Isn’t it comforting to settle in with e book that you just already know? Microids definitely appear to hope so, as their Studio Lyon is snuggling one more Christie traditional proper into your Swap.
A follow-up to 2023’s Homicide on the Orient Specific, Dying on the Nile is probably not as massive as that choo-choo colossus, however it almost is. So, Studio Lyon has introduced the identical problem upon itself: how can a traditional this traditional be made to really feel recent? And how will you make a thriller sport when so lots of the viewers are already anticipating the answer? Fortunately, the devs come across a formulation for it final time, and now it’s again with bells and whistles.
For one factor, the setting has been up to date from the Thirties to the ’70s. We open on a swishing pair of bell-bottoms, the digicam panning as much as snaking hips on their approach right into a disco. This slinky buyer is none aside from the newest rendition of Hercule Poirot, the legendary detective, now with a collar wider than his trademark moustache and a cravat that fits him to a T. It might be Agatha Christie through Starsky and Hutch, however some issues don’t change.
From dancefloor to detective work, we Moog and wah-wah our approach right into a third-person journey perspective, free to walk round and begin chatting up the clientele. That is the spine of the sport: discover, look at, focus on, and resolve mysteries from main to trifling. This may occasionally imply unravelling the social complexities of a love triangle, cracking the titular river-based homicide, or just arranging suitcases within the boot of a automobile. The mini challenges like that final one are tacked on a little bit roughly, nonetheless, ranging as they do from merely utilizing a rotary cellphone to mending a jukebox through 5 completely different Christmas-cracker logic puzzles.
One other hallmark of the Poirot video games below Microids’ stewardship is the “thoughts map”. It is a 2D, visible illustration of the online of interconnected info and deductions that make up the case in every chapter. These numerous observations have to be collected throughout play, then related and expanded upon on this liminal house inside Poirot’s head. Earlier video games — particularly earlier than Studio Lyon took the reins — made these connections a baffling mixture of the obtuse and the plain, driving you to guesswork to grind out the reality the sport needs from you. Dying on the Nile is comfortably essentially the most coherent go on the concept but.
However the standout addition to this visualised reasoning is a timeline-building mode that drops the world into an nearly sci-fi purple and orange glowing wireframe. You stroll round these areas, associating characters with actions at every step in time. It’s like a cross between a Cyberpunk 2077 braindance and a spaced-out hippie’s lava lamp dream.
And that actually sums up the essence of the sport: it’s a straightforward journey. Plenty of relaxed conversations, low-key, ’70s-tinged music, straightforward puzzles, and slow-paced cutscenes are the order of the day. It is probably not everybody’s cup of fussily ready tea, however it completely fits the idea of revisiting outdated traditional story. Success all the time looks like a foregone conclusion, so loosen up and benefit from the river cruise. A pop-up instruction that summed it up for me learn, “New goal: go to dinner” – and that’s dinner on the kind of boat that has a cocktail lounge and smoking room. Good.
Some measures have been taken to liven issues up – in response, the builders say, to participant suggestions. These embody problem modes that strip away steerage layer by layer — a bit antithetical to the sport’s raison d’être in my opinion — and collectibles scattered across the chapters. Should you haven’t discovered a golden moustache in a bidet, have you ever had a real Poirot expertise? Sure, truly. Fortunately, these additions are utterly elective and non-judgmental. You’ll get a chapter report of your collectibles, trace depend, and so forth, however it doesn’t include a terrific massive “D” score in case you weren’t as much as scratch. No strain right here.
However the greatest distinction to the completely happy cruise of Poirot-by-numbers is Jane Royce, non-public investigator. Jane is a brand new facet character with a mission of her personal: to avenge the loss of life of her shut pal who’d uncovered a conspiracy. This leads her into the gritty streets of The Bronx – a powerful counterpoint. She runs about to intense prog rock; Poirot sips wine to straightforward jazz.
Jane additionally introduces some rigidity with consequence-carrying choices that have an effect on the story. Should you thought this was a snuggled-up cruise by a well-loved traditional, then — wakey wakey — there’s a drive-by to take care of.
Whereas all this does work to present a change of tempo, it additionally feels a little bit incongruous. Simply as you’re moving into the movement of 1 narrative, you’re handed again to the opposite. It might need been good if the 2 threads had been woven collectively extra intently earlier within the journey. Some gentle motion scenes may really feel a contact disjointed. Steering a ship or taking over an impromptu stealth problem add selection, however they don’t actually match with the sport’s biggest energy, which is cosy coasting by a timeless story.
Visually, issues look fairly nice. Essentially the most vital quibble might be the animation in cutscenes: characters generally transfer like puppets in a approach that’s nearly nostalgic for the PS2 period – or The Clangers, since we’re within the 70s. They nearly appear like they’re carved from wooden, too, which is an artwork fashion that appears good with out striving for the newest AAA requirements. The environments, in the meantime, are various and enticing, bringing the interval to life with the anticipated staples: dungarees, egg chairs, and the color brown. Efficiency isn’t as easy as Poirot’s wardrobe, however it’s a lot adequate for this kind of sport.
Conclusion
With Dying on the Nile, Microids Studio Lyon has settled into a terrific formulation for a Poirot journey: a supporting playable character brings novelty and offers the moustachioed star room to ham it up as a evenly comedian persona. Some mildly disjointed pacing and a dozily relaxed velocity may put some individuals off, however in order for you the cosy feeling of curling up with thriller novel, then that is completely the sport for you.
