I’m still looking for the perfect detective game. I recently talked about two that were great, but with notable flaws (especially Murders on the Yangtze River (OMEGAMES STUDIO)).I know that there is no way to make a perfect anything, but I think I could come close. Here is my last post about the subject, which I wrote a few days ago.
Hercule Poirot is my favorite fictional detective. There are many things so wrong with the books (and the TV series), but I manage to overlook that as I read/watch (classism, racism, homophobia, sexism, etc.). I will say that I get frustrated when the TV series strays too far from the books, but I recgonize tha tthey are two very different things.
I will say, though, that we do not need another Poirot played by a British actor. David Suchet was the Platonic ideal of Poirot, and no one can do it better. I have not seen the Branagh movies, but I winced at the overacting in the trailers.
Honestly, the only thing I want is a series from his younger years when he was on the Belgian police force, and I want Poirot to be played by an actual Belgian actor. There is one case that was set back in those fdays, and it would be a great way to start off the series. Or end it. Either way, it’s one of the only cases in which Poirot will admit to making a mistake. It’s called The Chocolate Box, and the TV series did do a version of it. Would not mind another if, as I said, Poirot is played by a Belgian actor.
I have read every novel at least three times, and some of them up to dozens of time. I’ve watched the entire series six or seven times as well. I have seen every movie prior to the Branagh ones. I will say the worst one was the Molina one, through no fault of his own. It was set in modern (for that time) times, which meant cell phones, laptops, and pdas. And they changed the roles of several of the characters to make them more modern as well. They had a stellar cast, but that was wasted by the horrible script.
I will say, though, that the Poirot version is probably one of the weaker episodes of the series as it changes the ending severely in a way that was very off-putting. Still. He was amazing in it as always.
Fun fact: David Suchet played Chief Inspector Japp in the Peter Ustinov version of Thirteen at Dinner. For some unimaginable reason, the director decided he should be eating all the time. It was fun to see him in that role, but, of course, he’s much better as Poirot.
I adored the series despite my irritation with how it often strayed from the source material. I absolutely loved the three supporting characters, Philip Jackson as Chief Inspector Japp, Pauline Moran as Miss Lemon, and Hugh Fraser as Captain Hastings. I was upset when they were cut in the later series for money reasons because I thought they were really the heart of the episodes, along with David Suchet as Poirot, obviously. Hugh Fraser did come back for the last episode, which was the last case, Curtain–and my favorite of the series. That epiode stuck quite closely to the book, which made me pleased. And it broke my heart that it was the last one filmed (they did all the novels).
Back to the games. I have played the early PC games, and they were horrid. I am not going to talk about them because I would rather pretend they didn’t exist. And, to be fair, I don’t remember much about them. There is one Hidden Object Game, which doesn’t count. Don’t get me wrong, I did play it, and I liked it, but it’s not an interactive game by any mean. There was one game on the 3DS that was also pretty terrible.
If I was going to make the perfect Poirot game, it would have David Suchet as the main voice actor, obviously. Or a Belgian actor. Have I stressed that enough? I think not. But if it’s not a Belgian actor, then it has to be David Suchet. Full stop.
I would have it in his mid-career–as a private detective, I mean. Here’s the probelm, though. Do I want a game that follows one of the novels? Or do I want one that is about a fictional case? I mean, they are all fictional, obviously, but fiictional in the sense of not existing is what I mean in this case.
I wrote a Poirot case once. It was set in New York, and he was called there by a police friend of his (in America) who was dealing with a jewelry heist case. Hastings went with him, and it was pretty damn good–if I do say so myself. I would love to see it turned into a mystery game, and I think it could.
I have plenty of red herrings that seem plausible. I have a red-headed woman for Hastings to fall in love with. I have the beleagured police officer who is doing his best, but is completely befuddled. I set it in America because I know it way better than Britain, of course.
I had a blast researching NY at that time and all the limitations of that era. Since I have read/watched so much Poirot, Iwas pretty confident that I had the matters of speech down. I read the non-Agatha Christie-written Poirot novel, and I was pretty disappointed. I felt like it was trying to write in the style of Agatha Christie without quite getting it. In fact, it was very uncanny valley like with how empty it felt to me. I don’t think I actually finished it because I was quite disappointed.
Since we’re making this my ideal game, I might as well go all out. It’s going to be point-and-click, but not like the old-school point-and-click games. No pixel hunting. No torturous logic. No having to backtrack needlessly to get that one item you know you’ll need, but can’t pick up yet.
The book starts with Poirot and Hastings flying to America, so I’ll include that. I probably won’t have any flight sim going on, but I will be giving the case notes because Poirot will be reviewing them on the plane. He makes Hastings go over them as well and scolds him when he makes bad logical leaps.
And, there’s a woman on board with hair a delicate shade of auburn….I’ll leave it at that.
I think the first three or so chapters will be setting up the crimes. There is a lot. I am pretty proud of my plotline, to be honest. I have written dozen of murder mysteries (unpublished), and two things I stand by are my character development and my plotlines. I can lay things out like nobody’s business.
Since my medical crisis, though, I have struggled with writing fiction. I can write posts for days and with ease, but the fiction, it isn’t quite there. I said in the early days of being back home after my medical crisis that if I had to give up my writing ability in exchange for being alive? Well, I’d happily make that trade.
I stand by that, but I will say it’s not easy. I miss it. I will try it again and again, but I may have to accept it will not come back to me. That’s terrifying. I have been writing fiction since I was ten or so. I gave it up for a bit in favor of poetry, but went back to it in my early twenties. Why? For selfish reasons, really.
I was a voracious reader back then, and I could never find any books with people like me in them. Back then, that meant bisexual Asian American woman, childfree and religion-free. Second-generation immigrant whose parents did not run a restaurant or operate a laundromat. So, yes, I started writing fiction to see a bit of me.
That went off the rails, didn’t it? I’ll try to get back on track tomorrow.