Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 643:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆ (9/10)
Maybe I'm an easy gamer to please, but damn, I was surprised by the relatively few and Mostly Positive reviews! I quite enjoyed [i]Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders[/i] and [i]Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot: The First Cases[/i], but [i]Agatha Christie - Death on the Nile[/i] is a major step forward! The investigations are more involved, the puzzles are far more varied, the production values are noticeably higher, and the game constantly gives you something new to do. Between reconstructing timelines, eavesdropping on conversations, connecting relationships between suspects, uncovering hidden character secrets, and solving dozens of environmental puzzles, I was almost always engaged. Better yet, the game isn't content to simply retell Christie's (terrific) novel. It introduces new twists and surprises that kept me guessing even though I already knew the original story.
Unfortunately, the experience is held back by one glaring flaw: the pacing. Nearly every action feels slower than it needs to be. Characters speak slowly, movement is sluggish, animations take their time, and there isn't even a proper dialogue skip. Still, I would definitely recommend this game on sale (or have a baseball game going in the background).
[b][h2]Pros:[/h2][/b]
✅ [b]Fantastic detective gameplay.[/b] This is easily the biggest improvement. Rather than simply collecting clues and selecting dialogue options, [i]Death on the Nile[/i] constantly asks you to think and keep notes. The mind map returns—and actually makes sense this time!—but it's only one piece of a much larger investigation toolkit. You reconstruct timelines of events, secretly eavesdrop on conversations, connect relationships between suspects, build detailed character profiles by uncovering their hidden secrets, and solve a huge variety of puzzles and mini-games. I didn't expect the length either. Nine chapters and one epilogue out of two resulted in about 17 hours of playtime.
✅ [b]Excellent production values.[/b] All right, I admit it, the engine has a sort of 2000s janky look/feel. But I thought the game was charming! Every character is fully voiced, and the performances do a great job capturing the personalities of Christie's cast, different accents and all. Every voice actor was terrific. The soundtrack is jazzy and fun without becoming repetitive, the environments are varied and richly detailed, and the game includes plenty of collectibles.
✅ [b]A fresh take on a classic mystery.[/b] Even if you've read [i]Death on the Nile, [/i]don't assume you know exactly where the story is going. There are [i]so[/i] many twists and turns in this game. Seriously,[spoiler] how many people died cumulatively?[/spoiler] I liked Jane Royce a lot, too, and how her mysteries slowly became intertwined with Poirot's.
✅ [b]Choices and consequences.[/b] Although this is still fundamentally a detective game, your decisions aren't entirely cosmetic. Certain story moments influence how events unfold, culminating in two different endings. Pretty neat! Also, update: I played both endings and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Damn. Wow, okay, Epilogue A just punched me in the face.
[b][h2]Cons:[/h2][/b]
🟥 [b]Painfully slow pacing. [/b]This is, unfortunately, the game's biggest weakness. Everything moves at about three-quarters speed. Characters pause between nearly every sentence. Walking is sluggish; the running button is more like jogging. Animations are slow and repetitive. Worst of all, there is no proper dialogue skip.
🟥 [b]Occasionally frustrating investigations.[/b] Certain clues only become interactable when your cursor is positioned over an extremely specific pixel, which led to moments where I walked right past where I needed to go. Some puzzle solutions also require memorizing information from your mind map because you can't reference it while solving them, for some reason. Also, puzzles have hints that give you the answer but are not unskippable. There is also no manual save.
🟥 [b]A few unnecessary gameplay detours.[/b] Most of the new mechanics are fantastic, but I didn't like all of them. The stealth sequences and chase sections feel like attempts to inject action into a game that doesn't need it. They're short enough not to ruin the experience, but every time one appeared, I found myself wishing I could skip.
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