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Another good one

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 42 / 45
Date: November 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Good. Better than the first one 'And then there are none' . David Suchet narrates text for Poirot. Recommended for both Adventure gamers and Agatha Christie fans.

The riddles are generally more logic (ATTWN had some flows in game plot as well as very short acts). Well , hmpf, there is an annoying thing as I 've found: You are supposed to eavesdrop conversations with a glass , but u do that while the conductor is watching you :)

The game offers an alternative solution so players that have read the book don't expect the famous poirot solution exposed in the book to come in.

Minor flaws: The game wants the CD even after the full installation. And I don't like the way that the inventory allows you to combine items: Most games will simply permit you to grab something and to put it on something else, allowing you to combine it. In MOTOE, you need to place all items to be combined on a specific slot (which is in a different screen than the inventory) and press the 'combine' button. And, if someone needs something and you already have it in your inventory, he will get it automatically. Yes, it saves you time, but it is a bit far of reality. Also, you have to search all the shoes in order to find out a footprint match, in order to complete the "poirot advice" . Even If you find the footprint match at once, you still have to search all other shoes only to get a comment like 'this shoe is much too small for that footprint' . Oh, and I don't like the fact that many shoes are indentical ;)

And something weird: You can search other's luggage even if they are in the same room. Weird eh?

The sound? Good. Better than in ATTWN. What I don't like in the sound is that it is much in the background and doesn't scare you to make you get off your chair. Note: That doesn't mean that the sound is bad; It is just my personal opinion.

Other good things: Saves include a snapshot, game installs completely, you can configure screen effects, subtitles included. TAC keeps the good work up.

Oh and also: Remember you are not playing as Poirot. Tricky? Even off-line, David Suchet narration rocks.

Thumbs down: A bit short. I finished it within 2 days. Yeah, perhaps I 've been playing too long ;)

Thumbs up: Book is included.
Thumbs up: You can configure screen effects, VERY useful for low cpus.
Thumbs up: 3rd finale. Exciting.

For these, I give a 5/5.

An enjoyable romp true to Dame Agatha's Poirot

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 18 / 18
Date: January 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Murder on the Orient Express is the second Agatha Christie novel to be made into a PC game by AWE Productions, with several notable improvements from their first AC outing And Then There Were None (Ten Little Indians). The story centers on a murder aboard the famous Orient Express. Set in 1934 (when the novel was originally published), twelve passengers (including Belgian detective Hercule Poirot) are trapped in the snowbound train during a winter avalanche. When one of the passengers is murdered, all are suspect. Instead of playing as Poirot, a new character, Antoinette Marceau, was invented, combining two characters from the original novel: a French lieutenant and M. Bouc, director of the rail company. Antoinette does Poirot's sleuthing for him after he is injured, and does so with grace and wit.

The book deviates from the novel's original ending, adding a new dimension to the mix. The majority of the in-game dialogue is taken directly from the novel, and new dialogue fits in well with Dame Agatha's original spirit. Graphics are excellent: characters are appropriately dressed and styled for the mid-1930s, and the background details are exquisite. The in-game camera lends itself to very cinematic moments, including exterior shots of the train as Antoinette briefs Poirot. Although not perfect, I greatly enjoyed Murder on the Orient Expressn and am greatly impressed at how much thought and care was taken to make the game true to the book.

The good:
+ Graphics
+ Music
+ Plot (including "new" ending)
+ Inclusion of paperback copy of Murder on the Orient Express
+ Rating system (you earn more points for deducing solutions without Poirot's assistance)
+ Ability to jump between rail cars to cut down on backtracking
+ Superb voice acting, particularly from David Suchet, the original BBC Poirot

The bad:
- One or two extremely far-fetched puzzles that required a walkthrough (you'll never look at cake batter and orange juice the same way!)
- Certain features are not intuitive / user-friendly. The most serious of these are the inventory and fingerprinting functions.
- If you've already read the book / seen the movie, you know how this ends.
- If Antoinette is French (educated in England), why is her spoken French so horribly British???

Note: a patch is available that corrects several minor gameplay issues related to dialogue, inventory, and crashes.

caveat emptor

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: December 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game held my interest all through, however, be warned, it is conversation-heavy. There are few puzzles, all of which are reasonably easy and integrated within the play. You play as a lady helper of Poirot who is confined to his compartment. His voice "advises" you throughout the game. Once the inconsistency of this is passed over, then the game works well. Overall the game lasted approximately 15 hours. This was without any help either from within (Poirot) or outside (walkthrough), so it is short but not ridiculously so. There is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing which is helped by a short cut system built-in to the game. Eventually Poirot gives the denouement with you providing the evidence (you need a good memory and to pay attention to conversations throughout the game). There is no way of recording conversations within the game. Check also your documents - there are fingerprint and passport listings (I only discovered this later in the game, after it was too late to be of use!). Poirot presents all 3 solutions and the choice is made automatically.

Plus points:
Sound (David Suchet's voice makes the game), graphics (natural effects are available but can be removed for lower specification computers), storey line (I guessed solutions 1 & 2 about halfway through, but solution 3 was novel), bonus book included.

Minus points:
clumsy inventory item combination, opening the safe is tricky (even when knowing the combination), you have to check all remaining shoes even after you find a match to the footprint.

Overall:
Worth playing but nothing ground-breaking.

A nice change of pace from today's standard fare

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: January 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in the rich world of the game and not simply running around shooting at things. The game requires subtlety and attention to detail, which is very nicely rendered throughout the game. You play the role of an armchair detective who gets to play out her dream in real life as she investigates a murder on the Orient Express with the help of the famous detective Poirot, who happens to be on board. You interview the passengers, hunt for clues, solve puzzles and put your ingenuity to work to solve the mystery. The game interface is clean and easy to use, the world is rich in detail, and the characters are all well developed, each with secrets of their own.

I played the game on weekends over the past month, and took six pages of notes as I discovered clues and information about the suspects. I can't remember the last time I was this invested into a video game. Great fun! I am looking forward to more titles in this genre now that I have experienced this one. I recommend this to anyone who is looking for a change of pace from the popular games of today which seem to all be cut from the same mold.

A Mixture of Game & "Movie"

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: December 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

In "Murder on the Orient Express", you play Antoinette - an office employee of the train company - who, when asked to ensure Mr. Poirot(the famous detective) receives extra-special treatment aboard the train, finds herself in the position of detective herself.

After an avalanche forces their train to stop, it's discovered that one of the passengers has been killed. Although the name given on his paperwork is Ratchett, it becomes clear that this is not his real name. Who is this murdered man & who would want to see him dead? This is what you'll have to figure out, now that Poirot's sprained ankle has stopped him from venturing out of his cabin.

Once you realize who the victim is, it's now time to find & piece the clues together that will enable you to determine who did it & why. The answer may just surprise you...

Overall, I really liked this game! However, there are a few shortcomings - which is why I gave it 4 stars. These shortcomings include: the beginning is slow, every time you move onto another scene you must wait while the picture loads, and at times there is more "movie" than game playing. Yet, even with these downfalls, I would still highly recommend "Murder on the Orient Express" for those who enjoy mystery-type games.

Not worth $30

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: December 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As a fan of mystery games I was looking forward to this game. However I was very disapointed. Aside from the awesome graphics and cool narration, it was boring. It is full of mundane tasks (go get the parasol, collect all the passports, they need napkins to wipe their fingers before they let you print them). Also like someone mentioned, the sequence in which you would get items, clues, etc. was way off. The ending is the best part. It took me about a week to beat. It's just not worth $30 bucks. $20 would even be pushing it.

Enjoyable Game, A couple of Software Glitchy things

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: February 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Loved the game, was annoyed by some of the glitches. The storyline is interesting and the puzzles were fun to solve. The software design could have better thought out as if you solved a puzzle ahead of where the game thought you should have, it seemed to get stuck. I actually had to load earlier saved games and redo a couple of sections. That sort of thing takes away from the fun.

If You've Ever Read The Book, Be Prepared To Be Bored

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: March 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Ok - I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book and the British movie with Sean Connery, et al. So I think - cool - I can play a game that will have some of the same beautiful settings as the book/movie. While this is true - the graphics are good and the overall look of the game is nice - the game play is HORRIBLE. Once I figured out all the characters are exactly the same as the book and the plot is exactly the same, I got a sinking feeling in my stomach about the $30 I had just spent...

Good Things -
* There is an alternate ending that the game makers have added in to at least add a little bit of interest to the finale.
* Some of the puzzles take a little bit of thought to figure them out.
* Pretty pictures and engaging play keeps you interested.
* You tell the gathered suspects how the murder happened at the end based upon your clues. Be sure to review all your clues before Poirot is carried into the Salon Car to reveal the murderer.

Bad Things -
* Game is very linear. There is no veering from the track that is set for you. There are several places where you HAVE TO solve certain puzzles before you are allowed to go on. However it is often hard to know if you are done investigating or not.
* Some of the puzzles are infantile in simplicity and 2 of the puzzles are SO HARD that there is no way to solve w/o downloading the cheat. I'm not kidding - one of the puzzles you will never get in a 1000 years. This seriously detracts from the game play.
* You play a game with Poirot (who is bedridden with a bruised ankle during much of the game play) to see if you can figure "IT" out with little or no help from him. This should be a positive. However, in many parts of the game you don't know if you are done until you come back to talk to him and if you aren't, he docks you. Not really fair. And at the end, the game doesn't give you any kind of score or whatever to gauge how well you did.
* If you know the book, you know the plot, who did it, and how it's solved. This fact makes the game play simply a job to get to the end.

I really wanted to like this game, but it's hard. 95% of the game play is just dull plugging and chugging and searching for clues or solving easy puzzles, while the other 5% is impossible - not a great combo. I doubt I'll by "And Then There Were None" either based upon the game play of this Christie game.

Unless you have NEVER, EVER read this book/seen the movie, look somewhere else.

Game is Upstaged by the Book

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

First off, I'll say their marketing technique worked. Having never read Agatha Christie books previously, I found Murder on the Orient Express to be very cleverly written (5 stars on its own) and I am interested in reading more of Hercule Poirot in the future.

The book was written in 1934, but is still very easy to read more than 70 years later. I can see now what people used to do before the advent of video games.

Concerning the game itself I can say that I was not terribly impressed (2 stars), though it did enhance my reading of the book. While the graphics and voice acting (especially by David Suchet as Poirot) were very good, the interaction with the characters and various environments do not live up to what is advertised. Your main role in the game is uninspired: take any item that can be taken and figure out how they work together. The most challenging part of the game for me involved an hours-long search for one particular item.

However, the biggest letdown was in the mystery itself. The game is heavily scripted and offers very little opportunities for you to employ your own deductive reasoning concerning the murder. Notes are taken on your behalf when you talk to the suspects, but they often leave out details that are necessary to solving the case. Also, once you interview a suspect they do not talk again until the next act; so if you didn't pick up on something the first time, then too bad. In some instances, spoiler notes appear which reveal things before they are discovered by your character!

After a number of these spoilers, I decided to stop playing so that I could enjoy the book all the way through first. When I returned to the game it naturally progressed quickly. The "new" ending was original -- and I'll give the game makers a point there -- however the mystery pretty much solves itself.

many problems

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: December 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Well, I was a huge fan of "and then there were none", but there were a lot of problems with this game. I was totally and completely confused throughout the middle and end of the game, because characters were talking to me about items that I hadn't even found yet. I was wondering, "am i missing something? I have no idea what these people are talking about!" and then I would search a room and find the item a little later. It is very difficult to figure out how to move forward in this game. I was stuck for a week at one point just figuring out what to do next. It doesn't lead you through the game very well as it did in the first Agatha Christie game.

It was also very hard to keep track of the character's names at first. There are about 15 characters, and when they were talking about eachother, I didn't know who they were talking about because I couldn't keep the names straight. For instance, if I was searching Col. Arbuthnot's room, I didn't even know which man he was to go back and talk to him!

Finally I found the end very confusing. There are a lot of things that the game still didn't explain. Overall, I was very disappointed with this game, and I hope if they make another one, it is a lot better.

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