Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express
Encyclopedia
Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express is a 2006
point-and-click
adventure game
developed
by AWE Productions and published
by The Adventure Company
for Microsoft Windows
. The game is the second installment in The Adventure Company's Agatha Christie series
. The setting is five years before the events in Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None, with a largely unrelated storyline. The plot follows an amateur sleuth, Antoinette Marceau, and her investigation of a murder with twelve possible suspects aboard the Orient Express
, which has been blocked by an avalanche in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
during 1934. She is aided by famous detective Hercule Poirot
.
Murder on the Orient Express retains the main plot elements of Agatha Christie
's novel of the same name
. An additional ending is presented in the game which differs from the conclusion of Christie's novel. As with And Then There Were None, Christie's novel has been bundled with the game. Some reviewers of Murder on the Orient Express criticized the game because of the repetitive nature of tasks the player must complete, and also complained about the inefficient and cumbersome inventory system. Others have praised it for improved graphics compared to And Then There Were None, as well as convincing voice acting
and audio effects. Murder on the Orient Express is followed by Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun
, the third installment in the Agatha Christie series.
Murder on the Orient Express is the first game in the Agatha Christie series to feature Hercule Poirot, Christie's most popular and famous detective. David Suchet
, a well-respected portrayer of Poirot who achieved fame through the popular television series Agatha Christie's Poirot
, was hired to provide Poirot's voice. His performance was generally met with praise. Some have criticized the game for not allowing the player to actually control Poirot; the developers explained this choice by saying that adventure gamers who make mistakes throughout the game do not reflect the genius of Poirot, but are better represented by amateur sleuth Antoinette Marceau.
Murder on the Orient Express, as with its predecessor, features an inventory system. There are several components of the inventory, including a fingerprint examination screen, a scrapbook, and a passport screen for managing and viewing the passengers' passports. There are a total of eighty slots for carrying items in the inventory, spread across five separate screens. Items cannot be discarded from the inventory once they have been acquired. The player can access the inventory by clicking on an icon on the game's interface, or can simply right-click. After items are used, a right-click returns them to the inventory, and the exact slot they were originally placed in. Each item is labelled, and the player can inspect each inventory item in more detail by dragging it over a magnifying glass icon, and can also listen for a soft hissing sound which indicates that there is something relevant for the player to note about a certain item. In a divergence from other games in its genre, Murder on the Orient Express does not allow the player to combine items in the main inventory screen. There is a separate interface for item combinations, and the player must drag items into this screen if they wish to try to combine them.
A large portion of gameplay in Murder on the Orient Express has the player questioning characters and listening to lengthy periods of dialogue in order to acquire clues which may lead to the murderer. Other tasks the player must complete include collecting passports and other paraphernalia left by the passengers in an effort to acquire clues to lead to the solution of the murder, and retrieving certain objects for various characters. Combining items in the inventory forms a major part of the puzzles in the game. There are no puzzles with time limits in the game, although some puzzles require correct timing. There are also several single screen puzzles, such as a safe-cracking puzzle.
A unique feature of Murder on the Orient Express is Poirot, who serves as a hint system for the duration of the game. The player can access Poirot at any time during the game, and can receive hints to help them proceed. The game has two difficulty levels, and the player can determine which one they prefer to play at soon after the murder occurs. Poirot challenges the player, allowing them to choose to either readily accept help from him and allow him to guide the player through the game, or alternatively try to outsmart the famous sleuth by solving the mystery with obscure, and in some cases nonexistent hints. If the player has trouble once they have chosen the more difficult setting, Poirot will gradually become more forthcoming with information.
in 1934. The beginning of the game takes place in Istanbul
, while the rest takes place on the Orient Express, which is blocked by an avalanche in Yugoslavia. The player has some opportunities to venture outside the train into the snowy exterior environment, but the majority of the action occurs in the carriages of the Orient Express.
The player character
in Murder on the Orient Express is Antoinette Marceau, an employee of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. She is aided throughout her investigation by famous detective Hercule Poirot, as well as his friend Dr. Constantine. All of the murder suspects from Christie's novel are included in Murder on the Orient Express. These are Count and Countess Andrenyi, Colonel Arbuthnot, Mary Debenham, Princess Dragomiroff, Greta Ohlsson, Antonio Foscarelli, Cyrus Hardman, Caroline Hubbard, Hector McQueen, and several staff on the Orient Express. The victim is Samuel Ratchett. In total, there are over twenty characters featured in Murder on the Orient Express.
, New York City
, during 1924, in which police officers surround an unidentified house. After a brief gun battle, two men walk out of the house and surrender.
The scene then changes to the Turkish
city of Istanbul
ten years later. The game's protagonist, a devoted junior clerk at the Istanbul offices of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits, Antoinette Marceau, receives instructions from her employer Marcel Bouc, the Director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits, to attend to the wishes of his good friend Hercule Poirot. He tasks Marceau with ensuring that Poirot's journey on the Orient Express is favourable. Marceau begins her adventure in Sirkeci Terminal
, Istanbul, where she is acquainted with Poirot, whom she admires, as well as the other characters who are to accompany her aboard the Orient Express.
Soon after the train departs Istanbul, it is blocked by an avalanche and cannot proceed. The sudden stopping of the train causes Poirot to fall out of his bunk and sprain his ankle, rendering him bed-ridden. Soon after this, Ratchett is found murdered, with twelve possible suspects to the murder, and the investigation begins. Marceau is challenged by Poirot to find the solution to the murder and do the "legwork" by gathering clues.
Marceau splits her time between seeing to the duties of the train (such as helping to fix the heat in the engine), interviewing passengers about the murder, and examining the train and surrounding area for clues. She travels to several additional locations that Poirot does not travel to in the book, such as the engine, the baggage car, and an old shack outside of the snowed in train. Additionally, a sabotaged ham radio
is in one of the compartments which, when repaired, allows Antoinette to contact Poirot's nephew and ask him to research the passengers.
As in the novel, it is revealed that Ratchett is in fact Cassetti, the criminal of the Daisy Armstrong kidnapping. Each of the passengers on the train as well as the conductor are connected in some way to the Armstrong family, each with a motive for murder. Additionally, each person had an alibi corroborated by the others.
When Marceau believes she has solved the murder, Poirot gathers the passengers and poses a series of questions to Marceau about the clues found. He goes on to reveal three possible solutions to Ratchett's death. The first two are identical to the novel. Poirot suggests that an assassin may have come aboard the train during the night, killed Cassetti, and then escaped the train, which is supported by evidence such as a bloodied stiletto with fingerprints that do not match anyone on the train. The second solution pieces together a number of clues showing that all of the trains' passengers and the conductor, Pierre Michel, are responsible for the murder, to which they confess.
Unique to this adaptation of the story, Marceau finds additional clues such as a crate full of living accommodations in the security vault of the baggage compartment and a picture of Michel's family, despite the fact that Poirot's nephew radios that the man has none. After explaining the second solution, Poirot reveals that Michel is not who he appears, but is in fact Robert Perkinson, Cassetti's criminal partner. Perkinson confirms this to the shock of the other passengers and reveals that Cassetti kept Daisy Armstrong at his house, but Cassetti gunned down Perkinson's daughter, Teresa, whom he mistook for Daisy.
Perkinson reveals that he previously met Pierre Michel on a train and that Michel had told him of the plan to murder Cassetti, but he was too afraid to do it. Since the others had not actually seen Michel in person, Perkinson volunteered to impersonate Michel and stab Cassetti on his behalf so that he could get revenge for Teresa's death. He then reveals that a now 13-year-old Daisy Armstrong, whom he had been raising as his own daughter, is alive and has been hidden in the baggage compartment of the train during the journey. Daisy then comes out to meet the people who thought she was dead. Poirot, Dr. Constantine, and Marceau decide to tell the police officials the first solution – that an unknown assassin came aboard the train, killed Rachett, and left. The passengers are overjoyed to see that Daisy is alive and Poirot concludes that it is "a most satisfying ending."
The Adventure Company and Chorion
, the owners of the rights to Christie's works, chose Agatha Christie's novel Murder on the Orient Express, widely considered the author's magnum opus
, as the basis for the next game in the Agatha Christie series. AWE Productions had little influence in the choice, other than being asked for an opinion. Lee Sheldon created a concept document for the new game and sent it to Chorion, who sent it back with some suggestions. Sheldon agreed to some of these, but refused others. Chorion was generally more comfortable with the development team for their second outing. They did not have to scrutinize every aspect of the game as with And Then There Were None, and generally had fewer complaints with Murder on the Orient Express, as opposed to its predecessor.
Mike Adams, the Producer of Murder on the Orient Express, was extremely determined to have David Suchet as the voice actor for Poirot, a major character in the game. Scott Nixon thought that Suchet had become so intertwined with the character of Poirot, after his success with the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, that it would be hard to imagine someone else doing Poirot's voice without constantly being compared to Suchet. Nixon described the situation as a catch-22
, saying that he "worried about someone coming in and doing a Suchet impression instead of a unique rendition of Poirot, yet the more the voice strays from Suchet's version, the more people will wish it was Suchet doing it!" Another reason for the development team's determination to have Suchet aboard was that they thought he would spur the other voice actors in the game, such as Vanessa Marshall
who portrayed Antoinette Marceau, to step up and compete with Suchet's skillful portrayal of Poirot. Fairly late in the game's development, Suchet agreed to do the voice acting. He admitted that one reason for his acceptance of the offer was that he felt possessive of the role of Poirot, considering he had been portraying the character for so long. Mike Adams expressed pride at having succeeded in convincing Suchet to do voice acting for Murder on the Orient Express, and said that his skillful voice acting would bring "tremendous excitement and authenticity" to the game.
As with And Then There Were None, Lead Designer Lee Sheldon introduced a new character to the plot of Murder on the Orient Express, who was not present in Christie's novel, in order to fulfill the role of a player character and protagonist. The character, Antoinette Marceau, is described by Sheldon as an amalgam of two characters from the novel. These were Poirot's friend who ran the Orient Express, Marcel Bouc, and a young soldier who is present in both the novel and the film version
of the story, who shepherds Poirot to Istanbul
. Sheldon stated that he did not want to create entirely new protagonists for the Christie games, but rather preferred to draw from sources in Christie's novels to piece together the games' protagonists. Sheldon also addressed concerns from several early previews of the game, which asked why the player could not actually play as Poirot. He explained the choice of Marceau as the protagonist, saying "the reason for choosing Marceau over Poirot as the protagonist is that most of the fun of Poirot is seeing what he is up to, watching how he acts and solves things. I’ve always thought the more interesting character was the ‘Watson
’ character rather than the Sherlock Holmes
character."
To make Poirot an even more integral part of Murder on the Orient Express, Sheldon made him into an elaborate hint system. After players complained about a sense of aimlessness in And Then There Were None, which arose whilst they tried to find a trigger to begin the next section of gameplay, Sheldon made Poirot an "oracle of sorts," who can provide help whenever the player is stuck or unsure of what to do next.
The development team decided that, as with And Then There Were None, they would change Christie's original ending for Murder on the Orient Express. The aim of the developers was to create games that would not only appeal to casual gamers, but also to Christie fans. As nearly all Christie fans have read Murder on the Orient Express, and know the solution, and considering that the novel was to be included with the game, the developers decided that the ending needed to be changed. The novel has two solutions – one being what appears to be happening and the other being what is actually occurring – and the developers aimed to develop a third solution which drew on these two solutions and still surprised the player. Lee Sheldon admitted that his variation to the ending of And Then There Were None received some criticism, and said that in Murder on the Orient Express changing the ending was even harder because of the sheer fame of the book and its solution. He also expressed his hatred of adaptations of older material which make fun of that time period, and said that he was trying to stay as faithful to Christie's work and time era as possible.
A major difference between And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express that Sheldon pointed out was that in the former, the premise of the novel was that no one solved the murder. This forced Sheldon to desperately try to find a way to integrate clues into the story so that the player could actually discover the murderer, although the game remained quite uninteractive. In Murder on the Orient Express, the actual novel follows an investigation, so Sheldon could more easily integrate clues to lead to all three possible solutions. Sheldon also excised unnecessary puzzles from Murder on the Orient Express, as they were an unpopular feature of its predecessor.
Several graphical improvements were made to Murder on the Orient Express over And Then There Were None. These were mostly dedicated to character design and animation, which were extremely poorly received features of the first Christie game. The development team introduced animation layers, allowing them to control parts of character models independently. This allowed the developers to use the same animations whether the character was sitting, standing or lying down, and also gave them more head and upper body control. In And Then There Were None, characters had to rotate their entire bodies to talk to one another, whereas in Murder on the Orient Express, characters can simply turn their heads. The game has no physics features, but screen resolution has been increased, more detailed backgrounds have been made, and characters models contain more polygons.
Research was a major component of the developmental stages of Murder on the Orient Express. Most of the research was focused on Yugoslavia in 1934, the game's setting. Sheldon focused on the political and scientific situation of this era, and explained his intensive research, saying "all of the puzzles have to be contextual. They all have to either help character, help story or define period." The developers also drew influence from a train museum outside Miami
with an original Pullman carriage
- the same as the carriages used on the Orient Express in the 1930s. The museum also contained a locomotive
similar to the one the developers were looking for. The developers ended up using the train museum, several books about the Orient Express, the 1974 film version of Christie's novel, and the internet as research resources. With Murder on the Orient Express being the first Poirot game produced, Sheldon was careful that the game fitted into Christie's timeline of Poirot's exploits. The television series often took liberties with the time in which stories were set, but Sheldon was determined to keep everything in strict accordance with Christie's work. There are several references in the game to Poirot's earlier cases, all of which are chronologically accurate. This was partly so that Sheldon could draw influence from the culture of specific eras of time, and also so that in the future other Poirot-based games will be chronologically accurate.
The official site for Murder on the Orient Express was unveiled on September 21, 2006, and contains screenshots, character biographies and photos, environment artwork, trailers, demos, music, wallpaper and contests. Murder on the Orient Express was shipped to stores on November 14, 2006 in North America
. It received an ESRB
rating of Teen (13+) and retailed for an MSRP
of US$
29.99. The Adventure Company held a launch party for the gaming press on November 16, two days after the game was shipped. Among the guests were the development team of Murder on the Orient Express, and actors portraying the game's various characters. The demo for Murder on the Orient Express was released on December 20, 2006, and contained a small portion of the game which has the player exploring the train.
, reviews of the game have fallen between 27% and 91%, representing a large range of opinions. Metacritic averaged the scores of 22 reviews of Murder on the Orient Express to give an overall result of 60%.
An aspect of gameplay in Murder on the Orient Express which received largely negative reactions was the repetitive nature of many tasks the player must complete. 2404 accused the game of reducing Christie's novel, and the game, into a series of repetitive and secretarial tasks, such as collecting fingerprints, passports, and other random items. The site further went on to say that the player is made to feel "like a secretary for Poirot." GameOver agreed with this view, saying that much of the game consisted of "goofy little errands" such as completing tasks for characters and mindlessly searching for objects. EuroGamer provides an example of this, by saying that at one point in the game the player is required to go through each cabin checking the shoe sizes of the various passengers' shoes to check if one matches shoe prints outside the train. The inventory system featured in Murder on the Orient Express has also received significant criticism. IGN
complained that instead of being able to find item combinations through trial and error in the main screen, the player is forced to drag items to a separate screen, leading to tedious gameplay. Some reviewers, in contrast, praised the inventory system, with Quandary calling it intuitive, and easy for players to organize. The puzzles in Murder on the Orient Express received positive responses from some reviewers. GameSpot
commented favourably on the relatively small number of puzzles in the game, saying that they are integrated fairly well within the plot, and are not excessively difficult. The review went on to say that later puzzles in the game often rely more heavily on inventory combinations, but are still reasonably satisfying to solve. GameOver, in comparison, accused the game of giving the player too little information to solve puzzles, and also called the puzzles convoluted. The choice of the developers of Murder on the Orient Express to use Antoinette Marceau, rather than Poirot, as the protagonist and player character was criticized by some. 2404 disapproved of the choice, accusing the developers of not fully utilizing the talent of David Suchet, arguably the most famous and successful portrayer of Poirot. The reviewer even went so far as to tell AWE Productions to "make use of talent like David Suchet when you've got it." Like its predecessor, Murder on the Orient Express was criticized for diverging from Christie's original ending. Adventure Gamers called the new ending "a little too contrived for the game's good." 2404 also disapproved of the ending, commenting that it goes off in too much of a Hollywood direction, and that the original ending is much better and a far more satisfying conclusion.
Murder on the Orient Express received some praise for graphical improvements over its predecessor. Among the aspects of the game which received positive reactions were the game's environments. Just Adventure called the game environments "head and shoulders above And Then There Were None," describing the train's carriages on the Orient Express as oozing with elegance, and a faithful and accurate recreation of the 1930s. Just Adventure criticized the game for suffering graphically in later stages, but praised it overall for improving on the graphics of And Then There Were None. Game Chronicles was less enthusiastic, calling the graphics above average, but standard fare for a current adventure game. Character models were another aspect of Murder on the Orient Express which received positive attention. Quandary described the character modelling as much improved from And Then There Were None, and while still a tinge woody, "all the characters feel as if they just stepped out of the book." Adventure Gamers called the characters "some of the best seen in recent adventure games," saying that each character has a unique design and costume perfect for the game's setting. The reviewer also pointed out several small touches added to the characters, such as the main character shivering when she is outside the train in the cold weather, and also brushing lint off her clothing while waiting for the player to decide what to do next. Adventure Gamers also complimented AWE Productions for lighting effects in the game, and for creating a "very soft glow to the scenes, which give a much more life-like look to the characters." IGN agreed that the interior of the Orient Express is quite sharp, but complained that character models lack detail and are animated awkwardly. Another complaint from IGN was that the compression used for cutscenes causes the animations to look "washed out and blocky," and that this problem continues as the cutscenes are noticeably pixelated throughout Murder on the Orient Express.
An aspect of Murder on the Orient Express which many reviewers praised was the game's audio. The voice acting in particular gained widespread positive reviews. GameSpot called the voice acting excellent, with the voice actors bringing the characters to life, thanks largely to David Suchet as Poirot. IGN also called the voice acting well done, despite a few characters sounding artificial. Music in the game was positively reviewed by 2404, who said that it was tense at moments, but probably could have been played more frequently throughout the game. 2404 also praised the game for providing realistic sound effects, such as noises coming from the Orient Express itself, and other environmental noises such as howling wind. IGN, in contrast, heavily criticized the game for a lack of background music, and simplistic and monotonous sound effects.
2006 in video gaming
-Events:* January 26, 2006 -- Nintendo announces its newly redesigned handheld, the Nintendo DS Lite. The new model is lighter, smaller, has configurable brightness and features an improved user interface.* January 26, 2006 -- Konami Corp...
point-and-click
Graphic adventure game
A graphic adventure game is a form of adventure game. They are distinct from text adventures. Whereas a player must actively observe using commands such as "look" in a text-based adventure, graphic adventures revolutionized gameplay by making use of natural human perception...
adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
developed
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
by AWE Productions and published
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
by The Adventure Company
The Adventure Company
The Adventure Company, is a publishing label of Nordic Games. It is formally a division of DreamCatcher Interactive but was sold to Nordic Games in 2011 following DreamCatcher's parent JoWooD Entertainment being sold after entering administration.-History:...
for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. The game is the second installment in The Adventure Company's Agatha Christie series
Agatha Christie (video game series)
The Agatha Christie series is a series of adventure games developed by AWE Games and published by The Adventure Company, based on the works of the English mystery writer Agatha Christie.-Profile:...
. The setting is five years before the events in Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None, with a largely unrelated storyline. The plot follows an amateur sleuth, Antoinette Marceau, and her investigation of a murder with twelve possible suspects aboard the Orient Express
Orient Express
The Orient Express is the name of a long-distance passenger train service originally operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. It ran from 1883 to 2009 and is not to be confused with the Venice-Simplon Orient Express train service, which continues to run.The route and rolling stock...
, which has been blocked by an avalanche in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
during 1934. She is aided by famous detective Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...
.
Murder on the Orient Express retains the main plot elements of Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
's novel of the same name
Murder on the Orient Express
Murder on the Orient Express is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on January 1, 1934 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of...
. An additional ending is presented in the game which differs from the conclusion of Christie's novel. As with And Then There Were None, Christie's novel has been bundled with the game. Some reviewers of Murder on the Orient Express criticized the game because of the repetitive nature of tasks the player must complete, and also complained about the inefficient and cumbersome inventory system. Others have praised it for improved graphics compared to And Then There Were None, as well as convincing voice acting
Voice acting
Voice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...
and audio effects. Murder on the Orient Express is followed by Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun
Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun
Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun is a video game released for the PC and Nintendo Wii, and is the third installment of The Adventure Company's Agatha Christie series, developed by AWE Productions, based on Agatha Christie's novel Evil Under the Sun...
, the third installment in the Agatha Christie series.
Murder on the Orient Express is the first game in the Agatha Christie series to feature Hercule Poirot, Christie's most popular and famous detective. David Suchet
David Suchet
David Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...
, a well-respected portrayer of Poirot who achieved fame through the popular television series Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that has aired on ITV since 1989. It stars David Suchet as Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was originally made by LWT and is now made by ITV Studios...
, was hired to provide Poirot's voice. His performance was generally met with praise. Some have criticized the game for not allowing the player to actually control Poirot; the developers explained this choice by saying that adventure gamers who make mistakes throughout the game do not reflect the genius of Poirot, but are better represented by amateur sleuth Antoinette Marceau.
Gameplay
Murder on the Orient Express is a point-and-click adventure game, played from a third-person perspective. A player can navigate and interact with the game's environment, mainly carriages on the Orient Express, through use of a context-sensitive cursor. The cursor changes when it is placed over an item with which the player can interact, and can be used to talk to other characters, listen to other characters' conversations, look around the environment, and move. The player can walk to a location with a single click, and run to a location with a double-click. Double-clicking on the edge of the screen instantly takes the player to the next screen. There is a map of the train in the game's interface at the top of the screen, and once each carriage has been unlocked, the player can click on any part of the map and instantly be transported to that location, saving the player from having to travel through the train screen by screen. Another accessible feature is an objectives menu interface which states the general tasks the player should be attempting to complete. This menu is designed to guide players in the right direction without giving any explicit hints.Murder on the Orient Express, as with its predecessor, features an inventory system. There are several components of the inventory, including a fingerprint examination screen, a scrapbook, and a passport screen for managing and viewing the passengers' passports. There are a total of eighty slots for carrying items in the inventory, spread across five separate screens. Items cannot be discarded from the inventory once they have been acquired. The player can access the inventory by clicking on an icon on the game's interface, or can simply right-click. After items are used, a right-click returns them to the inventory, and the exact slot they were originally placed in. Each item is labelled, and the player can inspect each inventory item in more detail by dragging it over a magnifying glass icon, and can also listen for a soft hissing sound which indicates that there is something relevant for the player to note about a certain item. In a divergence from other games in its genre, Murder on the Orient Express does not allow the player to combine items in the main inventory screen. There is a separate interface for item combinations, and the player must drag items into this screen if they wish to try to combine them.
A large portion of gameplay in Murder on the Orient Express has the player questioning characters and listening to lengthy periods of dialogue in order to acquire clues which may lead to the murderer. Other tasks the player must complete include collecting passports and other paraphernalia left by the passengers in an effort to acquire clues to lead to the solution of the murder, and retrieving certain objects for various characters. Combining items in the inventory forms a major part of the puzzles in the game. There are no puzzles with time limits in the game, although some puzzles require correct timing. There are also several single screen puzzles, such as a safe-cracking puzzle.
A unique feature of Murder on the Orient Express is Poirot, who serves as a hint system for the duration of the game. The player can access Poirot at any time during the game, and can receive hints to help them proceed. The game has two difficulty levels, and the player can determine which one they prefer to play at soon after the murder occurs. Poirot challenges the player, allowing them to choose to either readily accept help from him and allow him to guide the player through the game, or alternatively try to outsmart the famous sleuth by solving the mystery with obscure, and in some cases nonexistent hints. If the player has trouble once they have chosen the more difficult setting, Poirot will gradually become more forthcoming with information.
Setting and characters
Murder on the Orient Express is set in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in 1934. The beginning of the game takes place in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, while the rest takes place on the Orient Express, which is blocked by an avalanche in Yugoslavia. The player has some opportunities to venture outside the train into the snowy exterior environment, but the majority of the action occurs in the carriages of the Orient Express.
The player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
in Murder on the Orient Express is Antoinette Marceau, an employee of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. She is aided throughout her investigation by famous detective Hercule Poirot, as well as his friend Dr. Constantine. All of the murder suspects from Christie's novel are included in Murder on the Orient Express. These are Count and Countess Andrenyi, Colonel Arbuthnot, Mary Debenham, Princess Dragomiroff, Greta Ohlsson, Antonio Foscarelli, Cyrus Hardman, Caroline Hubbard, Hector McQueen, and several staff on the Orient Express. The victim is Samuel Ratchett. In total, there are over twenty characters featured in Murder on the Orient Express.
Plot
Murder on the Orient Express begins with the Armstrong kidnapping redated and relocated in New PaltzNew Paltz (village), New York
New Paltz is a village in Ulster County in the U.S. state of New York. It is about north of New York City and south of Albany. The population was 6,818 at the 2010 census.The Village of New Paltz is located within the Town of New Paltz...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, during 1924, in which police officers surround an unidentified house. After a brief gun battle, two men walk out of the house and surrender.
The scene then changes to the Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
city of Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
ten years later. The game's protagonist, a devoted junior clerk at the Istanbul offices of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits, Antoinette Marceau, receives instructions from her employer Marcel Bouc, the Director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits, to attend to the wishes of his good friend Hercule Poirot. He tasks Marceau with ensuring that Poirot's journey on the Orient Express is favourable. Marceau begins her adventure in Sirkeci Terminal
Sirkeci Terminal
Istanbul Sirkeci Terminal, also known as İstanbul Terminal, is a terminus main station of the Turkish State Railways in Sirkeci, on the European part of Istanbul, Turkey...
, Istanbul, where she is acquainted with Poirot, whom she admires, as well as the other characters who are to accompany her aboard the Orient Express.
Soon after the train departs Istanbul, it is blocked by an avalanche and cannot proceed. The sudden stopping of the train causes Poirot to fall out of his bunk and sprain his ankle, rendering him bed-ridden. Soon after this, Ratchett is found murdered, with twelve possible suspects to the murder, and the investigation begins. Marceau is challenged by Poirot to find the solution to the murder and do the "legwork" by gathering clues.
Marceau splits her time between seeing to the duties of the train (such as helping to fix the heat in the engine), interviewing passengers about the murder, and examining the train and surrounding area for clues. She travels to several additional locations that Poirot does not travel to in the book, such as the engine, the baggage car, and an old shack outside of the snowed in train. Additionally, a sabotaged ham radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
is in one of the compartments which, when repaired, allows Antoinette to contact Poirot's nephew and ask him to research the passengers.
As in the novel, it is revealed that Ratchett is in fact Cassetti, the criminal of the Daisy Armstrong kidnapping. Each of the passengers on the train as well as the conductor are connected in some way to the Armstrong family, each with a motive for murder. Additionally, each person had an alibi corroborated by the others.
When Marceau believes she has solved the murder, Poirot gathers the passengers and poses a series of questions to Marceau about the clues found. He goes on to reveal three possible solutions to Ratchett's death. The first two are identical to the novel. Poirot suggests that an assassin may have come aboard the train during the night, killed Cassetti, and then escaped the train, which is supported by evidence such as a bloodied stiletto with fingerprints that do not match anyone on the train. The second solution pieces together a number of clues showing that all of the trains' passengers and the conductor, Pierre Michel, are responsible for the murder, to which they confess.
Unique to this adaptation of the story, Marceau finds additional clues such as a crate full of living accommodations in the security vault of the baggage compartment and a picture of Michel's family, despite the fact that Poirot's nephew radios that the man has none. After explaining the second solution, Poirot reveals that Michel is not who he appears, but is in fact Robert Perkinson, Cassetti's criminal partner. Perkinson confirms this to the shock of the other passengers and reveals that Cassetti kept Daisy Armstrong at his house, but Cassetti gunned down Perkinson's daughter, Teresa, whom he mistook for Daisy.
Perkinson reveals that he previously met Pierre Michel on a train and that Michel had told him of the plan to murder Cassetti, but he was too afraid to do it. Since the others had not actually seen Michel in person, Perkinson volunteered to impersonate Michel and stab Cassetti on his behalf so that he could get revenge for Teresa's death. He then reveals that a now 13-year-old Daisy Armstrong, whom he had been raising as his own daughter, is alive and has been hidden in the baggage compartment of the train during the journey. Daisy then comes out to meet the people who thought she was dead. Poirot, Dr. Constantine, and Marceau decide to tell the police officials the first solution – that an unknown assassin came aboard the train, killed Rachett, and left. The passengers are overjoyed to see that Daisy is alive and Poirot concludes that it is "a most satisfying ending."
Development
Murder on the Orient Express was announced on May 2, 2006, as the second installment in The Adventure Company's Agatha Christie series. As with the game's predecessor, And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express was developed by AWE Productions, in collaboration with producer The Adventure Company. The production team remained largely the same, with Lee Sheldon reprising his role as Lead Designer, and Scott Nixon from AWE Productions reprising his position as Managing Director.The Adventure Company and Chorion
Chorion (company)
Chorion Limited is a major international media production company with offices in London, New York and Sydney. The company produces TV shows and feature films, and is best known for the heritage properties included in its portfolio. These include children's characters such as Paddington Bear, Peter...
, the owners of the rights to Christie's works, chose Agatha Christie's novel Murder on the Orient Express, widely considered the author's magnum opus
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
, as the basis for the next game in the Agatha Christie series. AWE Productions had little influence in the choice, other than being asked for an opinion. Lee Sheldon created a concept document for the new game and sent it to Chorion, who sent it back with some suggestions. Sheldon agreed to some of these, but refused others. Chorion was generally more comfortable with the development team for their second outing. They did not have to scrutinize every aspect of the game as with And Then There Were None, and generally had fewer complaints with Murder on the Orient Express, as opposed to its predecessor.
Mike Adams, the Producer of Murder on the Orient Express, was extremely determined to have David Suchet as the voice actor for Poirot, a major character in the game. Scott Nixon thought that Suchet had become so intertwined with the character of Poirot, after his success with the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, that it would be hard to imagine someone else doing Poirot's voice without constantly being compared to Suchet. Nixon described the situation as a catch-22
Catch-22 (logic)
A Catch-22, coined by Joseph Heller in his novel Catch-22, is a logical paradox arising from a situation in which an individual needs something that can only be acquired with an action that will lead him to that very situation he is already in; therefore, the acquisition of this thing becomes...
, saying that he "worried about someone coming in and doing a Suchet impression instead of a unique rendition of Poirot, yet the more the voice strays from Suchet's version, the more people will wish it was Suchet doing it!" Another reason for the development team's determination to have Suchet aboard was that they thought he would spur the other voice actors in the game, such as Vanessa Marshall
Vanessa Marshall
Vanessa Marshall is an American actress, voice actress and model. She is the daughter of actress Joan Van Ark. She got into voice-over work after being discovered at a one woman show.-Films:* Bagboy! - Mrs...
who portrayed Antoinette Marceau, to step up and compete with Suchet's skillful portrayal of Poirot. Fairly late in the game's development, Suchet agreed to do the voice acting. He admitted that one reason for his acceptance of the offer was that he felt possessive of the role of Poirot, considering he had been portraying the character for so long. Mike Adams expressed pride at having succeeded in convincing Suchet to do voice acting for Murder on the Orient Express, and said that his skillful voice acting would bring "tremendous excitement and authenticity" to the game.
As with And Then There Were None, Lead Designer Lee Sheldon introduced a new character to the plot of Murder on the Orient Express, who was not present in Christie's novel, in order to fulfill the role of a player character and protagonist. The character, Antoinette Marceau, is described by Sheldon as an amalgam of two characters from the novel. These were Poirot's friend who ran the Orient Express, Marcel Bouc, and a young soldier who is present in both the novel and the film version
Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film)
Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 British mystery film directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, and based on the1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.-Overview:...
of the story, who shepherds Poirot to Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
. Sheldon stated that he did not want to create entirely new protagonists for the Christie games, but rather preferred to draw from sources in Christie's novels to piece together the games' protagonists. Sheldon also addressed concerns from several early previews of the game, which asked why the player could not actually play as Poirot. He explained the choice of Marceau as the protagonist, saying "the reason for choosing Marceau over Poirot as the protagonist is that most of the fun of Poirot is seeing what he is up to, watching how he acts and solves things. I’ve always thought the more interesting character was the ‘Watson
John Watson (Sherlock Holmes)
John H. Watson, M.D. , known as Dr. Watson, is a character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Watson is Sherlock Holmes's friend, assistant and sometime flatmate, and is the first person narrator of all but four stories in the Sherlock Holmes canon.-Name:Doctor Watson's first...
’ character rather than the Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
character."
To make Poirot an even more integral part of Murder on the Orient Express, Sheldon made him into an elaborate hint system. After players complained about a sense of aimlessness in And Then There Were None, which arose whilst they tried to find a trigger to begin the next section of gameplay, Sheldon made Poirot an "oracle of sorts," who can provide help whenever the player is stuck or unsure of what to do next.
The development team decided that, as with And Then There Were None, they would change Christie's original ending for Murder on the Orient Express. The aim of the developers was to create games that would not only appeal to casual gamers, but also to Christie fans. As nearly all Christie fans have read Murder on the Orient Express, and know the solution, and considering that the novel was to be included with the game, the developers decided that the ending needed to be changed. The novel has two solutions – one being what appears to be happening and the other being what is actually occurring – and the developers aimed to develop a third solution which drew on these two solutions and still surprised the player. Lee Sheldon admitted that his variation to the ending of And Then There Were None received some criticism, and said that in Murder on the Orient Express changing the ending was even harder because of the sheer fame of the book and its solution. He also expressed his hatred of adaptations of older material which make fun of that time period, and said that he was trying to stay as faithful to Christie's work and time era as possible.
A major difference between And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express that Sheldon pointed out was that in the former, the premise of the novel was that no one solved the murder. This forced Sheldon to desperately try to find a way to integrate clues into the story so that the player could actually discover the murderer, although the game remained quite uninteractive. In Murder on the Orient Express, the actual novel follows an investigation, so Sheldon could more easily integrate clues to lead to all three possible solutions. Sheldon also excised unnecessary puzzles from Murder on the Orient Express, as they were an unpopular feature of its predecessor.
Several graphical improvements were made to Murder on the Orient Express over And Then There Were None. These were mostly dedicated to character design and animation, which were extremely poorly received features of the first Christie game. The development team introduced animation layers, allowing them to control parts of character models independently. This allowed the developers to use the same animations whether the character was sitting, standing or lying down, and also gave them more head and upper body control. In And Then There Were None, characters had to rotate their entire bodies to talk to one another, whereas in Murder on the Orient Express, characters can simply turn their heads. The game has no physics features, but screen resolution has been increased, more detailed backgrounds have been made, and characters models contain more polygons.
Research was a major component of the developmental stages of Murder on the Orient Express. Most of the research was focused on Yugoslavia in 1934, the game's setting. Sheldon focused on the political and scientific situation of this era, and explained his intensive research, saying "all of the puzzles have to be contextual. They all have to either help character, help story or define period." The developers also drew influence from a train museum outside Miami
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
with an original Pullman carriage
Pullman (car or coach)
In the United States, Pullman was used to refer to railroad sleeping cars which were built and operated on most U.S. railroads by the Pullman Company from 1867 to December 31, 1968....
- the same as the carriages used on the Orient Express in the 1930s. The museum also contained a locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
similar to the one the developers were looking for. The developers ended up using the train museum, several books about the Orient Express, the 1974 film version of Christie's novel, and the internet as research resources. With Murder on the Orient Express being the first Poirot game produced, Sheldon was careful that the game fitted into Christie's timeline of Poirot's exploits. The television series often took liberties with the time in which stories were set, but Sheldon was determined to keep everything in strict accordance with Christie's work. There are several references in the game to Poirot's earlier cases, all of which are chronologically accurate. This was partly so that Sheldon could draw influence from the culture of specific eras of time, and also so that in the future other Poirot-based games will be chronologically accurate.
The official site for Murder on the Orient Express was unveiled on September 21, 2006, and contains screenshots, character biographies and photos, environment artwork, trailers, demos, music, wallpaper and contests. Murder on the Orient Express was shipped to stores on November 14, 2006 in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. It received an ESRB
Entertainment Software Rating Board
The Entertainment Software Rating Board is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines, and ensures responsible online privacy principles for computer and video games as well as entertainment software in Canada, Mexico and...
rating of Teen (13+) and retailed for an MSRP
Suggested retail price
The manufacturer's suggested retail price , list price or recommended retail price of a product is the price which the manufacturer recommends that the retailer sell the product. The intention was to help to standardise prices among locations...
of US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
29.99. The Adventure Company held a launch party for the gaming press on November 16, two days after the game was shipped. Among the guests were the development team of Murder on the Orient Express, and actors portraying the game's various characters. The demo for Murder on the Orient Express was released on December 20, 2006, and contained a small portion of the game which has the player exploring the train.
Reception
Since its release, Murder on the Orient Express has received widely differing reviews. According to MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, reviews of the game have fallen between 27% and 91%, representing a large range of opinions. Metacritic averaged the scores of 22 reviews of Murder on the Orient Express to give an overall result of 60%.
An aspect of gameplay in Murder on the Orient Express which received largely negative reactions was the repetitive nature of many tasks the player must complete. 2404 accused the game of reducing Christie's novel, and the game, into a series of repetitive and secretarial tasks, such as collecting fingerprints, passports, and other random items. The site further went on to say that the player is made to feel "like a secretary for Poirot." GameOver agreed with this view, saying that much of the game consisted of "goofy little errands" such as completing tasks for characters and mindlessly searching for objects. EuroGamer provides an example of this, by saying that at one point in the game the player is required to go through each cabin checking the shoe sizes of the various passengers' shoes to check if one matches shoe prints outside the train. The inventory system featured in Murder on the Orient Express has also received significant criticism. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
complained that instead of being able to find item combinations through trial and error in the main screen, the player is forced to drag items to a separate screen, leading to tedious gameplay. Some reviewers, in contrast, praised the inventory system, with Quandary calling it intuitive, and easy for players to organize. The puzzles in Murder on the Orient Express received positive responses from some reviewers. GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
commented favourably on the relatively small number of puzzles in the game, saying that they are integrated fairly well within the plot, and are not excessively difficult. The review went on to say that later puzzles in the game often rely more heavily on inventory combinations, but are still reasonably satisfying to solve. GameOver, in comparison, accused the game of giving the player too little information to solve puzzles, and also called the puzzles convoluted. The choice of the developers of Murder on the Orient Express to use Antoinette Marceau, rather than Poirot, as the protagonist and player character was criticized by some. 2404 disapproved of the choice, accusing the developers of not fully utilizing the talent of David Suchet, arguably the most famous and successful portrayer of Poirot. The reviewer even went so far as to tell AWE Productions to "make use of talent like David Suchet when you've got it." Like its predecessor, Murder on the Orient Express was criticized for diverging from Christie's original ending. Adventure Gamers called the new ending "a little too contrived for the game's good." 2404 also disapproved of the ending, commenting that it goes off in too much of a Hollywood direction, and that the original ending is much better and a far more satisfying conclusion.
Murder on the Orient Express received some praise for graphical improvements over its predecessor. Among the aspects of the game which received positive reactions were the game's environments. Just Adventure called the game environments "head and shoulders above And Then There Were None," describing the train's carriages on the Orient Express as oozing with elegance, and a faithful and accurate recreation of the 1930s. Just Adventure criticized the game for suffering graphically in later stages, but praised it overall for improving on the graphics of And Then There Were None. Game Chronicles was less enthusiastic, calling the graphics above average, but standard fare for a current adventure game. Character models were another aspect of Murder on the Orient Express which received positive attention. Quandary described the character modelling as much improved from And Then There Were None, and while still a tinge woody, "all the characters feel as if they just stepped out of the book." Adventure Gamers called the characters "some of the best seen in recent adventure games," saying that each character has a unique design and costume perfect for the game's setting. The reviewer also pointed out several small touches added to the characters, such as the main character shivering when she is outside the train in the cold weather, and also brushing lint off her clothing while waiting for the player to decide what to do next. Adventure Gamers also complimented AWE Productions for lighting effects in the game, and for creating a "very soft glow to the scenes, which give a much more life-like look to the characters." IGN agreed that the interior of the Orient Express is quite sharp, but complained that character models lack detail and are animated awkwardly. Another complaint from IGN was that the compression used for cutscenes causes the animations to look "washed out and blocky," and that this problem continues as the cutscenes are noticeably pixelated throughout Murder on the Orient Express.
An aspect of Murder on the Orient Express which many reviewers praised was the game's audio. The voice acting in particular gained widespread positive reviews. GameSpot called the voice acting excellent, with the voice actors bringing the characters to life, thanks largely to David Suchet as Poirot. IGN also called the voice acting well done, despite a few characters sounding artificial. Music in the game was positively reviewed by 2404, who said that it was tense at moments, but probably could have been played more frequently throughout the game. 2404 also praised the game for providing realistic sound effects, such as noises coming from the Orient Express itself, and other environmental noises such as howling wind. IGN, in contrast, heavily criticized the game for a lack of background music, and simplistic and monotonous sound effects.
External links
- Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express official site
- Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express at The Adventure CompanyThe Adventure CompanyThe Adventure Company, is a publishing label of Nordic Games. It is formally a division of DreamCatcher Interactive but was sold to Nordic Games in 2011 following DreamCatcher's parent JoWooD Entertainment being sold after entering administration.-History:...
- Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express at AWE Productions