Agatha Christie – Hercule Poirot: The London Case is developer Blazing Griffin’s second go at a game based on the fictional Belgian detective, following up 2021’s Hercule Poirot: The First Cases. Published by Microids, these games aim to tell a prequel narrative of Poirot’s earlier work, forging out into new territory rather than directly adapting any of Christie’s stories. The First Cases showed some promise, but it was hampered by systems and constraints that failed to work to its benefit. Although The London Case makes some strides toward improvement, it steps backward in other regards to create an ultimately frustrating experience.
Like Agatha Christie’s novels, Hercule Poirot: The London Case picks up in an episodic manner, connected to the first game by only one returning character aside from Poirot himself. A prologue level sets the stage for its mechanics and story, offering a micro-mystery that doesn’t quite resolve to whet the appetite for the big one. The prologue also introduces Poirot’s sidekick-to-be Arthur Hastings, who comes along for the ride in this installment as a figure to bounce ideas off of and a general assistant for miscellaneous tasks.
A Solid Story Carries The Experience
The principal highlight of Hercule Poirot: The London Case is the London Case itself, which acquits itself nicely despite failing to reach the heights of Poirot’s finest appearances. The mystery centers around the disappearance of a painting stolen during the grand opening of a new museum exhibition, a theft surrounded by a suspicious cast of characters and a swirling storm of interpersonal tensions. It also acts as the catalyst for a series of further complications, which escalate to appropriately dire stakes and keep the plot chugging along to sustain a modest runtime.
The biggest weakness of The London Case’s narrative lies in the characters, who serve the story perfectly well but never manage to particularly inspire. The First Cases featured an eclectic bunch with intriguing motives and quirks, but the most memorable member of the new game’s ensemble is the former suspect who returns. Luckily, Poirot himself has the appropriate charisma to make interactions more memorable, and the tonal command of his character is deftly handled throughout. The London Case maintains the fundamental comfort and charm that characterizes Poirot and the world that surrounds him while having just enough fun with the concept of his younger days.
Uneven Presentation Is A Slight Stumble
Although the writing itself is perfectly compelling, Hercule Poirot: The London Case struggles with the garnish required to package it inside a game. Like its predecessor, The London Case features somewhat simplistic 3D graphics, which can look like a functionally curated style under the right conditions but fall short under the wrong ones. Lighting makes a big difference, as textures tend toward flatness whenever dynamic highlights or shadows aren’t putting in the work. Elements like a reflective museum floor and a cable car that sends up sparks as it passes are occasional highlights, but most environments feel more commonplace.
None of these limitations would prove to be significant distractions if The London Case was less intent on stretching itself too thin. Conversations play out in close-up views that highlight lifeless facial animations, with Poirot once again standing out as the character that avoids the worst problems. Character portraits and text boxes from The First Cases are replaced by a black bar for text at the bottom of the screen, which features far too much dead space when dialogue options run thin. Conversations sometimes run into unnecessary repetition of bookending phrases, and suspects occasionally despawn or switch location abruptly when transitioning between scenes.
A Lack Of Polish Makes For Awkward Gameplay
The gameplay of Hercule Poirot: The London Case makes one significant leap over its predecessor by reworking the mind map and minimizing its use. Although the concept of drawing literal connections between clues is a smart way to incorporate deduction, The First Cases managed it poorly, often lagging behind a player’s understanding in a way that made following the geometry of the maps easier than following the clues. The London Case doesn’t find a way to wring the true potential out of mind maps, but it patches the issue by rearranging clues to be less obvious and forcing fewer unintuitive connections.
Stepping outside the mind map, however, reveals many other regards in which The London Case stumbles. The transition to a variety of locations both reduces the intimate sense of pressure and ping-pongs players awkwardly, with an attempt at lessening linearity resulting in frustrations like backtracking to find clues that Poirot was formerly unable to interact with. A slow walk cycle and buggy mouse pathfinding (the latter issue alleviated by employing a keyboard or controller) exacerbate a sense of unnecessary slog. Examining areas in first-person offers a moderately interesting new feature in concept, but the execution is generally lackluster.
Final Thoughts & Review Score
Playing through Hercule Poirot: The London Case can be a reasonably pleasurable experience for fans of Christie’s works, as the writers at Blazing Griffin carry the torch with respect. For every area where the game succeeds, however, it features an awkward limitation or stumbling block to match. Not every mystery game can be Return of the Obra Dinn or Screen Rant’s 2022 GOTY Pentiment, but it’s a bit of a shame that the deductive experience of Nancy Drew titles outdoes the Belgian detective’s own process. Agatha Christie – Hercule Poirot: The London Case is another gesture at what a great Poirot game could look like that ultimately misses the mark.
Source: Microids/YouTube
Agatha Christie – Hercule Poirot: The London Case is available now on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Screen Rant was provided with a Steam code for the purpose of this review.
