Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express

Lore & Background

The game is set in 1934, five years before the events of Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None, with a largely unrelated storyline. It follows amateur sleuth Antoinette Marceau, a junior clerk at the Istanbul offices of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, who investigates a murder aboard the Orient Express blocked by an avalanche in Yugoslavia. She is aided by famous detective Hercule Poirot, voiced by David Suchet, known for his portrayal in the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot. The game includes ten of the twelve murder suspects from the novel, along with several train staff, totaling twenty characters.

Reader's Guide

Murder on the Orient Express was noted for being the first game in the series to feature Hercule Poirot, with David Suchet's voice performance generally praised. The developers chose not to allow players to control Poirot directly, explaining that adventure gamers' mistakes would not reflect Poirot's genius, so the player controls amateur sleuth Antoinette Marceau instead. The game includes a unique hint system where Poirot offers guidance, with two difficulty levels. Reviewers criticized the repetitive tasks and cumbersome inventory system, which has eighty slots across five screens and does not allow item discarding. Others praised improved graphics over the predecessor and convincing voice acting and audio effects. The game is followed by Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun, the third installment in the series.

Did You Know?

• The game features an additional ending that differs from the conclusion of Christie's novel.
• David Suchet, famous for playing Poirot in the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, provided Poirot's voice.
• The player cannot control Poirot; the developers stated that adventure gamers' mistakes do not reflect Poirot's genius.
• The game includes a unique hint system where Poirot challenges the player, with two difficulty levels.

Origins and Place in the Christie Game Series

In 2005, AWE Productions delivered a point-and-click adventure titled Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None, published by The Adventure Company exclusively for Microsoft Windows. This title held a foundational role: it was the very first entry in what would become The Adventure Company's dedicated Agatha Christie franchise. The game drew its narrative from Christie's celebrated 1939 detective novel of the same name, retaining most of the original plot's structural elements while introducing a playable protagonist and a range of branching endings. To deepen the tie between interactive media and literature, the North American PC edition actually bundled Christie's novel alongside the game. Two sequels followed—Murder on the Orient Express and Evil Under the Sun—each adapting a different Christie novel, meaning their storylines bore no narrative connection to the first game. This approach of pairing one novel per title established a pattern that defined the series' identity as a collection of standalone mystery experiences rather than a continuous saga.

Gameplay Systems and Interactive Design

The game operates as a third-person point-and-click experience where the core loop revolves around interrogating characters, gathering objects, and combining them to solve puzzles. An inventory screen holds up to twelve items, with new pickups filling the first open slot; a context-sensitive cursor shifts into a spinning gear whenever the player hovers over a usable object. Visually, the title employs a 2.5D engine that layers pre-rendered backdrops with fully three-dimensional character models. The narrative is split into ten chapters gated by specific trigger events, and the developers designed the progression so that no essential clue can be permanently missed, even though substantial side content remains optional. Timing becomes a factor: a room that appears empty in one chapter may conceal a critical clue in the next. To keep players oriented, a built-in journal logs every conversation, item, document, and character detail, eliminating the need for external notes. A distinctive Suspicion Meter tracks the player's standing with each NPC, shifting up or down with their actions and altering available dialogue options. Solving dedicated Suspicion Meter puzzles, often requiring multi-item combinations, can restore lost approval. After the main story concludes, a final puzzle unlocks the novel's original ending.

Adapting the Novel: Setting, Cast, and Plot

The story unfolds in August 1939 on a fictional seaside location called Shipwreck Island, where a two-storey Art Deco mansion serves as the primary stage. Players can wander the island's exterior—a beach, a forest, and an apiary—and explore the interior, including a hidden room concealed behind a library bookcase. The most significant departure from Christie's source material is the addition of Patrick Narracott, a playable character entirely absent from the 1939 book. In the novel, his brother Fred ferries the guests to the island; in the game, Patrick substitutes for Fred, who is described as under the weather. The remaining cast—Judge Wargrave, Vera Claythorne, Philip Lombard, General MacArthur, Emily Brent, Anthony Marston, William Blore, and the Rogers couple—mirror the novel's ensemble. The plot closely follows the book's events, with the notable exceptions of the killer's identity and the player character's presence. Blore sabotages Patrick's boat, mistaking him for Fred, which strands him on the island. Unlike the novel's single conclusion, the game offers a range of possible endings.

Critical Reception and Series Legacy

Reviews of the game were sharply divided. Some critics hailed it as a faithful and enjoyable adaptation of Christie's classic mystery, singling out the character dialogue and the gripping narrative as standout strengths. Others dismissed it as a deeply flawed adventure game, with several reviewers specifically calling the character designs and overall graphics archaic and outdated by the standards of 2005. This polarization meant the title found passionate defenders and equally passionate detractors, yet it did not go unnoticed within the adventure-game community. Its creative success paved the way for two direct sequels—Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express and Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun—each adapting a separate Christie novel with its own self-contained plot. Because every entry in the franchise was anchored to a different source novel, the games never shared characters or storylines, reinforcing the series' identity as an anthology of standalone mysteries rather than a connected saga. The first game's role as the franchise's proof-of-concept thus remains central to understanding the broader Christie game line.