The puzzles themselves are not overly difficult in most cases, and can be solved with a bit of thought and common sense. Many of them simply involve using an item on something or combining items in your inventory. The numerous fetch-quests you'll be sent on can become tedious after awhile, yet the story is strong enough - as can be expected from an Agatha Christie tale - to keep players wanting to move along and see what happens next. If you get miserably stuck, you can always access the "Finger of Suspicion" hint-system to give you clues on who to approach next and what to do. By returning to real-time, Hastings can place a name card in the circular tray and the finger will spin around to point at one of several possible actions to take regarding that particular character.

Evil Under the Sun shows some significant graphical improvements over the two earlier PC titles. The pre-rendered 3D environments are highly detailed and very realistic. Character models are occasionally odd looking, but are generally impressive in comparison to previous entries. Frequent cut-scenes also provide a nice change of pace. The high-quality voice acting is also a real treat. Developers Awe Games made other improvements this time around in response to feedback from players. The inventory system was overhauled, players can easily skip through dialogue if they choose, and you won't have to run around quite as much - a gift for sure since Poirot is an older gentleman and moves at a sluggish pace.

With its slow and steady pace, Evil Under the Sun will put your detective skills to work throughout a lengthy and engaging story that keeps you guessing at every turn. Though the gameplay will be nothing new to anyone who's enjoyed a good point-and-click adventure before, the quality storytelling alone is worth the time. All in all it's an excellent murder mystery with a surprising new ending.

By Nathan Meunier
CCC Freelance Writer

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