Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None is an adventure style murder mystery game based on one of the most famous books ever written in the sleuthing genre. You play as Patrick Narracott, the new eleventh character in the story, who finds himself marooned along with the ten guests he's transported to an island when his ship is wrecked. All the other guests have been invited to a mansion on the island by a strange character named "Mr U N Owen". One by one, of course, people start to die... and your job is to find out who the murderer is.
The ten guests - well technically there are only eight guests as two of them are employees of Mr Owen - are as follows:
Vera Claythorne - a beautiful young woman working as a secretary, but her favoured profession is teaching.
Anthony Marston - a self-absorbed playboy with an extremely fast car.
William Blore - a shrewd detective... but is he shrewd enough to catch the murderer, or is he perhaps the murderer himself?
Philip Lombard - an adventurer and has a winning way with the ladies, which puts him at odds with Patrick when both take a fancy to Vera.
Dr Edward Armstrong - a successful London-based doctor - with an office in Harley Street no less.
General John Mackenzie - a retired military man who forever mourns the loss of his wife... his mental state is always in question.
Judge Lawrence Wargrave - has all the qualities a good judge should have - misses nothing and is a shrewd judge of character.
Emily Brent - a starchy, religious woman who seems to view any misfortune as God's judgement - as long as it happens to other people, of course...
Thomas and Ethel Rogers - the butler and cook respectively, this married couple have only been in the Owens' employ for a week and have never met their employers.
All have been summoned to the island for different reasons and whilst most have never met the others, there are some definite connections. It appears that all apart from Patrick have mysterious histories that they'd like kept quite... and even Patrick is on a mission to clear his brother's name.
Aesthetics
Graphically the game is a bit of a mixed bag. The many locations in the game are beautifully rendered with lots of detail, although they're rather static - it's more like looking at a photo than a living environment. The characters look slightly odd - particularly Vera, whose body shape never looks normal - and their movements are rather stilted in-game. During the cut scenes they look rather better. Everything has a very polished look to it - all in all the backgrounds look extremely nice, but too lifeless. One example of this is two of the characters allegedly playing snooker... well they're standing by the snooker table all right, and they keep moaning about you interrupting them if you talk to them... but the balls all remain in the same position. So the snooker table itself looks great, but there's no feeling of it being remotely real. The old 2D adventure games at least had repeating animations for such things to give an impression of something actually happening.
There is some moody piano solo music playing in the background which is nice enough at first and tends to add to the dramatic atmosphere, but in the end it got really annoying so I turned it off. Fortunately there are plenty of ambient sound effects which help to add a bit of zest to the lifeless backgrounds and prevents there from being prolonged silences when the music is turned off and you're not talking to someone.
The voice acting is rather mixed... some of it is good, and some of it is, to be kind, less than stellar. The main characters sounds like rather a snob most of the time; I don't think that's intentional, though I can't guarantee it.
Interface and Gameplay
The interface is elegantly simple; the left mouse button controls all actions including movement, with the cursor changing depending on what action you can perform on a given item. When walking double-clicking will make you run - a very welcome addition. A right mouse click brings up the inventory, and both the inventory and your notes on people, places, documents etc can be enlarged at any time. You can keep them open while moving about and performing other actions in the game if you want, though I tend not to. In the inventory section you can examine, break down or combine the items you have found. As with many games, realism is not something that affects what you can carry - at one point your character quite happily picks up a ladder taller than himself! Along with everything else it disappears from the screen and can be accessed in the inventory... quite where it's supposed to go is anyone's guess.
Unfortunately, in contrast to the simple interface, the gameplay itself is often rather clunky. The first day is spent largely wondering round the mansions finding everyone's letter of invitation to the mansion and copying it into your notebook. The first night is mainly a case of wondering round everywhere, pretty much finding nothing. There's far too much repetition in the game, both in the form of repeated expressions / reactions to similar actions (don't examine the heaters in the rooms... I promise it will drive you mad very quickly!) and the constant need to revisit the same areas repeatedly, usually to no avail. Admittedly much the same criticism could be levelled at most adventure games, but it seems particularly bad in this one.
The puzzles are sometimes very obscure to the point of having to find a hint online, which sometimes made me incredulous. I could have missed a clue somewhere of course, but... why on earth would anyone hide batteries in a sack of flour? Why would the game expect you to know that you have to use the scoop on it twice to find them, even though you are given no hint after the first time that anything useful might be accomplished by another try? Most of the puzzles were pretty good though, so I'll let this pass as only a minor complaint.
Another small complaint I have is that you can't skip dialogue. This is a real pain when you're being told the same thing for the hundredth time and you still have to wait for the whole diatribe to finish. Usually it's just a small sentence in these instances though, so again it's not really a major criticism.
Plot Development
After a somewhat sluggish start on days one and two, this is where the game scores its big plus points. The way the story develops and the interesting development of the characters is really what keeps you interested in this game, and certainly what kept me playing it. The dialogue isn't too good at first but once you hit day three and particularly day four, the dialogue improves and little snatches of humour are added, which helps things immensely. As the plot thickens the scriptwriters seem to have warmed to that task considerably.
Final Verdict
Once you get past the first couple of days (in game time not real-life playing time, I mean) the game improves dramatically. It still has problems with being overly repetitive and the graphical style, while looking nice, never actually draws you into the game, but overall it's still a title worth playing. I would imagine that fans of detective fiction in general and Agatha Christie in particular would enjoy this game the most, though I have no idea how faithfully it sticks to the general prose of the book - not too closely, I suspect.
So, if you like sleuthing games, it's not a perfect product but is engrossing and enjoyable enough to make it worth your while. Recommended with the above reservations. Fans of the pure adventure) game genre (such as myself) might find it a little too stilted to enjoy fully - it needs a bit of patience, but is ultimately quite rewarding. Just don't expect anything along the lines of the classic LucasArts games!
Click Here for Screenshots from Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None"
The ten guests - well technically there are only eight guests as two of them are employees of Mr Owen - are as follows:
Vera Claythorne - a beautiful young woman working as a secretary, but her favoured profession is teaching.
Anthony Marston - a self-absorbed playboy with an extremely fast car.
William Blore - a shrewd detective... but is he shrewd enough to catch the murderer, or is he perhaps the murderer himself?
Philip Lombard - an adventurer and has a winning way with the ladies, which puts him at odds with Patrick when both take a fancy to Vera.
Dr Edward Armstrong - a successful London-based doctor - with an office in Harley Street no less.
General John Mackenzie - a retired military man who forever mourns the loss of his wife... his mental state is always in question.
Judge Lawrence Wargrave - has all the qualities a good judge should have - misses nothing and is a shrewd judge of character.
Emily Brent - a starchy, religious woman who seems to view any misfortune as God's judgement - as long as it happens to other people, of course...
Thomas and Ethel Rogers - the butler and cook respectively, this married couple have only been in the Owens' employ for a week and have never met their employers.
All have been summoned to the island for different reasons and whilst most have never met the others, there are some definite connections. It appears that all apart from Patrick have mysterious histories that they'd like kept quite... and even Patrick is on a mission to clear his brother's name.
Aesthetics
Graphically the game is a bit of a mixed bag. The many locations in the game are beautifully rendered with lots of detail, although they're rather static - it's more like looking at a photo than a living environment. The characters look slightly odd - particularly Vera, whose body shape never looks normal - and their movements are rather stilted in-game. During the cut scenes they look rather better. Everything has a very polished look to it - all in all the backgrounds look extremely nice, but too lifeless. One example of this is two of the characters allegedly playing snooker... well they're standing by the snooker table all right, and they keep moaning about you interrupting them if you talk to them... but the balls all remain in the same position. So the snooker table itself looks great, but there's no feeling of it being remotely real. The old 2D adventure games at least had repeating animations for such things to give an impression of something actually happening.
There is some moody piano solo music playing in the background which is nice enough at first and tends to add to the dramatic atmosphere, but in the end it got really annoying so I turned it off. Fortunately there are plenty of ambient sound effects which help to add a bit of zest to the lifeless backgrounds and prevents there from being prolonged silences when the music is turned off and you're not talking to someone.
The voice acting is rather mixed... some of it is good, and some of it is, to be kind, less than stellar. The main characters sounds like rather a snob most of the time; I don't think that's intentional, though I can't guarantee it.
Interface and Gameplay
The interface is elegantly simple; the left mouse button controls all actions including movement, with the cursor changing depending on what action you can perform on a given item. When walking double-clicking will make you run - a very welcome addition. A right mouse click brings up the inventory, and both the inventory and your notes on people, places, documents etc can be enlarged at any time. You can keep them open while moving about and performing other actions in the game if you want, though I tend not to. In the inventory section you can examine, break down or combine the items you have found. As with many games, realism is not something that affects what you can carry - at one point your character quite happily picks up a ladder taller than himself! Along with everything else it disappears from the screen and can be accessed in the inventory... quite where it's supposed to go is anyone's guess.
Unfortunately, in contrast to the simple interface, the gameplay itself is often rather clunky. The first day is spent largely wondering round the mansions finding everyone's letter of invitation to the mansion and copying it into your notebook. The first night is mainly a case of wondering round everywhere, pretty much finding nothing. There's far too much repetition in the game, both in the form of repeated expressions / reactions to similar actions (don't examine the heaters in the rooms... I promise it will drive you mad very quickly!) and the constant need to revisit the same areas repeatedly, usually to no avail. Admittedly much the same criticism could be levelled at most adventure games, but it seems particularly bad in this one.
The puzzles are sometimes very obscure to the point of having to find a hint online, which sometimes made me incredulous. I could have missed a clue somewhere of course, but... why on earth would anyone hide batteries in a sack of flour? Why would the game expect you to know that you have to use the scoop on it twice to find them, even though you are given no hint after the first time that anything useful might be accomplished by another try? Most of the puzzles were pretty good though, so I'll let this pass as only a minor complaint.
Another small complaint I have is that you can't skip dialogue. This is a real pain when you're being told the same thing for the hundredth time and you still have to wait for the whole diatribe to finish. Usually it's just a small sentence in these instances though, so again it's not really a major criticism.
Plot Development
After a somewhat sluggish start on days one and two, this is where the game scores its big plus points. The way the story develops and the interesting development of the characters is really what keeps you interested in this game, and certainly what kept me playing it. The dialogue isn't too good at first but once you hit day three and particularly day four, the dialogue improves and little snatches of humour are added, which helps things immensely. As the plot thickens the scriptwriters seem to have warmed to that task considerably.
Final Verdict
Once you get past the first couple of days (in game time not real-life playing time, I mean) the game improves dramatically. It still has problems with being overly repetitive and the graphical style, while looking nice, never actually draws you into the game, but overall it's still a title worth playing. I would imagine that fans of detective fiction in general and Agatha Christie in particular would enjoy this game the most, though I have no idea how faithfully it sticks to the general prose of the book - not too closely, I suspect.
So, if you like sleuthing games, it's not a perfect product but is engrossing and enjoyable enough to make it worth your while. Recommended with the above reservations. Fans of the pure adventure) game genre (such as myself) might find it a little too stilted to enjoy fully - it needs a bit of patience, but is ultimately quite rewarding. Just don't expect anything along the lines of the classic LucasArts games!
Click Here for Screenshots from Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None"
System Specs
Requirements ... Recommended:
OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP ... XP (it ran fine on Vista)
CPU: 850MH\ Pentium 3 ... 1.8GHz Pentium 4
RAM: 256Mb ... 512Mb
HDD Space: 1.5Gb... 1.5Gb
GPU: 32 Mb card / 64Mb card
DirectX : version 9
Other Information
ESRB Rating: Teen
Format: CD-ROM
Developed by: The Adventure Company
If you like detective games, you may also enjoy:
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: 3 Degrees of Murder
Law and Order 2: Double or Nothing
For a more traditional adventure game approach to sleuthing, try:
Grim Fandango
Discworld Noir
Requirements ... Recommended:
OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP ... XP (it ran fine on Vista)
CPU: 850MH\ Pentium 3 ... 1.8GHz Pentium 4
RAM: 256Mb ... 512Mb
HDD Space: 1.5Gb... 1.5Gb
GPU: 32 Mb card / 64Mb card
DirectX : version 9
Other Information
ESRB Rating: Teen
Format: CD-ROM
Developed by: The Adventure Company
If you like detective games, you may also enjoy:
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: 3 Degrees of Murder
Law and Order 2: Double or Nothing
For a more traditional adventure game approach to sleuthing, try:
Grim Fandango
Discworld Noir
(This review was originally published on Epinions. Review of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None)
0 comments:
Post a Comment