There is a good detective story buried somewhere here, but it's hindered by archaic gameplay, and terrible pacing. If you're a huge fan of Agatha Christie's work, or if you're the type of gamer that misses the old days of random item collecting and nonsensical puzzle solving, this might be a game worth checking out, but anyone else is going to want to pass this one by.
Presentation - 4.5
Graphics - 5.0
Sound - 6.0
Gameplay - 4.0
Lasting Appeal - 3.0
Overall -
There's a bit of a conundrum when it comes to Evil Under The Sun and Agatha Christie game adaptations in general, because who's likely to play them? If you're a Christie fan then you'll have already read her novels and know who the murderer is, rendering the game rather anti-climactic, and most fans are too old to be interested in point-and-click adventure games and far more likely to watch Poirot on TV on a Sunday.
The sole advantage of such a game is you can control Belgium detective Hercule Poirot through every step of his investigation. The case begins with Poirot conveniently holidaying at a Devon seaside resort where the murder of a famous actress promptly takes place. Though the lead up to the crime is shown in real-time, what we're seeing is actually Poirot recounting his experience to Captain Hastings in his office at a later date as a sort of malleable flashback.
BCGaming writes: "The brightness control options helps visibility issues while the selecting the screen edges bypassing the potentially lengthy walking animations and navigation. The witty dialogue boosts the entertainment and balances out any tedious work like finding that last item or talking to every character. A nice game that proceeds at your own pace and won't break the bank at $19.99 MSRP".
Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun for the Wii feels like it should have been released several years ago. There's a decent story hidden under the mess of missed conversations and seemingly irrelevant puzzles. Many of the characters come off as annoying rather than memorable, and it's difficult to care what happens to them. The final nail in this title's coffin is the complete failure to pull the player into the gameplay. There's a lengthy adventure here, but it takes far too long for anything remotely interesting to happen, and dangling the promise of, "There will be a murder" over your head really doesn't cut it, considering what it offers up until that point.
