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Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express

EMAIL PRINT pc

8.2 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 22 critic reviews
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Based on 13 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: DreamCatcher Interactive / The Adventure Company

Developer: AWE Games

Genre(s): First-Person Adventure

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: November 14, 2006

Summary

Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express beckons travelers to climb aboard a luxury train and become part of a murder mystery where the player and Hercule Poirot must rely on their superior detective skills to find the killer in a heinous murder. The game remains true to the style and tone of the novel, but a surprising new ending will keep players at the edge of their seats. Agatha Christie fans will be delighted to know that Actor David Suchet will play the vocal role of Belgian Detective Hercule Poirot – a role Suchet made famous through his well-known portrayals of the character in an array of television appearances over the past 20 years. [DreamCatcher Interactive]

Also On Metacritic

GAMES: Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Just Adventure

If you have read the book, you should still enjoy the game and appreciate both the faithfulness to its source material and the liberties taken with the material. If the game is your first exposure to MOTOE, then it is most likely inevitable that you will then want to read the book.

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Quandary

A trip well worth taking. Most relaxing and enjoyable I thought, with enough challenge to keep experienced adventurers entertained and enough guidance for new players to join in and have plenty of fun.

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Four Fat Chicks

Looking back at MOTOE, I had mixed reactions. On the one hand, the game is unusual in its setting, very well-produced, full of rich and enticing atmosphere. Yet, on the other hand, it's very linear, full of repetitive busy work, and really seems more like an interactive novel than a game where your actions can impact the game world and possible outcome.

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AceGamez

There's nothing here that hasn't been done before in many other adventure games before it, but Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express is a splendid showcase of richly compelling narrative and atmosphere at work.

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Game Over Online

The production values of the game are just fine. The train looks authentic, the voice acting is believable, and there are several quality cinematic sequences sprinkled throughout the investigation. But what you do in the adventure isn’t all that fun or exciting, and so I’m not exactly sure who would enjoy it.

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PC Gamer

There are a handful of intriguing puzzles, but with its sumptuous atmosphere and superb voice acting--slightly stylized and exaggerated to pump up the melodrama--Murder succeeds less as a classic adventure game than as a splendidly illustrated piece of interactive fiction; in this case, a subtle but important distinction. [Mar 2007, p.65]

GameZone

A great presentation of a classic book. As an adventure game, though, it is a little lacking.

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2404.org

I would only recommend this game to adventure fans that are into the Agatha Christie series of novels. However, they should prepare to be faced with repetitive and secretarial tasks.

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PC Zone UK

The dialogue is disappointing, being a case of exhausting the options rather than picking the right thing to say. [Apr 2007, p.68]

IGN

Character interactions are numerous, but so linear in their progression it makes it feel as though you're turning pages in a book than affecting a game world.

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Adventure Gamers

Worth playing through for the story, but questionable design issues prevent it from being nearly the classic that comes bundled with it.

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Computer Games Magazine

Save yourself the tedium and just read the novel. [Mar 2007, p.72]

Game Chronicles

They have stretched imagination and creativity in a few scenes with things like being outside the train while looking at a few of the doors to compartments instead of the standard inside view. Other than these occasional bright points Murder On The Orient Express is just not much above average.

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GameSpot

The newest Agatha Christie adventure game suffers from monotonous tasks and contrived plot twists that drag it down to mediocrity.

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GamingExcellence

The game’s not terrible, but a poor example of what a novel adaptation could be, and so might only be enjoyed by those who really like the tales of Poirot, and a good mystery. It’s a good thing the original novel comes packaged with the game, because in this case, I’d recommend giving it a read instead.

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PC Gamer UK

Poirot is the strongest and best performed character, which makes his background role a great mistake. Competently built, OE is too often directionless, but most of all, dull. Dull, dull, dull. In conclusion: dull.

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Digital Entertainment News

Hardly entertaining, the game features presentation problems and boring play that isn’t worth the effort. Read the book instead.

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Strategy Informer

Perhaps the worst aspect of this game is that you, the main character, do little to actually determine the murderer. Instead you are really Poirot’s minion. The ending and solution inevitably comes from him, with a little input from you.

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Games Radar (in-house)

But even as a flawed game, Murder on the Orient Express still manages to draw you in with lush environments, a stellar score and top-notch voice acting (which manage to make most of the protracted conversations at least marginally interesting).

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Gamers Europe

Despite the genuinely lovely mood created by the mid 1930s settings, haunting soundtrack and clever use of lighting, even the train full of believable – if not slightly stereotyped – personalities can’t make up for the lack of care gone into the unrewarding finish of Murder on the Orient Express.

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Eurogamer

The game becomes a painfully slow and suffocating linear trudge through every single cabin on the train - for the fifth time - in an effort to find everyone and get hold of their passports for investigation purposes, while asking all nineteen passengers and crew practically the exact same set of twenty odd questions.

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PC Format

Go buy the book, it'll last longer, give you more joy and won't make you feel like your brain's leaking out of your ears. [Mar 2007, p.76]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it a4:
Gave it a 4 for good voice acting and good graphics, but for rest of the game. Boo!

Sherlock H. gave it an8:
Adventure gamers rejoice, a new dawn has arrived in the form of a great string of releases from the Adventure Company. Orient Express takes a great story from the mistress of mystery and tweaks it slightly to enable the player to go through the game as a new character in an existing script. The result is brilliant, enthralling escapism at it's best. The visuals have come a long way from pixelated King Graham, so you will feel up to date, and not cringing at polygons. The interface is logical with all the things you would expect in a game by now. Double click for run, right click for inventory, the ability to cut the voice over text short; autrement dit, you will not be banging your head on the wall due to poor controls. Okay, here's where the points get taken away. The puzzles are less than challanging in this game. The Adventure Company seems to be marketing this in the stream of the Nancy Drew audience. You will be able to knit several pairs of tuques whilst completing the most difficult puzzles with your feet. On the plus side, you won't ever be stumped, and the story flow, by consequence, is uninterrupted and engrossing. Myst-ers out there will be bored to tears, but those who enjoy a great story, good visuals, and logical flow, will be in store for a great game.

Angel Spy gave it a5:
Talking, talking, talking. It is so boring. Puzzles voices characters everything is very good but all are not giving fun just because of too much talking in the game. If there were less talking it could get 10.

Adam B. gave it a10:
Wonderful game, great characters and voice work. Suchet was marvoulous as Poirot.

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Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express

Game Info

Summary

Also On Metacritic

What The Critics Said

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Recent Releases