Let me start off by saying that I am a massive Sherlock Holmes fan. I have read all of the books and stories, seen all television/ movie adaptations and played most of the games available. I have also played the other Sherlock Holmes games by frogwares: The awakened and vs Arsene Lupin. I liked these games very much, but felt that this game, however, was a bit of a letdown.
Don't get me wrong, the game isn’t bad, no, but it does has some flaws and bugs that let it down, making it one of the less enjoyable games of the series. The game has a slightly darker feel than Nemesis (aka Arsene Lupin), much like my favourite Sherlock Holmes game The awakened. I think that this suits the game very well, but the gameplay and slightly hammy voice acting lets the game down. The voices of Holmes and Watson are both decent, sure no Jeremy Brett, but still not bad considering that this is a game. The rest of the cast, however, seem quite corny and ill suited to their respective parts.
This game does have a 3rd person perspective option (as well as the normal 1st person), initially, I thought that this would be very good. I mean classic 3rd person perspective? What could go wrong? Well frogwares showed me with a very clumsy system indeed. The camera angle is badly positioned, making it hard to see all items on screen at one time. Also, whenever you make your character move, it always feels very clunky. Why it couldn’t have been like Sam & Max or Strong Bad, I do not know. Because of the bad 3rd person mode, you’ll be finding yourself always using the regular 1st person mode instead (considering that this is an optional extra, it is acceptable). But this brings up another problem that has plagued the whole series. Pixel hunting. In the 1st person mode, it makes it hard to identify what is an interactive item and what is just part of the environment. For the most part, it is still manageable, but at times it can really become frustrating.
The final flaws of this game are the amount of back tracking and fetch quests added in. Often you’ll find yourself in a situation like this:
You need to find a briefcase for the police officer and so go to the person who supposedly has it. He tells you that he’ll give it to you if you get rid of a man who makes noises under his house. But then to get rid of this man, you have to track over to the doctors to gets some pills. But he’ll only give you the pills if you find him some wooden harnesses and so on. You get the point. If there was less of this and more puzzles, the game would be so much better.
This game is average, to say the very least. It’s not bad, but in no way is it good either. I suggest, unless you have a hankering for a new Holmes adventure, that you play the game’s predecessor’s Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened and Sherlock Holmes Vs Arsene Lupin Or Sherlock Holmes Nemesis as it is sometimes called.
