89 of 89 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Plan & Prepare for success!!, 14 Oct 2008
= Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars = Educational:1.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: A Classic Agatha Christie Murder Mystery Dinner Party with DVD Hercule Poirot A First Class Murder (Toy)
We played this murder party last New Years Eve, and found it hilarious. By the closing round we were all very imaginative and competitive about working out whodunnit. Clues were great, plot was easy to follow, DVD added to the detail and info. There are 3 golden rules I would suggest if you've never done one of these before...
1. Carefully match characters to guests - giving louder roles to more out going guests. (obvious but worth it, as you need someone not afraid to throw themselves into it to make everyone else relax into their roles).
2. Make sure everyone knows that they are supposed to dress and behave in character. - including accents... (again obvious, but do tell them it's expected and not optional. I guarantee that they will get so much more fun out of the experience if they have made an effort, and feel like they have done something different...but do remember to give guests plenty of notice so they can pull together a 'look' and perhaps go to charity shops for costumes...
3. Do make the effort to play this over dinner - it's much better than with a buffet or just drinks (which I've also done with other murder mystery party games - with much lesser results). Over the meal, you can relax from the spotlight, think up better padding for your story, take inspiration from other characters, think up questions for others, which all add to the success of the game.
A last thing - I would say that min age should be 11 - 12 yrs. Not because of content, but for ability to follow the threads of what is happening. We had a party with ages ; 8yr old (bit young - had to explain a bit on the way through, 11yrs, 21yrs, 30 something, 43yrs and 3 sixty somethings. Amazingly we were all highly entertained for hours. We're definately going to do another this Xmas holidays. Check out the 70's Disco party night set, that was great. I'm going to try the Poirot interactive DVD game aswell this year.
This is a game for 6 - 8 players
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another triumph for M. Poirot!, 10 Oct 2008
= Durability:1.0 out of 5 stars = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars = Educational:1.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: A Classic Agatha Christie Murder Mystery Dinner Party with DVD Hercule Poirot A First Class Murder (Toy)
This is a reasonably well produced set which we used for my daughter's 14th birthday party - at her request. Ideally the cast/guests should be a little older as they'd appreciate and get into their roles a bit better. At some points it seemed like it wasn't really working as they got muddled over who did what and when. But after smoothing out the wrinkles the story continued and perhaps it was my fault for not organising them properly.
The DVD was useful but lacks some of the production values the eagle-eyed youth might expect. (e.g. the dodgy moustache and the change of shirt collars, to say nothing of the dodgy acting!)
The plot was the usual Agatha Christie nonsense and the solution was only one of several we could come up with.
The girls reported back that they'd had a good time and I think we could be doing this again some time soon. This set was fine and easily adapted to a birthday teatime. The key is for the host to know the process and not to be too tied up with either the cooking or the game (there was a bit of a gap for one course as I'd not been able to get the oven on early enough as I was tied up with one of the dodgy moments).
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A First Class Success, 26 Mar 2009
= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: A Classic Agatha Christie Murder Mystery Dinner Party with DVD Hercule Poirot A First Class Murder (Toy)
This product was bought in order to throw a party for two of my close friends as a birthday treat. And it certainly was that, the story was very in depth and strangely amusing. The DVD introductions to the rounds brought much hilarity and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I recommend it for anyone who wants to do something a little bit different.
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