With some exceptions (like the cottage in the woods, Istanbul station and Belgrad station) the whole game takes place in the coaches of the Orient Express. The game starts in Istanbul where you run like crazy to catch up with Mr Poirot. Along your way to the station you will encounter some minor obstacles in which you will meet all the main characters.

After you make contact with Mr Poirot and the train starts, he will make you a summary of all the characters mentioning important details to make you recognize them much more easily. After Belgrad station a murder takes place in the Calais Coach and the train gets stucked because of a snow slide. The shock will injure Mr Poirot and you will be the only one available to collect all the evidence and keep contact with Mr Poirot in order to elucidate the crime. From this moment on you will question the suspects, search for clues, and use Mr. Poirot's "little grey cells".

Now here comes the boring part. Your gameplay area is the train with its five coaches. You have to walk from one side to the other to question the suspects and search for the clues in every compartment. Actually this activity is the core of the game. There are few moments when you have to solve classical puzzles. You have to gather all the passports, take finger-prints from all the passengers, compare a foot-print with all the shoes from every compartment's wardrobes.

 

And believe me, this activity becomes more a job for a Chinese. Sometimes the dialogs don't match each other. That's because they were thought to be played in a specific order although you are free to choose the order you want to question the passengers. Sometimes these dialogs will trick you and you will become more confused in finding the right solution from tons of clues and plots.

Although there are few, the classical puzzles are the only ones that can distract your attention form doing the same thing again and again. Situations like escaping from a mountain cottage, repairing the heat system of the train, repairing a telegraph machine, are fun and not very difficult.

                                            

The game graphics are acceptable for such a game. You can even find really interesting scenes, like the Istanbul station or the dining and restaurant coach. In this environments you can see every detail of the furniture and architecture of that times.

But the characters are like simple mannequins, without any facial expressivness. The cutscenes match perfect the atmosphere of the game, but they are poor on video quality because of video compression. The sound gets annoying after one hour of playing in the train. You hear all the time the same steam sound common to all the steam locomotives of the early 30's. But the music is perfectly fitted to the game succeeding in getting the player in the mood of invetigating. But the best thing about the sound is the acting voice and especially Poirot's voice performed by actor David Suchet.

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Gameplay: 67%

It's clear that the game is mediocre even for the adventure fans. The lack of classical puzzles and the investigation tasks makes the game boring and repetitive.

A lot of details in the furniture and decorations of the train's coaches.

Unfortunately the characters are just puppets ready to be manipulated by the user. Very little facial expressions, to make them more realistic.

The cuscenes don't look to fancy because of the low compression rate.

Best thing about this game is the acting voice. And because the characters are talking a lot, you get a feeling of a virtual novel.

I can't say that his is a perfect game. Some minor bugs still are present and the transitions between train's coaches takes quite a while.