Release Date: 04/02/2016
Played On: PS4
Available On: Mac / PS4 / Win / XBO
Time Played: 5h 24m
Progress: Completed
Developer: Microids / Artefacts Studios
Publisher: Gravity Europe
Please don't ever let me move to Midsomer, or any other town that features murder after murder. I often spend an evening watching some murder mystery or another, trying to guess the culprit and piece together the puzzle. It should come as no surprise then that I'm a fan of Agatha Christie's stories and in particular, the character of Hercule Poirot.
When I was studying literature I read all of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries (original Strand printing, of course), but often Holmes has a supernatural ability to piece together evidence in abstract and nonsensical ways. In a sense, Sherlock Holmes is the "moon logic" version of a detective, which is entertaining, but nothing to really get your teeth into. He will see a crease on someone's jacket and deduce that they brushed up against a rare tree in the deep jungles of the Amazon, which obviously implicates the suspect in that case about Japan's royal family being robbed a century ago.
On the other end of the spectrum sits Hercule Poirot, whose quirks and fastidious idiosyncrasies let him fit into a more realistic course of logical deduction. While Christie has other detectives throughout her career, Poirot is the one that drew me in, and it's all thanks to the fact that he's a bit of a weirdo.
Thus, despite The ABC Murders playing a lot like The Testament Of Sherlock Holmes, the presence of Poirot leaves me with greater satisfaction than Holmes. Simply because both games are third person investigation games that task you with examining clues and talking with suspects, before reaching conclusions and catching the killer.
As much as I enjoyed the Sherlock games, it never seemed to really fit his character. The mechanics of the game prohibited some extreme leaps of moon logic that would usually serve Holmes in the books, so it always felt like he was being stifled. After all, why would Holmes ever need to spend a long time meticulously appraising someone's appearance when he's genius enough to take one glance and know all he needs to know.
Thankfully though, the presence of one Hercule Poirot in the same situation, allows the investigation to be enhanced by his character, rather than have his persona diminished. While the mechanics of the game are similar to its contemporaries, Poirot's characterisation has managed to adapt the way that we can experience a sequence of events.
This is where The ABC Murders really come into their own, because some care is taken to replicate Poirot's character accurately. The most blatant example of this is that throughout the investigation you can earn "ego points" for completing actions in the same manner that Poirot would in the books. It requires a small amount of familiarity with the character that will influence the way you approach situations. For example, Poirot is quite the vain specimen and takes pride in his appearance and cleanliness. If you check yourself in every mirror you come across, you will earn ego points. If you avoid stepping in puddles of mud and mess, you earn more ego points.
Furthermore, Poirot is somewhat of an absolutist when it comes to the truth and logic. While Holmes will happily make giant leaps of logic to tie clues together, Poirot doggedly sticks to the clear facts. Thus, when talking to suspects and discussing theories, you are awarded more ego points for following Poirot's logical train of thought. Not to mention his avoidance of unsubstantiated accusations or cruel comments.
Thanks to all of this the game encourages you to play as Hercule Poirot, instead of a faceless puppet master pushing him around. On one hand you might think that it's limiting to force you into Poirot's shoes, but you're never actually forced. There are still ways to undertake interviews and investigations that are contrary to Poirot's character, and the ego points don't seem to have any influence on the outcome of the game in any way. This is why I say that you're encouraged to embody Poirot, instead of forced, which is a pleasant distinction to make and only enhances the fun of The ABC Murders.
However, there's more to the game than a nice reproduction of the quirky Hercule Poirot. Most of the time is spent exploring locations, talking to suspects, and linking clues to form conclusions. In fact, the latter is perhaps the most exciting part of the game in my opinion, as it can present quite a challenge to link up all the evidence into a useful result. Thankfully though, the game helps out by presenting Poirot's thought process as a series of unanswered questions, accompanied by the evidence collected and ready to link together.
While this system is very much a gameplay conceit, it serves the investigation well and helps to gather all your thoughts together into a visual chart of possibilities. Piecing them together to find more results is never just an abstract selection of random parts to hope they stick, and manages to use logical threads to link each clue. Again, it makes sense that Poirot would think this way, but it also means you can tackle the puzzle of interpreting evidence in a way that's approachable and easy enough to understand.
In fact, if I have a problem with The ABC Murders, it would be that there's no real challenge to any of the investigations. The basic loop involves: arriving at a crime scene, looking for clues, perhaps solving a puzzle to open an object, interviewing suspects, then coming to conclusions. With a bit of patience and diligence, you can work your way through all of these tasks with few obstacles along the way. However, it didn't really put me off, as I was more than happy to experience the story in the same way I might read an Agatha Christie book, or watch Poirot in a television episode.
Thus, it only ends up making the game even more enjoyable, as I'm a fan of the other Poirot properties on offer. I'm glad that this game doesn't stray too far from what makes Poirot and interesting character. Seeing that the developers have taken some care to represent Poirot accurately pleases me greatly, as he is one of the most well written characters I've ever encountered in fiction, and it would be a tragedy to reduce him to a blank slate for the sake of a game.
Overall though, I have to say that this is a nicely put together little game. The stylised aesthetic works well, but doesn't get in the way of locating clues or recognising characters. The voice acting up to snuff and none of the characters stand out as being lower quality than any others. I mean, it stands to reason that the writing is fairly strong, as excellent source material already exists. It's nice to report that the genius of Christie has not been lost in the conversion, as often things get ruined when adapting other media in to a video game.
During my playthrough, I also managed to avoid any bugs or difficult terrain, which stood out to me as so many games feature at least one moment of battling an unexpected wall or polygon. It's sad to say, but the fact I had no technical troubles with this game is a feature I feel must be highlighted.
I've been comparing The ABC Murders to Sherlock Holmes games, because I feel it has managed to overcome the shortfalls of Holmes being gamified. Where Holmes loses his insane powers of moon logic deduction to serve the game's mechanics, Poirot brings enhancements that only he can provide. By recognising the complexity and elegance of Poirot as a character, The ABC Murders is able to reach greater heights.
I'm not sure if I'd recommend this game to everyone though, as a lot of my enjoyment came from my familiarity with Agatha Christie's characters. From a gameplay perspective, everything is fairly straight forward and there's a clear path from start to finish that rarely sways from its main directive. While there are some puzzles that require your attention, they can all be solved easily with a little bit of logic, patience, and exploration.
So I doubt that this will be blowing your mind anytime soon if you're not already familiar with Poirot or Agatha Christie. Although if you have a passing interest, The ABC Murders might be a fun game to role play as Poirot and solve a mystery in.
I certainly found myself adopting my best French accent and dropping the H on Hastings whenever he was on the screen; a la David Suchet.