Hercule Poirot: The First Cases is rated E10+. It is developed by Blazing Griffin and is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Over the weekend I walked into a game store and was pleasantly surprised to see Hercule Poirot: The First Cases sitting on the shelf. I am a fan of the classic Poirot detective novels written by Agatha Christie, and I previously played the most recent installment of the game series named Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders. I picked up The First Cases eager to play the brand new crime story written for the game.
The First Cases follows a young Poirot and his involvement with a prominent family named Van den Bosch. Explore a large manor and interview several intriguing characters to uncover the truth behind a series of blackmail and murder. The primary game mechanic is the Mind Map, which allows you to make deductions by linking clues together. The Mind Map mechanic is similar to that from The ABC Murders, but The First Cases does not include up-close character investigations or puzzle mini-games. The game is primarily focused on storytelling and clue linking. Occasionally there is a challenge dialogue in which you must select the right approach to break down a character’s defenses and convince them to reveal a clue.
Things I love about the game:
- The story. It’s a brand new mystery set during Poirot’s early career written for the game.
- The voice acting. I usually skip dialogue once I’ve finished reading the text, but I found myself listening to the full scenes in this game.
- The character designs. Each character was interesting and memorable. It was fun to poke around and learn each of their secrets.
- Short and sweet. I finished in about 10 hours.
It’s hard to play a mystery game and not compare the mechanics to Sherlock Holmes. One thing I prefer about the Sherlock series is that it allows you to fail in deducing the mystery. Poirot is more linear and does not allow you to proceed until you have made the appropriate Mind Map connections. The only area for failure seems to be during the challenge dialogues. Despite the linearity, I still enjoyed the deductive aspect of the game.
The Prologue is a tutorial which sets up the characters and events for the rest of the game. 
Mind Map for the first puzzle in The Prologue tutorial. 
The main content is a brand new story written for the game involving several new characters to investigate.
Overall I enjoyed Hercule Poirot: The First Cases. It kept my interest and had me eager to tease out the culprit. I’m looking forward to seeing more from Blazing Griffin Games in the future, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Poirot returns via game!
Weekend Play is a Monday post sharing about what I played over the weekend. This post is a bit off-schedule as I’ve been writing a book, but I’m getting back into weekly posts! Each post is a 5-minute read that covers one game spoiler free. Follow me on Twitter or Subscribe to this blog (Home page) to receive notifications of new posts!
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