izigame.me

As a huge fan of the series I am devastated to give my very first negative review on Steam. Dev team, I am so sorry, but I have to be honest. Let me break down the reasons for that.
Firstly, I know I would have enjoyed this game, have I not started with First Cases which was miles better than this.
TL/DR: buy this game at a discount and start with this part, then go to First Cases. That way you might have a better experience.
So let's get into details:
This game is actually the sequel to Poirot's First Cases, which was ingenious and I highly recommend it. In First Cases:
- the mind maps are amazing, logical and additional deductions are presented coherently
- the clues in the rooms are also interesting
- navigation in the game is pristine
- voice actors and in-game characters are fabulous, conversations are well-written
- unfortunately you can't skip certain intros and there are no chapters to return to once you completed the whole game, but that's not a biggie
Now let's see The London Case:
- I suppose the team read the reviews on the absence of chapters and skips, so that's a good thing really
- The mind map is simply terrible, most of the times I just guess my deal of 3 times to get a hint, additional deductions are just put on screen or are missing altogether. At this point I don't get the mind maps part to be honest, as they are not helpful.
- The team introduced a 3D room view to the game which adds absolutely nothing extra, just clicking wherever and whenever to find small fragments of clues scattered in the most random places IF you can actually find them amidst the game bugs
- inventory and object usage does not give anything extra, and most of the times it is likely to be a pain rather than an enjoyment
- In-game navigation is THE real pain in the bottoms compared to the first installment. Poor Poirot is mostly stuck at doors or walks up and down when clicking on a clue at a table or at hardly accessible places
- voice actors are still good, but character motions are not at all aligned. TL/DR: all in all very bad, but please continue reading. :) A good example for the latter is the mouth movement. On occasions characters are like ventriloquists speaking with closed mouth, which, trust me, can be annoying when you don't pay attention to the subtitles, other times they can miraculously open their mouths. The character motions are interesting, to say the least, my favorite being the head shaking to no end, like a bobble head was struck from the side.
- conversations are simply dull and mostly boring, and compared to First Cases, you get no hint at who to speak to and when, so mostly you just go in-between characters to ask around just to receive nothing for a while
- task list is not properly updated
- Zakarya's mini-game reminded me of a Harry Potter game task, has absolutely no place in this detective context
- characters appear quite randomly in rooms, no coherence whatsoever
I'm sorry to say this, but for a discount 6 EUR price I can look past certain design elements that are against my style, but having to receive such a buggy game with incoherent character motions, struggling navigation and mindless mindmaps I am truly disappointed. I'd suggest a remastered version with the previous part's game characteristics.