Agatha Christie – Death on the Nile (AC-DotN) is a fun new version of a case-solving adventure featuring Agatha Christie’s beloved detective, Hercule Poirot. Microids and Microids Studio Lyon have pulled Poirot forward in time to the 1970s while still keeping him quintessentially Poirot. It’s a unique take that breathes fresh life into the classic story.
In the 1970s version of Poirot, he wears an immaculate leisure suit with a wide collared shirt and an ascot. His famous mustache is disco fabulous, and he is just as precise, just as fastidious, and just as endearing as ever with his “little grey cells.”
In case you think you’ve seen all this before, think again. Personally, I’ve read Death on the Nile and seen various adaptations of it in movies, but this is different and yet the same in the best possible ways.
Poirot is on a journey down the Nile with the usual cast of suspects and the usual mystery, however, in the beginning of the game we’re introduced to a second detective, a British woman with a truly fabulous afro, that he meets in a nightclub owned by a friend. This is where the game branches out, literally. In parts of the title, you play as Poirot, and in other parts you play as Jane Royce. Jane has her own mysteries to solve and because they haven’t been written and adapted multiple times, they’re the more interesting parts of the game in some ways. But I love Poirot, so I never minded playing as him, especially in that leisure suit. So fabulous.
As for gameplay, I’ve played a lot of mystery games over the years, and I’ve always found them a bit problematic. I’ve even played other Agatha Christie titles featuring Poirot that I didn’t particularly care for. They moved too slow, and if you didn’t solve the mystery in the exact way the developers wanted you to, then you were stuck in an endless loop of wandering around trying to find what amounted to an irrelevant piece of information.
So, has AC-DotN solved that issue? For the most part, yes. It is broken into chapters, and each chapter has a list of characters (although it builds up and expands as the adventure progresses, so it does not just feature the characters in the current chapter). You also have a mind map, which is very useful and is only for the chapter you’re currently playing.
Not only does the mind map function as a hub so you don’t lose track of what you’re supposed to be doing, but it helps keep your place if you have to stop playing and do something else for a while. It also helps you understand how the developers intend for the mystery to be solved, so you know where to focus your energies to find what you’re looking for. Even better, the game has difficulty levels so you can cruise through with lots of hints or really test your skills.
Alas, it’s not all smooth sailing. There are a lot of mini games that vary from super-fast and easy to just annoying, but at least some of them can be skipped. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there have been times when I was ahead of the game and found it frustrating to have to go around piecing parts together that I’d already figured out. I would like an option to just solve it after collecting a certain number of clues rather than having to get each and every one.
That said, I’ve found AC-DotN pretty delightful. The 1970s setting is a fun choice. The graphics are good, especially for a AA game. And it’s paced well, especially for a clue solving title. I do wish they could have had authentic music from the 1970s, but I’m sure licensing fees made that impossible. More’s the pity, as a disco soundtrack would been the perfect complement to the experience. That said, they do a good job with period-esque music that sounds like it could have been of that era.
All in all, go play this. It’s a good time. Agatha Christie – Death on the Nile is available now in both physical and digital editions on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, and on Epic Games and the Steam platform for the PC.
Developers: Microids Studio Lyon
Platforms: Epic Games Store, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Steam, Xbox Series X