Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express Review

The ever-observant Hercule Poirot and his perfectly groomed moustache have returned with Microids’ latest title: Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express. If you’re a big fan of mystery novels and/or mystery games, you might’ve already joined Poirot on previous adventures, whether it be the original novels, various film adaptations, or Microids’ other published titles such as The First Cases or The London Case. It’s undoubtedly difficult to follow the shoes of the “Queen of Mystery,” as her plot twists and unexpected endings set the bar high for any kind of recreation. In this case, Microids attempts to be faithful to its source material while also introducing brand-new original elements interwoven with the story. This means there should be something for everyone, whether you’re a newcomer to the series or a long-time Poirot fan. So grab your ticket and bags, and let’s board the Orient Express — a murder investigation awaits!

Like previous titles, you’re placed in the shoes of the famous detective Hercule Poirot. What begins as a simple train ride — meeting various travellers and catching up with your old friend M. Bouc — turns into a murder investigation when one of the passengers is found dead. With the Orient Express stuck in the snow after an avalanche, there’s no hope for outside help. You have to figure out whether the culprit is still on the train and if there’s anyone who knows something, all while solving various problems such as hangovers, storage mishaps, and broken equipment to get characters to talk. With each favour comes more information, but also more lies.

The game deviates from the isometric camera of The London Case and employs a closer third-person perspective. In the cramped 3D space of the Orient Express, this POV is quite distracting. Walking around as Poirot, I felt like a giant confined to small spaces, as the rooms and corridors of the Orient Express are excessively tiny compared to the character models. While I know trains aren’t known for being spacious, the proportions seem strange nonetheless. The inability to zoom out the camera was also a drawback. You’re attached so close to Poirot that it makes it difficult to get a good view of the set dressing, interactable objects, or even the elusive Gold Moustaches that you can collect. This meant I was constantly shifting the camera to odd angles just to see things. However, without spoiling the story, you’re not always on the train, and the camera is much more bearable in those other environments. With that said, though, the Orient Express is the star of the show, so it’s disappointing that I spent so much time itching to get off of it.

You’ll uncover the truth like any detective worth their salt would — by collecting clues, alibis, and witness testimonies. While that should be interesting, it’s unfortunately lacklustre, dragged down by shallow gameplay. The puzzles are quite easy and dull, ultimately feeling like a waste of time. Interrogating suspects will often bring up a “Confrontation” moment where you have to call out their lies, but it never feels like you’re really “discovering” anything. The game gives you three or four truths and one lie to find amongst them, but it’s usually something Poirot has just pointed out in his inner monologue, so you’ve already been guided to the answer. Confrontations just feel like redundant dialogue at that point. Plus, if you choose the wrong answer, the game doesn’t let you progress until you choose the right one. In fact, the game is always holding your hand this way. Poirot is constantly restating facts and clues — to himself or others — so whenever you’re asked to piece together those things, it feels less like a detective game and more like an instructor checking if you’ve been paying attention during the lecture.

Poirot’s Mind Map is perhaps the worst offender of the aforementioned boring gameplay and redundant clues. After questioning suspects or investigating a scene, you’ll head into this cloud-like journal to log information. This mechanic fails to add depth, feeling more like filler than anything else. The game asks you to make connections or piece together sequences of events that Poirot has already determined, so you’re just restating what the detective has said. Honestly, after doing this a few times, I began to wonder if I was playing as Poirot or if I was just his invisible brain assistant helping him remember something he said two seconds ago. This also included updating character bios with their profession, age, and nationality, which became tedious. The ages, especially, didn’t make much sense, as it seemed like you’re supposed to assume the answer based on the character model. But some of the NPCs that were supposedly in their 30s looked like they were in their 50s, and some older folks looked a lot younger.

Murder on the Orient Express looks quite dated. Its animations are stiff, the characters are often expressionless, and the set design seems sparse. Searching for Golden Moustaches resulted in poking around every nook and corner of the levels only to be distracted by how empty the world felt. There’s a lack of atmosphere that prevents you from getting immersed in the game, the poor voice acting doesn’t help things either. It’s reminiscent of some Nancy Drew titles but missing the much-needed charm. In a dialogue-heavy game like this, it’s disappointing that the characters sound either stilted, monotone, or unnatural a majority of the time. When the actors do kick it up a notch in an intense confrontation, the voices are quite hard to listen to due to overacting or a clunky cadence.

The mystery is at least good. It’s an Agatha Christie creation, after all, so of course it is. The team also took liberties to add new content by introducing an additional playable detective named Joanna Locke. She also suffered from poor voice acting and the same gameplay issues as Poirot did, but her side of the mystery was definitely compelling on its own. In terms of other changes, the game is set in 2023 vs the original’s 1934 time period. I’m not of the mind that adaptations have to follow their inspiration 100%, so I found Microids’ ambition admirable. But its execution reeks of indecision and out-of-place elements. The cast of Murder on the Orient Express may as well be time travellers. They talk and act like they’re from 1934, but they also have modern-day phones and vapes. It’s this weird clash of timelines where the developer really misses the mark. If it had truly committed to modernising the mystery into a proper present-day rendition or stayed true to the original setting, I think it would’ve fared much better. In its current state, the Orient Express train seems stuck in limbo while the game is similarly stuck in an identity crisis.

I really wanted to like Murder on the Orient Express, but I couldn’t help but be bored with it. If you’re interested in playing it to experience Christie’s excellent murder mystery, you might give it a try. That is if you don’t mind the game doing most of the sleuthing for you. As it stands, it’s more of a good story than it is a good game. Yet, there’s always something satisfying about uncovering a killer. I love it when all the clues come together, even if I didn’t have to do much to get there.