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This is an interesting and somewhat fun game, but it will appeal to a rather select audience.

I am a reader and always have been. As a child I cut my teeth on “Sesame Street” and Dr. Suess like most others, but I graduated to more adult fare at a very early age. By the time I was eight I had started “borrowing” my mother’s books, most of which were mysteries penned by the likes of Rex Stout (she & I loved Nero Wolfe), Ed McBain (to this day I like to re-read the adventures of the boys from the 87th precinct), and – of course – the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie (yes we counted Hercule Poiroit and Jane Marple amongst our favorites). Naturally I was excited to see that “And then there were None” had been turned into an interactive PC title. I was a little reserved, however, wondering if it would be any good.



Well, it doesn’t suck. Of course that’s not exactly high praise for any game, but it came as a relief to me here. It’s not going to set sales records or turn the gaming world on it’s ear (Quake 4 and F.E.A.R. are perfectly safe), but it holds a certain charm that many will like and Christie fans will probably adore.



The game takes the story from Christie’s 1939 novel (which was originally published as “Ten Little Indians”) and sticks to it surprisingly faithfully. This is the book that gave birth to an entire genre of X people in a secluded location getting bumped off one by one mystery and horror tales. After all these years it still does it the best.



You are thrown int0o the mix as Patrick Narracott, the boatrman who trotted all the main characters to the house on the island in the novel. Your boat is sabotaged leaving you to snoop around and discover which guest wants you to remain on the island and why. Over the course of the evening events dictate that your investigations turn more serious as guests start getting killed off – after it is revealed that every person there has some rather nasty skeletons in his or her closet.



The gameplay is performed in the point and click style that was popular many years ago, mostly before there was such a thing as a Pentium processor or an advanced graphics card. The style makes the game a bit frustrating and slower than it needs to be. Many may give up on it before the story really gets going for that reason alone. I beg you to stick with it over that first hour or so if you decide to play; it will be worth your while.



Through the course of the game you are given a few interactive choices and how you handle these will determine the outcome of the story (one of the tweaks that the developer, Awe Games, did make was providing multiple endings – face it, they had to).



It is too bad that the point & click style was used. This could have been a much more interesting and engrossing game if it included simple basic character control. That addition would have sped it up a bit too and maybe saved it from the impatient players who are likely to give up on it early on.



The game itself is fairly pretty, with each room of the glorious Owen mansion made up in fair 1930’s detail, but the voice acting is cheesy at best and the messages your main character provides when you click on the wrong thing get repetitive and annoying.



Still, “And then there were None” is an interesting title if nothing else, and a real boon for fans of Agatha Christie. As a bonus the copy we received came with a copy of the novel in paperback, a copy of the novel on CD (“Read By Hugh Fraser” the cover proudly proclaims – “Who the hell is Hugh Fraser,” I gleefully reply), and a copy of the 1945 film version on DVD. Some of that may have just been a reviewer’s (we do get the occasional perk) bonus as the only one of those extras that actually comes in the game box is the paperback novel.



Still, if you’re a fan of old school mysteries, a fan of the late Dame Agatha Christie, or a fan of the point and click games of yesteryear, you could do much worse than “And Then There Were None.” Just don’t go into it expecting to have your socks knocked off because they’re likely to remain firmly on your feet.

Review by Michael Triggs.