Okay, I’m going to out myself for a minute here (insert closet joke, haha). Aside from knowing the name Agatha Christie and knowing that she wrote mystery novels, I know next to nothing about her work. Yes, I get it, my Millennial is showing. With that aside, when I saw that Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders was coming to Switch, I was intrigued. I love a good whodunit and knowing nothing about her work beyond the “legend” of Agatha Christie’s mystery writing prowess, I was intrigued.

The premise is based on Agatha Christie’s novel of the same name. You play as Hercule Poirot, whom I assume is a common protagonist for her novels. As Hercule Poirot, you investigate a series of murders where the killer begins leaving notes for Poirot, signed ABC. There is a fair bit more to the cases of course, but in the spirit of preventing spoilers, that’s enough to give you an idea of the game’s contents.

The gameplay is relatively simple. You explore various scenes with Poirot, talking to witnesses, and observing their body language. You also explore and solve various puzzles, using items you find to unlock cabinets, secret hidden panels, and all sorts of other things. Once you collect enough clues then you can make deductions, similar to the Sherlock Holmes franchise or The Sinking City, by matching clues together to make various conclusions.

The controls are fairly simple to understand, with the joystick being used to move, the X button to observe or interact with things, and the A button being used to talk. There are other buttons used during dialogue and whatnot, but by and large, the controls are simple. However, the controls can get a little clunky in certain areas, mostly because I think the game was designed for PC and a mouse and keyboard.

The interesting thing is, thanks to dialogue choices, you can actually influence the case to go in multiple directions. There’s only one right direction, but if you happen to get it right on the first try, you can always play through the game again to see what happens if you fail. Also, if you make choices that Hercule Poirot would choose himself in the novels and source material, you get ego points.

I couldn’t figure out what the ego points were for, but I assume that they are just a metric of playing the game “correctly,” the way the story is intended to play out. There are also lots of achievements, including some secret ones that are built into the game itself. Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders isn’t a long game, but I think it provides a great mystery, and a fair bit of fun content.

There is voice acting in the game, though I personally think they could have done a lot better with it. Some of the actors seem a bit flat. Additionally, some of the dialogue doesn’t match the subtitles, and sometimes the characters say things and then contradict themselves later. It only happens a few times, and it isn’t enough to kill the enjoyment of the game, but it does make me wonder if the game was rushed.

In fact, if we’re being honest, Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders is a solid mystery game. However, I think it could have benefitted from some more time in development just to iron out a few of the bugs and clunky things. Hopefully, if the developers adapt more Agatha Christie novels, they’ll be able to improve on some of these things. Until then, I would still recommend checking this one out.

The clues are interesting, the plot is intriguing, and even though some of the puzzles are a little confusing, it is still a solid puzzle game. If you like a good mystery, give Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders a try. You won’t be disappointed.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders was provided by Microids for this review.

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Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders

$14.99 USD

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Great Puzzles
• Replay Value
• Solid Mystery-Solving Gameplay

Cons

• Voice Acting was Clunky
• Minor Bugs
• Deductions Don't Always Make Sense