Agatha Christie: Evil Under The Sun is a true throwback to the glory days of PC adventure titles – with all of the perks and annoyances intact. Based on the Agatha Christie novel starring the beloved detective Hercule Poirot, the title is a PC port filled with pure point-and-click adventure in the Sierra/LucasArts/Cyan tradition.

The set-up is one of the title’s most unique features - you take the role of Hastings, a British detective, as you explore Poirot’s photographic memory of a particular crime on Seadrift Isle. In playing the game, you actually control Poirot as he interacts with the environment – but Hastings and Poirot have a sort of internal dialogue going on that you’re privy to.

It’s all very tongue in cheek - you’re playing as Hastings playing as Poirot – who often breaks the proverbial 4th wall in referring to fuzzy bits of his memory. It’s a little bizarre, but it works – and there are some genuinely funny exchanges between the two men as the story progresses and you engage with the actual characters/suspects of the story.

The story itself will be familiar to anyone who’s ever picked up a ‘40s era mystery/detective novel, especially one from the Agatha Christie oeuvre. Hercule finds himself at an idyllic seaside resort on vacation, during which the brutal murder of a young actress transpires. It’s up to our hero to put all the clues together, grill all of the other guests at the hotel (and the weirdo who works at the pirate-themed bar, can’t forget him), and solve the case. Simple, right?

The controls and interface are quite intuitive – you have a basic inventory of items that you pick up while exploring, or get from chatting up the NPCs, and a context-sensitive pointer that you use for every action. Since this is a direct PC port, the mouse controls were obviously mapped to the Wii remote to great effect. You’ll basically walk, pick things up, talk, sneak around, or use items according to the icon on your pointer, and it all works nicely.