Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None is the first title in a series of games based on the books from legendary mystery author, Agatha Christie. In this classic story, 10 people -- each with something to hide and something to fear -- are invited to a lonely mansion on Shipwreck Island by a host who, surprisingly, fails to appear. On the island, they are cut off from everything but each other and the inescapable shadows of their own past lives. One by one, the guests share the darkest secrets of their wicked pasts. And one by one, they die...
Gaming Nexus writes: "If there is anything in the gaming world that has a worse reputation than games based on movies (or, for that matter, movies based on games) it has to be games based on novels. "And Then There Were None" is a murder mystery written by the venerable Agatha Christie many, many years ago, back when the novel's original title wouldn't have gotten it banned from bookstores and libraries across the country. The book is described as The World's Best-Selling Mystery of All Time, and that could, indeed, be the truth of it. The problem is, of course, that the elements that go into creating a best-selling murder mystery are not necessarily the same as what it takes to create a good game. The temptation to use a famous novel as a means to develop and sell a mediocre game is every bit as irresistible as it is to use the same idea in filming and releasing a crappy movie.
That glowing introduction to this review of The Adventure Company's game of the same title recently released for the Wii is what mystery writers call a "clue." You can probably already tell that it's going to be an uphill battle for the Wii version of "And Then There Were None" to receive a favorable score, and if you are one of those that picked up on that clue, well, it doesn't exactly make you the equivalent of Hercule Poirot, but it does show that at least you're paying attention."
While the storyline of Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None follows 10 strangers who are invited to a lavish island only to be accused of murder, players assume the role of a new 11th character, Patrick Narracott the boatman who takes guests to the island. The player must reveal the killer before becoming a victim.
Game Revolution writes: "As publishers of the new Sam & Max and Broken Sword, The Adventure Company has faithfully served the PC crowd for years. Now they're setting their sights on the console scene with Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (hereby known as And/None). It has the intriguing plot and brain-straining puzzles we all expect from the genre, but can it match the expectations of an old-school adventurer raised on the likes of Myst and Monkey Island?
The print version of And/None is the best-selling mystery novel of all time. That should make it the hottest property for an adventure game, if not for one glaring problem – the story has already been told, retold, and turned into a classic comedy with a board game tie-in. Any way you tell it, the characters are going to die. Don't worry. Twenty minutes in, that revelation is as surprising as finding out the Titanic is sinking. Developer AWE Games tried circumventing the problem by injecting a new character, Patrick Narracott, but he's a man trapped in a world where he doesn't belong."
+ Agatha's storytelling
+ Clever puzzles...
- ...that amount to nothing
- Modified, disjointed plot
- Grotesquely excessive backtracking
- Sausage-people
