Murder most foul. Is there any other kind? If someone says "Sorry, old bean" while they stick a knife in your chest and twist it, does that make it murder most polite? And is that okay? Probably not, we would strongly suggest, and many of the characters in Agatha Christie's novels would agree.

This compilation of adventure games takes three of her tales - And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express and Evil Under the Sun - and gives them the point-and-click treatment. The earliest release in this trio was And Then There Were None, which we reviewed back in 2006.

To recap quickly on that title, we felt that although it wove a decent Christie atmosphere, it was a bog standard point-and-clicker with little in the way of actual detective work. The game was also hampered by a superficial level of interaction with the various suspects. Some of the puzzles were pretty odd and obscure, which didn't help either. So does the second offering, Murder on the Orient Express, improve on the formula?

The short answer is "not really." For starters, you don't play Poirot in the tale, but instead a female representative of the train company. That's quite disappointing, although Poirot is on board the train (laid up, unwell in his cabin) and he acts as a help feature, giving away hints proportional to the difficulty level selected.

Once again, conversations with other people are very superficial, with no branching dialogue choices or any real opportunity of influencing or interacting with characters. The interface is rather cumbersome and the adventure is also quite painfully linear: at times you're pretty much told where to go, and there's a lot of dull trudging about examining very similar train cabins over and over again.

It isn't all bad, mind you. Much like And Then There Were None, the atmosphere and visuals are pretty polished, as are the sound and voice acting. Notably, the puzzles are more logical this time, and there are some neat touches such an automated notebook which keeps track of everything important you've discovered. However, it still fails to grab on a fundamental level.

So does the final instalment fare any better? As with the previous two games, Evil Under the Sun sticks to the plot of the novel fairly closely, introducing some key twists so you don't know everything if you've read the book. The difference here is you get to step into the immaculately polished shoes of Poirot.

However, Evil Under the Sun is otherwise a case of the same old story. As with the Orient Express, there's a lot of turgid traipsing around, covering the same ground over and over again. Disappointingly, no further effort has been made with the dialogue when questioning suspects (the conversations may as well just be cut-scenes).

It's really no more compelling than the other two titles, although on the plus side, the interface is more streamlined and the aesthetics remain appealing.

Verdict
This is a trio of not particularly favourable mystery adventures, although Christie fans might still enjoy the atmosphere and slight reworking of classic tales. At an effective £8 a pop the games aren't bad value for money by any means, but we still wouldn't be rushing out to make a purchase.

Company: JoWood

Tags: agathachristie murder on the orient express and then there were none evil under the sun: complete & unabridged herculepoirot games davidsuchet istanbul