Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot – The First Cases – Nintendo Switch

I’ll start out by saying that being a fan of Agatha Christie’s master detective will probably help your enjoyment of this game, but it is by no means necessary. So long as you enjoy a good story well-told and more than a dash of mystery, this game is for you. Set in the early days of Hercule Poirot’s career, this game introduces us to a slightly less polished and wholly less respected Poirot — who nonetheless has impressive command over his little grey cells and is dedicated to solving the crimes before him. As in the grand tradition of the Poirot novels (and the majority of the TV Series), every tiny clue, every slip of the tongue, and every hidden keepsake counts, providing the player with a swath of evidence — and just as many red herrings. With a prologue and 9 chapters, the game is more than long enough to justify its price tag, and clocked in for me at about 9 hours of play, give or take. I’d recommend going to the Options screen before playing and turning down the SFX volume below the dialogue, which is a little harder to hear with the bloops and bleeps of clicking things laid over it. Also in the Options menu, subtitles for the 3 non-game “maps” (intro, bridging the prologue and the first chapter, and the very end) are suggested, especially if you’re like me and play in a house with other people where a stray comment or sneeze can cause you to miss something. Every scene in-game is, of course, fully subtitled anyway, so no need to worry about that. The “Mind Map” was heavily featured in the trailer and was the aspect of the game that I was most curious about. Though it does take a little bit of patience to get used to — and never fear, the game spends the whole prologue making sure you’re used to it — it’s also one of my favorite things about the game. The ability to link motives to murder, weapons to a body, and gossip to a cunning blackmailer (among other things) is honestly a triumph, and I’m eager to have more Poirot games from Maximum Games that use it. ((Hey Maximum Games, do Five Little Pigs next, I dare/beg you <3)) One thing that really, truly impressed me was the voice acting. The actors really took their jobs seriously and crafted characters that sounded and felt like distinct, real people, and the game, while great on its own, is elevated by the fantastic (and in Madame Van den Bosch's case, fantastically snooty) acting that backs it up. If you are or know someone who likes hidden-object games, mystery games, Nancy Drew PC games, point-and-click adventure games, or who enjoys a little murder and a whole lotta mystery, gossip, and intrigue, then this game is exactly what you need. And if you're not...I'd give it a try anyway. You could do far, far worse than spend 9 hours in the company of the greatest detective of all time.Read more

Bought this on a whim, big mistake. The game play is extremely limited, and made me feel like I was playing a game out of the 90’s. You really can only go one way through the game, so if you just keep clicking you’ll make it through. But the reasons I’m writing the review and returning the game are two-fold… The text comes out of order – characters refer to other characters that you’ve supposedly already met when you haven’t, and, the entire game finally crashed on me. It got into a loop while questioning a character and it would keep cycling and finally locking up. Definitely a bad experience all around.Read more

I’m new to playing these puzzle games and I feel like this one is not very intuitive when you need a ‘clue’. I’m still working on it and planning to look for some youtube videos to get some help, but I absolutely hate getting stuck in the game and feeling like there is no where to go for a hint when you can’t figure it out.Read more

too short only two casses i injoyed it but it was not as long as I felt it should be.Read more