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The good continues, the evil begins...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: October 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The 3rd episode, long awaited Evil Under the Sun is here.

Graphics? Good as you are used of TAC. Close-ups of the characters are not the best - but it is a minor flaw only.

Sound ? The best of the three games. I very much liked the door and ambient effects, and the fact that, almost on each act, the background music changes.

Dialogs? Very good. Emphasizing Poirot's humor. Poor Hastings can almost never put his own little gray cells to work! The voices are also loud and very clear.

Plot? Interesting. Everyone who has read the book will agree that the plot in the game does not resemble the book with accuracy. Although this might be considered a flaw, I am satisfied - because you will encounter things that were not in the book.

And a nice gift, a very innovative hint system with a moving finger (say, is the Moving Finger the next TAC Agatha Christie game ?).

Advantages:

- Nice gfx, sound, and control system (unlimited (as far as I could see) saves).
- Good plot, no flaws.
- Lots of humor.
- Includes text for the dialogs. (Very important for me).
- Nice and logic , inventory-based riddles. Oh yes, and 1 rather easy puzzle-type riddle found in Linda Marshall's room.
- Full install, play without CDs.

Disadvantages:

- A bit short
- A bit easy
- A bit non-evil ; Good as a game - but no match for the book as far as the atmosphere is considered.
- Some bugs in the graphics ; Not critical, but annoying. Save F2 and Load F3 will do a needed job.
- No book included - Why ? Previous 2 games included the book in the box :(
- No alternative ending. The murderer is the same as in the book - what differs is the method of their 'arrest'. The 'And then there were none' was the only one of the three that had actually changed the plot to introduce a new finale.

Overall:
Although the game is very good overall,it is inevitably compared with the book masterpiece, and it most probably fails in the comparison. I congratulate the TAC developer's efforts, but I would suggest they spend their programming hours and talends in designing new games and not copies of the Great Lady's books, because a copy of a masterpiece is bound to be an eventual failure.

GREAT game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: October 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've loved all of the Agatha Christie games. They're well thought out and a true mystery game. Of course, being based off of the books does help! One reason I really love these games is because you get to meet different characters and investigate, interrogate, etc. It's not full of puzzles you HAVE to complete in order to continue on with the game. It doesn't have action sequences where you're worrying about your character being killed and having to go back and try again. The main characteristics are learning the suspects, finding the clues and coming to the conclusion of the murder.

It also has 7 different Acts, so the game lasts a good amount of time. I highly recommend this game for any adventure game lover and murder mystery fan!

Lost in the blizzard

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: December 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Like many others, I was playing the game and everything was going swimmingly until--uh oh. There I was in a sea of white. The blizzard.
I have managed to finish about half of the game by constantly saving and loading, but this is tedious and infuriating. If Adventure Company expects to ever receive any of my business again, they will heartily apologize to the people who have shelled out $30 for a game that doesn't work, admit that the glitch is their fault, not our fault (it's ridiculous to claim that a glitch so widespread is due to all of our computers instead of the game itself), and they will develop a patch SOON.
So far they have done none of these things, and it doesn't look particularly hopeful. I enjoyed the other two Agatha Christie games, but Evil Under the Sun is shaping up to be my last.
If you are considering buying this game, either wait until a patch surfaces or look for a different game entirely.

Christie fans will enjoy

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: November 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is the second AC game I've played in the series. I thought overall, it was more enjoyable than Murder on the Orient Express. What I liked about EUTS is that you don't seem to spend as much time doing silly things that don't relate to the story (although you still have to do some.) Another helpful feature is that you have a list of tasks to complete during the scene; i.e. "Read article about Miss Porter's School" and "Help Linda build a blind for birds." I felt like with MOTOE you could wander around helplessly lost for hours. As with the other AC games, you still collect items and use combinations of them to help you on your way--but what's great about EUTS is that you can tell if something is a combination by just hovering over the second tool, you don't have to click on each combo and hear the annoying "I don't think that's a good idea" speech 20 times.

The graphics are beautiful, and the voices aren't bad (although Christine Redfern is a bit annoying and I miss David Suchet as Poirot.) On the flip side, unless you save your current game frequently, you might have to repeat your moves because there are quite a few system crashes that you'll experience.

Overall, I think if you are a fan of AC and Poirot, you will enjoy the game despite the glitches. The games seem to be as addicting as the books are to read; I just hope we don't have to wait a year inbetween releases!

Oops.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: January 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Yes, there seems to be a glitch in this game. It was fun while it lasted, but I had the same problem everyone else had. My screen went white as well. Oh well, I'll just try another game. It is NOT my computer.

Never again...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: May 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The third Adventure Company game based on an Agatha Christie novel, Evil Under the Sun is disappointing evidence that this series - never great to begin with - is actually getting worse over time.

Puzzles are few and far between, and nearly all of them are simple inventory puzzles. As with the previous games, you just pick up anything the game will allow you to take, and tote it around, ridiculously, until you eventually have need of it. In a couple of cases the game even gives you detailed instructions for how to solve a puzzle. If you think that following instructions (complete with diagrams) is a lot of fun, well, this is the game for you.

Otherwise, you can just sit back and watch Poirot walk around. There is no way to fast-travel between locations, so much of your time will be spent walking. Hopefully you'll find that very entertaining, because the pace of this game is astonishingly slow. The game is composed of eight chapters, and the murder doesn't even occur until chapter five. Until then, most of the "action" comes from two new storylines created for the game: a Fifth Columnist hunt (the game takes place during WWII), and a plot about a glowing green ghost that even Scooby Doo would find silly. And don't even think about skipping any dialogue - if you don't painstakingly work your way through the dialogue tree, you're likely to get stuck.

But far and away, my biggest gripe with this game is the "new ending." Do not be fooled by this - the murderer is the same as in the novel! Apparently the "new" part comes from the, um, action scene that follows (in cut scene, of course, because heaven forbid the player have to do anything during the climax of the game). The new ending doesn't even make much sense, really, but I was so happy to see the game end that I won't nitpick.

Bottom line: this game is a joyless, plodding exercise that never would have been made if not for the Christie name. Read the book instead. If you're looking for a good detective game, check out the Nancy Drew series. Honestly, you could just watch paint dry and it would still be more fun than this game.

Wicked, not Evil

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Evil under the sun

Having played the previous two games in this series by the Adventure Company, I looked forward my third instalment of murder mystery.

They did not let me down, but first I had a problem with the graphics. It turned out that the game spec requires DirectX 9 & 64 Mb graphic memory. This is the exact same spec required for the second instalment which played fine on my computer. It seems the previous game didn't really require this but this game does. So I bought a graphics card, an FX5200, which is the lowest spec (and cheapest - roughly the cost of one game) card which has DirectX 9 and 64 or more Mb graphic memory and is an AGP card. I got 256 Mb but there are 64Mb cards and 128 Mb versions which would enable playing of this game. The symptom of the problem is a loss of background image leaving a white screen [blizzard conditions!] which makes the game unplayable. Exchanging the card is easy and should take no more than a few minutes. For the record, my old card was an Nvidea MX/MX400 which supports DirectX 7 and has 32 Mb graphic memory. If your computer has PCI then there are many more cards to choose from.

Once the technical aspects were settled, I played the game.

The story is a complicated one. It is more involved than the previous games in the series. I'd not read the book, so this was new to me. You play as Hastings, Poirot's friend, following in his footsteps. This is a novel device to have Poirot knowing all the outcomes and thus able to advise the player. The avatar on screen has Poirot's body and voice. This gave the developers opportunity to inject some humour which I much appreciated. The game is in chapters, seven in all. The end of each chapter is marked by the player being whisked to Poirot's office and some advice given by him. An innovation is "the finger of suspicion" which serves as a hint system as well as an extra puzzle. Initially I was wary of this but soon came to value its efficiency particularly at the end of chapters where there is usually one last action to trigger the chapter end, but nothing suggests itself. Much time was saved by consulting "the finger of suspicion".

The graphics are good, the acting fine. In the final chapter Poirot outlines his case, with prompts from the player. I had my suspicions, but didn't work out who the murder was.

I enjoyed the game. The scenario was memorable. Puzzles are perhaps on the easy side, but the game is none the worse for that. This is definitely a 20 hours plus game, unless you make repeated use of the hint system.

This is the best of the three games in the series. I recommend it. Just make sure your graphics set up is capable.

White Screen of Death

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: November 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Along with so many others - I too am stuck with a useless game. While my computer does fulfill all the minimum requirements - Dreamcatcher states that since my 8 month old laptop has an integrated videocard (like so many other laptops) - my computer is not good enough - even though it is DirectX compatible with 64mg of video memory. So, like others, I am out $30. Don't waste your money unless your computer is less than one month old.

Fantastic Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: December 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game was awesome. If you liked the first game, "And Then There Were None", you will definately love this one. Similar gameplay and length. I thought that Murder on the Orient Express was a disappointment, but this game was great.

I didn't have any technical problems with this game. It is not fair to give the game a poor rating because of technical problems. If your computer has all of the requiremtnts, it will play fine!

A little simple, but fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Pros:

* Staged gameplay: you progress in chunks, and you know you've accomplished what you need to when it allows you to move on.
* In-game hints: not the most helpful in-game hints, but between the journal instructions and the 'finger of suspicion' you can find your way through. Also, the dialogue gives a lot of hints and occasionally tells you what to do.
* Logical use of items for the most part - no combining dust bunnies with smarties to create a new sentient life form.
* Smooth gameplay and easy-to-use menus.
* Overall it was a well-programmed game with only a few minor continuity glitches (there's one point where you can still 'see' something that has already been retrieved and removed).

Cons:

* Auto-play sequences can be touchy to initiate - there's one time where you simply have to go back and look at something to get it to play, even if you've looked at that same thing dozens of times and it hasn't changed.
* Double-click to view inventory is a real pain - I had to click dozens of times to bring up the view screen. Why didn't they add a 'view' button to the main inventory page, or make it a right-click function?!
* Real veterans of this type of game might find it a bit on the easy side - there were very few brain-teaser-like puzzles and not a lot of action. The majority of the time you spend walking about, which reminds me:
* Too much time spend getting from place to place. I realize this is because you do bump into people on the way, but it was a lot of clicking, especially if you're not super-efficient in your moves. I prefer games with fixed locations that can be jumped between with the use of a map screen, but that's a personal preference.

Overall:

I quite enjoyed it, and even as impatient as I am I didn't have to cheat... much. There were a LOT of characters to keep track of, though, and that got a bit confusing. I would have really liked a cheat sheet with their names and faces just so I could keep them straight (but I have a problem with names, so maybe that's just me). I think the mystery was straightforward and Poirot really walks you through it, so it wasn't as much of a mind-bending challenge as games with tons of puzzles, but it was relaxing in a way, too. I think it's a great starter game for those not used to this type of game (but why would I combine a spaghetti strainer with a porkchop?! - the days of the old 'Day of the Tentacle' and 'Sam and Max') or even a veteran who wants to kick back and take it easy. On par with most of the Nancy Drew games out there.

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