Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot: The London Case from Microids

[Modron]

https://af.gog.com/game/agatha_christie_hercule_poirot_the_london_case?as=1649904300

They are making a further installment in this series:

 

[Zombra]

Yeah! I'm looking forward to another case despite the stifling linear design of the previous game (First Cases, thread here). The Steam page mentions the "matching new system" for piecing together clues so perhaps they've actually improved the formula. Even if the format is identical to First Cases I'll enjoy it well enough.

 

[Zombra]

lol. The London Case Steam page has been up for a week and there are only two threads (with zero replies) on the discussion page. One of those threads is me complaining about the previous game.

 

[Maxie]

TBH I'm not super surprised. Playing ABC Murders after its release I had the feeling that I'm playing a weaker version of Crimes & Punishments, which wasn't a terribly engaging game in the first place. If Poirot sequels follow suit, they're really not worth the attention...

 

[Darth Roxor]

Darth Roxor brings up his mental map and sees two bubbles of text

(The game was shit)

(The game is getting a sequel)

Hmmm, could there be a connection between these two.

Darth Roxor combines the two bubbles

WOT A REVELATION! The sequel will be shit!

 

[Lagole Gon]

Daily reminder that Hercules Poirot anime exists. Because you know what Poirot was lacking? A teenage girl sidekick with a cute duck.

 

[Zombra]

The most lackluster sequel trailer of all time. A new case apparently with exactly the same flawed format as the previous game. Release August 29rd, hold your breath.

 

[vortex]

A new case apparently with exactly the same flawed format as the previous game. Release August 29rd, hold your breath.

What kind of format it should have been?

 

[Zombra]

A new case apparently with exactly the same flawed format as the previous game. Release August 29rd, hold your breath.

What kind of format it should have been?

Less linear. The format of the first game was "determine the one exact clue combination that advances the story, over and over again well over 100 times in a row, with absolutely no leeway, and no provision made for the possibility of the writers expressing themselves poorly even once". Good for a book or movie, not so good for a game.

The format games like this should take would be more informed by the "Three Clue Rule", with multiple challenging paths to each major revelation, so the player can miss a clue or two over the course of the game but can still proceed and feel smart, even if they can only guess what the writers wanted them to do 148/150 of the time.

 

[Zombra]

Just released. No reviews in yet.

I like the release trailer a lot more than the previous one - the voice actor is warmed up and puts some emotion into it.



I'm too busy with other games at the moment but do intend to keep an eye on this and grab when the price drops.

 

[Erebus]

The voice is decent, but this is the worst mustache I've ever seen on Poirot.

Because you know what Poirot was lacking? A teenage girl sidekick with a cute duck.

Odds are she is less insufferable than Hastings.

 

[Lagole Gon]

The voice is decent, but this is the worst mustache I've ever seen on Poirot.

Because you know what Poirot was lacking? A teenage girl sidekick with a cute duck.

Odds are she is less insufferable than Hastings.

Why the good ol' Hastings gets so much hate?

 

[Erebus]

Why the good ol' Hastings gets so much hate?

I read The Big Four a few months ago, and Hastings is extra-annoying in it.

But it's not just because of that book (which is far from Christie's best anyway). In general, I would say that Hastings is a poor man's Watson : more dense, less useful and much less charming. None of the Poirot novels I truly enjoy feature him.

From what I remember, there is a Poirot novel (unfortunately, I don't remember the title) in which Christie clearly implies that Hastings was created only because the example set by Holmes/Watson had given her the impression that giving her detective such a companion would be for the best, and that she shipped Hastings off to South America when she realized that wasn't the case.


EDIT : Going back to The London Case, I had a look at a recent walkthrough on Youtube and the animation looks like it's from a game released in 2006. Of course, that's not the thing that matters most in a detective game.

 

[Tom Selleck]

I finished this recently, it's not bad if you liked the previous game, it's basically the same with some QoL improvements (camera rotation) and unimprovements (menu screen, the conversations were far like, jankier to get in/out of, but that might be a patchable thing.)

I got stuck stuck once where I needed to google an answer (I hadn't rotated the camera and found a thing to interact with to 'clear the room of interactable objects' and then progress the confirmation of a certain suspect's location, even though the thing I miss was materially irrelevant and I already knew where and when they were.

I liked it, it was cozy. I like these games because they're cozy and slow and so am I.

 

[Zombra]

I still haven't tried it. Steam reviews are really not great. The developer evidently made an effort for this to be less linear which is good, but one reviewer complained about the ease of sequence breaking as a result. Buggy and a lot of users are calling this a step backwards.

 

[GreyViper]

From what I saw its not bad BUT, the investigation system can be bit restrictive if you figure some things out, you then need to find the right trigger in the environment to be able to come to the same conclusion as mr Poirot.