AWE included many small "puzzles" throughout the game that require players to use the Wii Remote in various activities such as using a water pump to fill a bucket, making digging motions with a shovel, scooping, inflating a raft, turning cranks, and much more. Opening doors requires you to mouse over the door, grab the knob with the A button, and turn the knob with the Wii Remote. This works well enough, but it can be irritating since opening doors is a near-constant activity. Most of the other motions are practically broken; either they work inconsistently or they barely work at all and require violent shaking of the Wii Remote to engage the maneuver. It's a missed opportunity.

Fortunately, the game's numerous real puzzles are far better. Many items can be decompiled into various components and then combined with others to make new things. This is a great mechanic that works well and is a lot of fun to experiment with. You'll uncover clues to many of the more elaborate constructions by copying down passages into your notebook from books and tidbits obtained through your travels. Frequent and clever use of the tools at hand will aid progress greatly.

10 Lies Gamers Tell

Is Nintendo Abandoning The Console Business?

Hype Is Killing Game Expectations

Why Do We Care About "Fake Girl Gamers?"

Microsoft’s Next Console Is Called Infinity?

10 Characters That Need To Die

Wolfenstein: The New Order Is Already Ruined?

The PS4 Does PC Gaming A Big Favor

10 Current-Gen Games We Won’t Miss

CCC Original - Games of May

Call Of Duty: Ghosts In A Nutshell

GTA V To Have The Best Characters In The Series

More Special Features...

When it was originally released on PC in 2005, the game wasn't much to look at. Three years later - and with no graphical improvements to speak of - this is even more apparent on the Wii. Sure, Nintendo's console isn't visually on par with the powerful PS3 and Xbox 360, but there are plenty of games that still look great on the system. This one does not. The opening cutscene will make you question whether you're actually playing a Game Cube title, and the actual in-game graphics don't help things much. The character models are a tad rough around the edges on the whole. At a close distance they're quite ugly, and from afar there's little interesting detail. The voice acting is actually quite good, but none of it lines up even remotely with the facial and mouth movements of the characters. The interior environments in the estate are nicely detailed and colorful. Outside, there are far too many screens of drab, overcast landscapes made up primarily of sky, grass, and trees.

The game's multiple possible endings are interesting, though they stray from the original story. Overall, it's a very lengthy adventure full of plot twists and mystery which should be more than enough to draw-in fans of the work. The simple controls also make it easy to jump into the game which works well for the casual gaming audiences. The problem is almost anyone who's now accustomed to current-gen console titles will find And Then There Were None to be painfully dated. The quality story holds up over the years, but the game itself falls short. It's too bad since Agatha Christie's tales and point-and-click adventure games are a great fit for the Wii. Hopefully next time - and there should be a next time - future Christie games on the console will get the proper amount of attention in the development stage to make the experience truly shine.

By Nathan Meunier
CCC Staff Contributor