer, I like doing craft projects (knitting, crocheting, sewing, painting, quilling, whatever sounds fun) and reading. I mainly read suspense these days but I have a pretty eclectic collection and a library of about 6000 books. I’ve been using a computer since grade school – I started with an Apple IIe and have upgraded considerably and many times since then. I played Dungeons and Dragons for at least a few decades. I met and married my husband through gaming. He was my DM. I stopped tabletop gaming more from lack of time than anything. It’s easier to meet and game with friends online than it is to coordinate real life schedules around my daughter’s needs.
