There are only two guarantees in life: fabulously wealthy snobs are gonna murder each other in ornate mansions, and detective Hercule Poirot is gonna gather them all in a parlor and explain at great length how he figured out who’s guilty.
A new game starring the famously eccentric mustachioed Belgian detective, a creation of Agatha Christie, is coming to Steam on September 28. And when it does you’ll get a chance to step into the shoes of a young Poirot and exercise your little grey cells, as he called them, in one of the first cases of his career.
Fans will know that before he became a private detective living in England, Poirot was a police officer in pre-war Belgium. That’s where Agatha Christie–Hercule Poirot: The First Cases is set, as the fledgling detective attempts to solve the sort of posh murder he eventually became famous for.
“Hercule Poirot is invited to a reception by the influential Van den Bosch family, for the announcement of their daughter’s engagement,” reads the announcement from publisher Microids. “But tensions among the guests run high as a snowstorm descends on the town, trapping everyone inside the manor. The happy event is soon marred by the murder of one of the guests! Poirot being in the right place at the right time immediately begins to investigate.”
A fancy party in a mansion. A posho gets iced. No one can leave. And the world’s greatest detective just happens to be there? Sounds like a classic Hercule Poirot case to me.
If the exploits of Hercule Poirot are completely new to you, you’re in luck: There are roughly a thousand different ways to get acquainted with him, from the Agatha Christie novels to films like Murder on the Orient Express (one from 1974 and one from 2017) and Death on the Nile (which is being remade again next year). And Poirot has starred in a few other games already.
But the best option, in my opinion, is to watch Agatha Christie’s Poirot, the television show starring David Suchet that began in 1989 and wrapped up in 2013. Poirot has been played by lots of actors including Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, Kenneth Branagh, John Malkovitch, Alfred Molina, and even Tony frickin’ Randall. But Suchet will always be the true Poirot to me.
Will Agatha Christie–Hercule Poirot: The First Cases do the world’s greatest detective justice? We’ll find out in September.