Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot: The London Case Reviews

Not worth €30 for 4 hours of "entertainment". €10 or €12 would be a more fair price for a game like this. Fortunately I got it during a discount. The game itself have a good base, but would require more developments for it to give a better experience. Graphics are cute, but not advanced. The gameplay can be a bit annoying when you can not set your own keybinds and there are double commands for same action. Also if you accidentally click fast travel, you can not cancel it. You have to travel somewhere and then travel back. The fact that it jumps automatically to next chapter is also a bit annoying. You do not get the time to consider the chapter before its already jumped to the next. Just the information you have done all that you can do and then have the choice to move to next chapter should be added. Also there is no way to take notes, you have to remember everything that is being said and found, like codes etc.

Really not sure why this game is rated so low. Played through this whole game and loved it. The controls will take some getting used to if you never played the first one but really enjoyed the story and working out who was lying to you or withholding key information

PREMIUM SPOILER-FREE REVIEW A generally fun detective game that is unfortunately plagued by several technical issues. First, I should say this - I did enjoy the game. The Poirot games are generally pretty good as far as detective games go, both due to the charisma of the main protagonist, and due to the deduction/mind map system that actually makes you think about what you've found and come to logical deductions in order to progress the story. In my opinion, such a mechanic is key for most detective games, as it places the task of solving the mysteries on the player, not in-game characters, allowing the player to feel like a detective. Now, there are a few instances where I feel like I have to "guess" the correct sequence of thoughts in order to figure out how the game wants me to phrase something, but I do not generally feel like I am guessing. I did genuinely enjoy it every time I had the opportunity to make a deduction. It makes you feel like you're gaining progress (because you are), and a few of them can lead to ominous conclusions. However, there are two other recent Poirot games and I do have to say, this feels like the roughest and weakest of the three. Where do I start? How about with a trip to the uncanny valley? You see, while "Murder on the Orient Express" had some generally charming characters, the other two recent Poirot games, namely "The First Cases", and this one, do not. The character models themselves are workable, however, their facial expressions appear two decades out of date, and the thousand-yard stare they ocassionally do while talking to you can get weird. Remember LA Noire with their fancy motion capture facial syncing? Well, this is like the antithesis to that. It's as if they were trying to make them as stiff and robotic as it is possible. If that was the goal - well, mission accomplished. The previous installment, "The First Cases", got around this problem by not focusing on the poorly animated character faces during dialogue, and instead popped up quite well-drawn character sketches by the art team, with several variations depending on the mood of the character. I believe that this was originally planned to be the case here, too, as throughout the game you unlock various "extras" that are generally concept art sketches from the game development that clearly show that most characters have had such sketches developed for various emotional states for this game, too. For some reason they weren't used. This is a major negative, as the game's facial animations are very poor. Enough about animations, though. There are a few other issues. The first is pathfinding and the camera- at times I felt like I was fighting the camera, while Poirot decided to handle walking like a tank. Not game breaking, but a slight annoyance. Perhaps a slightly larger annoyance were a few cases of moon logic and poor sequencing of game pacing. Without spoiling anything, let me give you an example. Fairly early on in the game you come across a notepad, which, upon inspection, Poirot notes has had pages torn out, but still have impressions that are too faint to read. If you've played a detective game before you already know the solution - grab a pencil and sketch it out. There's a pencil next to the notepad. Unfortunately, you cannot use it. The game won't let you. It wants charcoal. Luckily, there's a fireplace nearby. Oh, you thought you could get charcoal there? Nope! There's only one place the game accepts from you to take the charcoal from, and it's at another location entirely. Worse still, that charcoal is non-interactible upon first inspection. You have to inspect that area once, solve a different quest (that is completely unrelated to and does not interact with the charcoal in any way), then for no reason inspect it again to find it has become "activated" without apparent cause. Only then can you pick it up and use it. That's a thing here, by the way. Sometimes inspectable items will be "refreshed", without any cue to the player that this has happened. So, you're stuck either brute-forcing a solution by mechanically going through every possible inspectable thing in the game world, or, if you value your time and sanity - a walkthrough, which I am unashamed I used during my time with the game. Granted, only two or three times, but still. The game also presents you with a sidekick. He's supposed to help you solve the mystery and Poirot praises his "contributions" numerous times. Perhaps he, as a greater detective than I, has some idea as to what these "contributions" are, as during the game he just passively observes the player play and gives zero help whatsoever. In fact, any time you find anything of note, you have to explain it to him, whereupon he will ask for additional explanations and evidence. He will then exclaim a canned response like "Wow, what a genius!" or "Wow, I never would have thought of that!". While this does provide the player the opportunity to prove he has solved certain questions, it also makes the sidekick look like a total muppet. It's as if he fell from the moon and has no idea what is going on. He's not an unlikeable character, and the way he interacts with some other characters can be interesting at times, but as far as a sidekick is concerned - he's useless. A wasted opportunity for a player hint system if I've ever seen one. Speaking of characters, most of them are generally relatively interesting. None feel like they are too generic and all appear to have a personality. They also all have secrets, and it's precisely in uncovering those secrets that the fun in this game lies. That really is what keeps his review, despite all the criticisms I've leveled at the game so far, from going negative. The graphics are OK. Not ground-breaking by any means, but they do have some pretty environments and some sexy textures. The technical state of the game is good. While I had a few issues with, I guess I would call it "hit registration" while clicking some objects, and for some reason every time I boot up the game anew I have to open the menu and close it again to have the mouse appear (after which it works properly), but besides this I haven't had a single crash, freeze, soft-lock, bug or other technical nuisance during the entire game, and that's despite liberal alt-tabbing and running many background applications during my playthrough on Windows 11. Fundamentally, it's still a fun detective point-and-click. It is, however, not for everyone. It kind of feels like one of those 2000s era point-and-click adventure games, with 2000s era graphics and jank to boot. It really is kind of like a time machine to the past. Luckily, at least it has a good autosave system, so I do not have to be reminded of the 2000s failure to save horrors. If you like detective games, or Poirot as a character, then you'll enjoy this. If you do not - then skip. The deductions and Poirot are really what hold this game up. Other puzzles do exist, but they are few and far between, as well as quite simple. This can be a positive or a negative, depending on which side of detective games you personally enjoy more. With that said, I do believe that both "The First Cases" and especially "Murder on the Orient Express" to be better games than this, so I'd recommend you start with those. If you still have a Poirot itch after them, then by that point you'll be comfortable enough to come to the trenches to bear the thousand-yard stare for more. I still recommend the game, but typically not at full price, unless you're a major detective game or Poirot fan. Thankfully, it goes on generous discounts relatively frequently, and I do believe it's worth picking up when it does go on sale. I enjoyed it despite its technical shortcommings and do hope they make more of these.

🇬🇧 English first | 🇺🇦 Українська нижче 🇺🇦 ⬇️ [b]Agatha Christie – Hercule Poirot: The London Case[/b] is another game about the famous detective, a direct sequel to 2021’s Hercule Poirot: The First Cases. But what I liked in the first game made me dislike this one. This is once again an interactive story with no real puzzles — just a couple of safes with easy codes found nearby. Solving the case was honestly boring: you just click through all interaction points and talk to the suspects again and again. You can’t even fail an interrogation. In the first game, I enjoyed learning about the characters and their personalities, but here they felt flat and uninteresting. I didn’t care about anyone or feel anything for them. I had to force myself to keep playing just to reach the ending. Graphically, the game reuses models from the first one (two characters are literally copy-pasted with minor clothing changes). The animations are stiff, the graphics look outdated, and the locations are dull. Maybe it’s time to drop the 3D look altogether — I don’t know what would help, but it’s not working. For me, this game is [b]around 5.6/10[/b]. I don’t recommend it — it’s not worth the current price. Maybe only buy it on a deep sale if you’re a true Agatha Christie fan. o0o o0o o0o Це ще одна гра про знаменитого детектива й продовження гри 2021 року Hercule Poirot: The First Cases. Але те, що мені подобалося в першій частині, тут змушує гру не рекомендувати. Маємо знову інтерактивну історію без головоломок — лише пара сейфів з кодами, які легко знайти на локаціях. Розслідування було відверто нудним: треба лише натискати всі точки взаємодії й по кілька разів говорити з підозрюваними. Провалити допит неможливо. Якщо в першій частині персонажі мали яскраві характери й за ними було цікаво стежити, то тут вони пласкі й нецікаві — жодного емоційного відгуку. Я буквально тягнула себе крізь гру лише заради фіналу. Графіка — знову ті самі моделі, що й у попередній частині (двох персонажів буквально скопіювали, змінивши трохи одяг). Анімації дерев’яні, графіка слабка, локації нудні. Можливо, вже варто відмовитися від 3D — я не знаю, що могло б це врятувати. Для мене ця гра [b]десь на 5,6 із 10[/b]. Не рекомендую, вона не варта своєї ціни. Хіба що ви фанат Агати Крісті й візьмете її зі знижкою.