Review – Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None

Game Profile

Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None

Developer: AWE Games
Publisher: The Adventure Company

Release Date: 2/25/2008

ESRB: T

Genre: adventure
Setting: historic
Oh goodie! Somebody else died!

This will date me quite a bit, but And Then There Were None really brings back memories of the original Zork. You know, the Zork that had no graphics. It was a text adventure. I had it for my Apple ][e. I was horrible at Zork. I was forever getting eaten by a Grue. There were so many dark places and I never seemed to have a good light source. Anyway, if the culprit in this game were a Grue, I would have been eaten the first night of the game.

And Then There Were None is strongly based on the legendary book by Agatha Christie. There have been a number of movie adaptations, as well as stage plays based on this work. The original title is definitely not politically correct and has been changed more than once over the decades. And Then There Were None is the most common modern title.

The basic setup of the game is that of the story. Ten people have been brought to an island by Mr. U. N. Owen for a house party. Apparently the British regularly accepted invitations to house parties given by people that they didn't actually know. While most of the folks are guests, as few are staff. In the game, you are Patrick Narracott, the young man that brought the guests to the island and yourself became stranded.

You will do much poking about of the house and grounds. You'll gather pretty much anything that isn't nailed down. Sometimes you'll need to disassemble objects into their parts, and sometimes you'll combine objects to make a new object. You'll be talking to the other folks on the island — again and again and again, at least until after they are nice enough to get themselves murdered.

You see, here is the problem I had with trying to play the game through and solve the mystery. I didn't want to save any of the others. They had all done something unpleasant in their past — basically getting away with the death (or deaths) of another and escaping punishment. While some were more pleasant than others to talk to, some were downright obnoxious. I would have been happy enough to help out the murderer and push them off the cliff myself (metaphorically speaking — I don't know that anyone actually died from being pushed off the cliff).

In the center of the dining table in the house, there's a circle of 10 (porcelain?) sailors. There's a clever little verse that divides up the chapters of the story, and sort of foreshadows how the next person will die, if not who. You can read the verse in its entirety from its position above the fireplace.

Ten little sailor boys went out to dine. One choked his little self and then there were nine.

At some point after the first body is discovered, you'll find the one of the little sailors on the centerpiece broken off at the knees.

The situation is interesting. There is a ton of stuff you'll need to do to succeed in the game. Apparently there are even different endings, based on whom, if anyone, you manage to save. Luckily for you, there are 30 save game slots, so you can definitely try out different options as you play through the story.

If you are someone that likes peeking and poking into every crevice of a game just to see what you can do, you'll be in your element. My comment to my husband, as I was already stuck on the first night, was, "Who on earth would hide flashlight batteries in a barrel of flour?"

I guess I am lacking the patience for this kind of story. The game needs to unfold at its own pace and be savored for what it is. The graphics are... okay. The characters look a bit blocky and some of the backgrounds, especially down by the sea, were incredibly pixilated. I know the Wii isn't known for the same level of graphics as some of the other consoles, but geez — I know it can do better than that.

The voice acting is decent enough. They all sounded stuffy and British to me, anyway. The puzzles are certainly challenging (beyond wondering why I'm worried about looking weird carrying an axe around but can easily slide a stepladder into my pocket). There are a number of cut-movies to advance different sections of the story. There were nice enough, but I wanted to interrupt them and tell them to get on with it already. I'm getting the feeling I'm an impatient American and don't have respect for the British pacing of the story.

As far as making use of the Wii platform — when you want to go through a door, for example, you press A and make a turning motion with the remote. When you want to sift through flour, you have to do a shoveling motion with the remote until those pesky batteries come to the surface. I can understand the developers wanted to use the unique traits of the Wii, but I got really tired of trying to push and turn the remote just right to get through every door.

For those that enjoy a point and click adventure wrapped around a very famous story, you should probably give this one a try. If you're a bit more impatient (I like to think of it as solidly caffeinated) then you'll probably be a little (okay a lot) frustrated with the pacing. I like puzzles and I like a challenge, but the rather sedate pacing and leaps of logic required to solve the challenges mean this isn't really the game for me. Your mileage may vary.

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About the Author, Noelle (A.K.A Alladania)

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.