In their
third collaboration, AWE Games and Lee Sheldon (writer and designer) have
joined to offer up a new “whodunit” for the adventure gaming community --
Agatha Christie:
Evil Under the Sun. This time
we get the chance to play as the indomitable Hercule Poirot though the
eyes and ears of his friend, Captain Arthur Hastings. Confusing? Only a
little. Keep a weathered eye out and remember this mantra “things are not
always what they seem, my good friend.”
"The sun shines...
the sea is blue...
but there is evil everywhere under the sun."
The opening of this
adventure finds Poirot and Hastings together late one night. The date is
September 7, 1940. The place is the Whitehaven Mansions, London and the
apartments of Hercule Poirot. The streets are dark outside as the
mandatory blackout has been issued. The two gentlemen are waiting out the
London Blitz, a point in our world history that will soon determine
Britain’s finest hour. Detective Poirot has invited Hastings to his office
for the evening. He is more than rankled that his latest investigation,
The Case of The Smuggler’s Rest Hotel, has had no press due to the cunning
escapades of one Adolf Hitler. In fact, he remarks to his old friend that
Hitler seems to “gobble up” the newspapers in the same way that he has
“gobbled up” Europe (including his own dear Belgium).
Poirot suggests to
Hastings that they pass the time with the retelling of his latest caper.
He remarks that he had solved the case of a dastardly crime in only one
day. Poirot then challenges the Captain to listen while he recounts the
case and see if indeed his friend is up to the task to do the same. In
truth, Poirot promises to make the storytelling so intriguing that
Hastings will think that he is Poirot, while reliving the investigation as
the great sleuth himself. Poirot states that with the clues and evidence
he presents to his friend, Hastings will be able to solve the case as
Hercule has done. And so begins our adventure as we step into the shoes of
the “pseudo Poirot” played by Arthur Hastings.
“Red Sails in the Sunset”
This is an interesting mix of first and third person
perspective throughout the adventure. It's a point and click affair, with
enticing scenery and a well fleshed out plot. The palette is quite
beautiful -- pastels and seaside colors during the daylight hours and
darker, more sinister tones during the evening with many mysterious
interiors. The underscore is smooth and likeable, yet slightly unsettling
when the mysteries begin to present themselves. There is a sprinkling of
easy to medium inventory based puzzles during the game; my only wish was
that there were more. The visuals reminded me of both the "Poirot"
television series and the Peter Ustinov movie of the same name. Now, I
must say that I cannot comment on any similarities to the original novel
as I haven't read it and this did not in any way affect my enjoyment of
the game.
“The night is young,
The skies are clear!
And if you want to go walking, dear…”
During
Evil Under the Sun’s
introduction, Poirot sets the ground rules for Hastings, explaining the
necessary contrivances for navigating between the Seadrift Island Case
world and Poirot’s own offices. He sets the stage by retelling three short
mysteries that are obviously necessary for the Captain to understand just
what he may be up against. The first, a story from the island about a
legendary pirate during the year 1703; then two more cases which took
place in 1940 – the time that our adventure is set in. The first person
view will take place during the introduction of the game and when the
player feels it is necessary to return from the “Seadrift Island” back to
Poirot’s offices, either to gain advice on the next move or review and
speak with Poirot about the case at large. The rest of the game is third
person.
At the
opening of the adventure the Main Menu appears. Here the player will have
the choice of resuming a paused game, starting a new game, saving a game
(saves are unlimited, by the way) loading up a previous save, setting
options for the existing game or exiting the program. I liked the Options
Menu, as one can turn off items such as Text Captions, 3D Shadows,
Animated Effects, Fog, Haze and Clouds, Particle Effects, and
Anti-aliasing -- and adjust two different Volume controls and Brightness
values. This, I feel, is very important for those players whose systems
only meet the minimum requirements. Unchecking some or all of these items
will allow the game to run more smoothly and will help with the dreaded
“whiteout” problem some have experienced, especially unchecking the
Particle Effects. It is also strongly recommended that if you happen to
have a VIA chipset for your system, you make sure that this is updated
with the latest
VIA Drivers.
While this is
primarily a point and click affair, there are a few keyboard shortcuts one
may make use of. They are:
·
ESC - Skip Movies
·
I – Inventory
·
S - Save Game
·
L - Load Game
·
P - Pause Game
·
F2 - Quick Save
·
F3 - Quick Load
Hastings as Poirot will
certainly get his workout while walking throughout the game’s universe
(there is no “run” feature presented). But by simply double clicking as
the player moves the character, the scene transitions will be much faster
and will avoid a lot of frustration for those gamers who are “patience
challenged.” I found the game to be quite nonlinear if one wishes it to be
so and there were no dead ends. The puzzles are inventory based. I found
the inventory to be delightful, because if you click on the tiny question
mark at the upper left side, it gives a complete set of instructions as to
how it works. The items may be examined within the inventory by simply
double clicking. Single click to use an item. Clicking the tiny “X” at the
upper right corner will close the inventory from view. During the game,
gear icons will show actions and uses for the various items; some will
need to be combined.
The game universe is indeed a
vast one. The Smuggler’s Rest Hotel is large with many rooms to explore
both inside and out. There are numerous areas on the island which will
hold Poirot’s interest as well as quite a few on the mainland. I found
the graphics to be a nice improvement over the past two games and hope
that in the next game the developers will allow for resolution settings to
be adjusted for widescreen monitors. There are many characters to speak or
interact with, and a very handy notebook for storing documents, articles
or letters, a task list and a suspect list. During the game I found that
if it was not progressing or I was lost at some point, all I needed to do
was to return to Poirot’s office and study an interesting contraption he
had there. (No, I’m not giving anything away here, folks…This is a
mystery…You want to know? Go play the game.)
I also enjoyed the technical
contrivance for the game play. Up at the top of the screen there is a
stylized “tool bar” of sorts. Here there are five icons. The first one is
for the Main Menu, the second lets the player return to Poirot’s office
(best place to go if Hastings is stuck), the third is the inventory, the
fourth is Hastings’ notebook which has a plethora of information (use it
well) and finally the fifth icon, which is a particular instrument which
is actually vital to solving the mystery. (Nope… I’m not telling you about
that either.) Besides the nonlinear game play, one can see that there is
much to do in way of exploration of the universe, item collection for
inventory and puzzle solving, reading of documents for background and
research -- and of course much interaction with the many characters
involved in the plot. The dialogue may seem long to some, but the game
allows for clicking quickly through if you feel that is necessary (I
didn’t).
“There’ll be Blue Birds over
The White Cliffs of Dover...”
All in all, I
found Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun
entertainingly satisfying from beginning to end and all parts in between.
The game ran smoothly for me with absolutely no crashes or glitches. While
there have been reports of “whiteouts,” slow response time and a few
crashes, I believe these depend on how one’s system is configured and what
hardware one is running -- especially with a system that meets only the
minimum requirements. The storyline had an easy flow for me; the game took
about fifteen hours to finish. The voice talent was absolutely believable
and the side comments of both Hastings and Poirot were brilliant. After
seeing Peter Ustinov, Albert Finney and David Suchet portray the intrepid
Belgian detective -- fine actors all -- I feel that Kevin Delaney (the
voice of Hercule Poirot for this adventure) should be placed right up
there with them. As a matter of fact, I felt that the entire cast was well
played and drew me into the story completely. I would recommend this
adventure to all who like to chew over a fine “whodunit” and look forward
to AWE Games’ next offering.
…inferno
Grade A
Credits:
1.
Evil Under the Sun – Agatha
Christie
2.
Red Sails in the Sunset –
Jimmy Kennedy 1935
3.
It’s Delovely – Anything Goes
– Cole Porter 1934
4.
The White Cliffs of Dover –
Lyrics by Nat Burton, music by Walter Kent 1941
Recommended System Requirements:
OS: Windows2000/X/VISTA
CPU: 2.0 GHz Intel Pentium IV or
Higher
RAM: 512MB
Disk Space: 1.5GB
CD/DVD-ROM: 16x or higher DVD ROM
Drive
Video: 128MB (DirextX 9
Compatible)
Sound: SoundBlaster
Input: Keyboard and mouse
Minimum System Requirements:
OS: Windows2000/X/VISTA
CPU: 1.4 GHz Intel Pentium III
RAM: 256MB
Disk Space: 1.5GB
CD/DVD-ROM: 16x CDROM Drive
Video: 64MB (DirextX 9Compatible)
Sound: 16 bit DirectX Compatible
Input: Keyboard and mouse
Played on:
OS:
Microsoft Windows XP Home SP 2
CPU:
Pentium D 950 3.4GHz 800MHz
RAM:
2GB DDR2
DVD ROM:
DVD-ROM DVD-1S16P 16x
Monitor: Northgate
20' Flat Panel Monitor
DirectX Version: 9.0c
November 2007
design copyright ©
2007
GameBoomers
Group
