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Review: Agatha Christie alive and well in gaming world

By Marc Saltzman
Gannett News Service

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One of Agatha Christie's most beloved mysteries is now an interactive adventure with "Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile," a new casual PC game that combines the thrill of a murder mystery with the challenge of a "Where's Waldo"-like hidden object game.

Casual games are relatively inexpensive, easy to learn and highly engrossing. You can download the games from the Internet and play for a short time (usually 60 minutes) before you're asked to cough up some cash to unlock the rest.

"Death on the Nile" follows detective Hercule Poirot, who is vacationing on a luxury cruise liner, the S.S. Karnak, and meets the wealthy and beautiful Linnet Doyle, and her new husband, Simon.

But when Linnet is found murdered the next day, Poirot vows to reveal the killer by examining clues and interrogating the passengers, many of whom have a motive for the killing. Was it her jealous former fiance? A betrayed maid? A vengeful lawsuit defendant? As Poirot, it's your job to find the murderer before the ship reaches port.

The back story to this whodunit is told via entertaining animated sequences, followed by the seek-and-find game play.

As in other "hidden object" games, you will be presented with a scene filled with dozens of items, such as a suspect's messy room, and you'll be asked to find a number of objects -- such as two pens, a statue, jewels or a newspaper -- before the timer runs out. The items are listed on the left side of the screen and will be crossed off as soon as you find and click on them. If you click on incorrect items too many times, you will be penalized by losing time off the clock.

Some items are hard to find, so you might need to click to open a book and reveal the contents inside. Or you'll need to wait for a cuckoo bird to spring out of a clock, which is holding the item you need. And unlike other games of this kind, you also can uncover clues and evidence directly tied to the story, such as an empty jewelry box, a broken heart-shaped charm, itinerary of the newlyweds or 12 pieces of a torn letter you can put together to read after you find all the pieces.

Another kind of these minigame bonus rounds is a sliding tile puzzle, which reveals some information after you put the pieces into place.

When you're ready to challenge the ship's passengers on their motives, you can click on the Salon to interrogate them. This is achieved by asking tough questions listed on the screen and analyzing their answers. In total, there are 14 unique suspect interrogation sequences.

The great characters and thrilling story, as well as the minigames and interrogation scenes, all add a wonderful new layer to the fun "hide and seek" mechanic. "Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile" is a great pick for literary lovers, budding sleuths and casual game fans alike.

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