This is an ongoing list where I attempt to do the following: Play, Complete, and Rank every video game in the known universe in order to finally answer the age old question "What is the greatest game of all time?" For previous entries find the links on the attached spreadsheet.

How did I do?

I am probably one of the only people in the world, who preordered this game so that I could have a physical copy arrive at my door on day 1. That isn't to say I expected the game to be great or even hard to find (maybe hard to find in local shops), but rather I know what type of game me and my wife like to play together. She ideally wants to sit back and watch a good story, and if its a mystery or puzzle game all the better. So, I knew upon completion of the last Agatha Christie game (here) that this was going to be a must-purchase.

The First Cases is a mystery adventure game that puts you in the shoes of detective Hercule Poirot. In this game you essentially work to solve two mysteries that beleaguer the same cast of characters. The first mystery works as your tutorial where you try to find a missing object. The second mystery starts as a case of trying to solve an extortion plot, that eventually turns into more. Since the main draw of playing this game revolves around the plot and the central mystery, I will be trying to stay as spoiler free as possible.

This game differs from the traditional adventure genre as the puzzles it lays out for you have nothing to do with inventory items or using the right verbs on the right objects. Everything in the game is essentially handled through conversation with other characters and then internally solving puzzles in your mind. For instance, if you are tasked with finding how someone gained entrance to a room, you might investigate the door, see that it is still locked, and then investigate a window and see that it is cracked open. You would then have to navigate the menu inside Hercule's head, connect those pieces of evidence, so that he can deduce that entrance was gained via the window. That is a very simple practice solution, when in reality you will be collecting mounds of evidence and then have to navigate a bunch to connect the dots.

This may sound similar to the last Hercule game, but I assure you this is very different. In the previous game you were usually prompted with questions and then had to put the right clue into the answer boxes for the game to progress. In this game, you aren't really given prompted questions to solve, but rather you are combining clues in your head to then progress the investigation. That might sound confusing, but the game is very good at telling you when you can make a connection in your head, and when you can't. With that being said, much like the last game there are some connections that you have to make that just don't make any sense, and a reasonable detective would not connect without doing some more research. For instance, for a majority of this game, you take everything every character has to say as objectively true. So, some connections you make are based on what could very much be a lie a person is telling, that you don't follow up with at all and just assume is true. Then there are connections that you (the person playing the game) have made, but you don't know exactly what clues need to be clicked on in order for Hercule to come to the same conclusion. It can be immensely frustrating when you know what the next steps are, but can't get Hercule to agree with you.

Now that is to say that there is a very generous help system in the game. Not only is there an objective that directs you to what you should do next: Talk to this person, investigate this room, etc., but there is also what I am calling the 3 strikes rule, where if you fail at making a connection inside Hercule's mind 3 times in a row, the game just shows you the solution. While it can be frustrating to fall back on that help so often, there were times where I was clicking what I felt were all the clues that connected, but just somehow missed what the game wanted to tell me. There may be a way to turn the help portion off in the game, but I can say that it's probably best to leave it on, as sometimes what you are trying to solve is obtuse.

Gone in this game, as well, are the puzzle boxes that existed in the previous game. There is not a single puzzle you need to solve that involves you doing anything outside of asking questions and looking around a room. While I can't say that I loved the puzzle boxes, I did like the variety it gave me outside of just walking around and asking questions. While me and my wife played this game, we didn't actively clamor for a change of pace, but sometimes you are just walking back and forth between rooms talking to the same 3 people without much else to do in the game. At best, the only other puzzle the game gives you on occasion is a dialogue puzzle where you have to win over a interview subject into telling you the truth about something. This usually involves speaking to them in the exact way they like to be spoken to. Now, I am not going to argue about what is more "realistic," but I suppose you could argue that not a lot of houses/criminals have elaborate puzzle boxes that are left out in the open and need to be solved by detectives in order to progress.

Graphically this game does not look like a new game, we are probably talking about X360 or PS3 era graphics, and while that doesn't really bother me (and not something I need for my detective game), I felt the art style and look of the ABC murders was much more interesting to look at over time. However, on the flip side, this whole game is voice acted. Each character in the game has their own voice actor and all their dialogue is fully voiced. I won't say that any of the voice acting is particularly brilliant, I also never cringed when talking to a character, which a game like this had probably a high priority of doing.

In terms of the mystery, again no spoilers, I will say that the stakes for this game seem so much lower then ABC murders. In that game/book, we are essentially led to believe that a killer is going to kill a random person for every letter of the alphabet, and in the meantime they are taunting Poirot into trying to solve the case. In this game, both mysteries start pretty innocuously by being about theft and extortion, but you never think that if you fail to solve this puzzle that lives hang in the balance.

Ultimately did we enjoy our time with the game, yes. However, we also thought the other game was better. I will say that if you think this game might be for you, you will probably still enjoy it, but completing this game, didn't make us hunger for another Agatha game anytime soon.

Is this the greatest game of all time?: No

Where does it rank: This game has to be ranked lower then its previous installment, so it has to be below 56th. I think it tumbles even further down, because the mystery and the puzzles didn't grab me very much. I like feeling like a detective and putting pieces together, but when the the gameplay just involves wandering the same house, looking at potted plants and then making obscure connections in your mind, it kinda loses me. I have it ranked as the 77th greatest game of all time, out of 106. It sits between Hybrid Heaven (76th) and Super Blood Hockey (78th).

Up Next

1. Harvest Moon: Magical Melody (GC)

2. Gravity Falls: The Secret of the Gnome Gemulets (3DS)

3. Multiple "time wasters" (Switch)

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion). Here. I added links on the spreadsheet for quick navigation. Now if you missed a blog of a game you want to read about, you can get to it quickly, rather than having to scroll through my previous blogs wondering when it came up.