Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None Review

Good adventure games rely heavily on two things: storyline and interesting puzzles. If these elements are lacking in an adventure game, it usually means that you’re stuck with a tedious exercise in pointing and clicking. So if you’re going to create a mystery adventure game, you may as well draw upon the work one of the most well-regarded mystery writers of all time, Agatha Christie, and that’s just what And Then There Were None does.

And Then There Were None is based on the novel of the same name, which at one time was known as Ten Little Indians (you don’t even want to know the book’s original title). Apparently these days merely mentioning the word “Indian” is a sign of unbridled racism, and the game jumps on board the PC wagon by changing the Ten Little Indians central to the story into Ten Little Sailors. I suppose somebody somewhere would have had their feelings hurt by the inclusion of Indians in the game, but apparently no one told the sailors about this. I am sure that they are just as hurt and my heartfelt condolences go out to them. Sail on big guys, sail on, these stormy skies of indignity shall pass... So anyway, if you’re not familiar with the original story, it goes something like this…

Eight people are invited to spend a weekend at a mansion on a small, isolated island under false pretenses. After arriving at the island the guests learn that their host, U.N. Owen, has been delayed and will not be joining them until later. Before long a storm blows in and the boat they arrived on is destroyed, trapping the guests at the mansion. At first this seems like a minor inconvenience, but after dinner a record is played for the guests in which their unseen host summarily accuses each of the guests, as well as the two newly hired servants, of being somehow responsible for the death of one or more people during their lifetimes. Here we have our ten little Indians, er, sailors, and soon they begin to die one by one in a manner that frighteningly mimics the lines of a nursery rhyme posted above the fireplace…

Your role in this mystery is that of a new character not found in the original book. You’re Patrick Naracott, the brother of the boatman who brought the guests out to the island in the novel. You are trapped on the island with everyone else, but luckily for you you’re not one of the ten accused of murder. The game does take a little liberty with the source material in crafting a little “history” between you and one of the characters, but this is a necessary artistic license to give you more of a connection to the story beyond that of an observer – although you do in effect end up in that role.

Since you’re not really at the focus of the events on the island, your role as a gamer becomes one of doing what is necessary to trigger the next plot event. I suppose that when you get down to it this is basically what happens in all adventure games, but in this case you’re very much aware of this role. Complicating things for you is the fact that the game does not give you much guidance as to what needs to be done to activate the next story trigger or where the trigger is located. Because of this, there will be times in the game when you will find yourself retracing your steps back and forth scouring each screen for something that you may have missed the first several times through.

And Then There Were None follows the standard adventure game format of moving from screen to screen, sweeping the screen with the mouse looking for hotspots, and then clicking on those hotspots. Items that can be picked up are placed in an inventory screen for closer examination or to be combined with other collected items, and any letters, journals, and such discovered are transcribed for you into your journal. All pretty much par for the course. And Then There Were None does not entirely fit into the adventure mold though due to the basis of its story. In order to capture all of the plot and character development inherent in the novel, the game must rely on a large number of long cutscenes to drive the story forward. You’ll spend a lot of time watching this game, almost as much as you will playing it. This is not a big issue as long as you know what you’re getting into, but the game does make it a bit of a chore at times. There is no mechanism for skipping or advancing conversations even though the game uses subtitles with all of the spoken dialog. I always found myself reading to the end of the text long before the character finished speaking and then I’d be stuck impatiently waiting for the character to hurry up and finish already. This is a minor nuisance with short dialogs, but for the longer conversations it can quickly become frustrating. The developers should have given the player the option to skip ahead to the next speaker or else should not have included the subtitles.

Simply watching parts of the game unfold would at times make me feel detached from the story, but overall the game does a very good job of creating a tense and compelling atmosphere that really draws you in. The mansion and island are carefully constructed with faithfulness to the novel’s setting and time period. The weather effects subtlety keep your nerves on edge while the island itself evokes forlorn feelings of isolation and abandonment. For all the work that went into the game’s environment it is a pity that the character models did not get the same level of attention. The game’s characters are crude by comparison – they look stiff and blocky and move with an unnatural jerkiness. Making matters worse there is no attempt to lip-synch the characters with their dialogue, and you’ll watch them flap their lips up and down rhythmically as they speak and the flapping often continues for a few seconds after the characters stop speaking. It’s downright distracting – and annoying if you’ve already finished reading the dialog fifteen or twenty seconds earlier.

If you’re an Agatha Christie purist, then be forewarned that the game takes a few liberties with the story in addition to the aforementioned sailor for Indian swap. Most notable of these is a change to the game’s ending. While the motivation for this is probably to add some additional suspense to a story whose ending is familiar to a lot of people, it can’t help but feel somewhat contrived given that all of the finely crafted work that Christie did in setting up the ending now doesn’t quite fit as well. The game does provided an alternate “classic” ending once you solve the game, though.

And Then There Were None will primarily appeal to mystery buffs and adventure game fans. It can feel slowly paced and has its annoyances – some of which are inherent to the genre – but if you’re looking for a casual game that plays as much as a story as it does a game, you’ll probably want to give this one a look.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 71%.  Classic adventure gameplay within a classic story.