Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes has racked up a pretty long list of video games starring himself, all the more since Ukrainian developers Frogwares started releasing a new adventure every few years. The world’s most famous detective has enjoyed a good deal of popularity with their Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series, and the latest installment, Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments, appears to be their finest work yet.
221B Baker Street, London
“Consulting detective” Sherlock Holmes is ready to get back to work. Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 19th century, it is precisely in this era that the genteel eccentric and his companions, the down-to-earth Doctor Watson and the Toby the tracking hound, undertake their entertaining investigations of mysterious events that would stump lesser minds. Even Scotland Yard goes to 221B Baker Street for help, as the exceptionally talented Sherlock Holmes’s unorthodox but successful methods and his uncanny powers of observation are known far and wide. The undisputed master of his trade, he typically comes to conclusions completely different from the ones police investigations have produced up to that point. And when the culprit or their accomplices do confess to their crimes, Holmes is always shown to be in the right.
All the characters in the game are designed in a way that follows the original down to the smallest details in appearance and character traits. There’s more than enough of the dry British humor the series is known for, too, especially in the dialogue between Holmes and Watson. In the tradition of good old-fashioned mystery novels, everything revolves around murder, theft, and kidnapping, peppered with intrigue and far-reaching cover-ups. The game includes six different cases to crack based in part on existing Sherlock Holmes stories, about fifteen hours of gameplay in all. I’m not going to tell you which stories the cases are based on, since the interactive short stories in the game rely on surprising plot twists and well-paced drama. One thing I think is especially laudable is that the game includes all episodes from the get-go, which goes against the current trend of releasing them periodically as downloadable content, like with The Walking Dead.
Under the magnifying glass
In contrast to its predecessors, the latest Sherlock Holmes game from Frogwares dispenses with classic point-and-click gameplay. It’s still a detective game, though – there’s no doubt about that. Exploring the house at 221B Baker Street, you’ll find Sherlock’s analysis table, newspaper archive, research archive, wardrobe, and make-up table, all of which you can use in various ways in the game. For the most part, each case begins with Sherlock visiting the crime scene, using a map that allows him to move back and forth between locations, with a brief load time spent in a horse-drawn carriage.
Sherlock can make good use of these load times, however, as he always has access to his notebook and the “deduction board”. The notebook contains all the information you need in one place – current objectives, dialogues, photographs, evidence, documents, etc. The deduction board allows you to more or less literally view the inner working of Sherlock Holmes’s mind. Though there’s very little to see at first, once you start collecting clues, these will appear on the deduction board in a haphazard manner, and it’s up to you to make connections between them. The connections are color-coded: blue represents sound or logical connections, whereas red indicates that the connection you’ve made conflicts with some other connection you’ve already established.
As Sherlock’s clever mind accrues more information and makes more connections, the picture that emerges becomes clearer and clearer until you’re able to solve the case. This system is not exactly linear, however, and there are other pitfalls to watch out for. Like in the real world, in the World of Crimes and Punishments you have to deal with outright lies and other dubious or ambiguous statements. Sometimes you might even “solve” the case and end up putting the wrong person behind bars. Before the case is closed and you start the next chapter, they show you a statistical overview of the clues you found, the conclusions you drew, and the moral decisions you made. Yes, you read that right – the system appeals to the player’s sense of morality, and whether or not they will choose to show the culprit mercy or seek to bring him or her to justice. Without revealing any details, I can say that this isn’t always an easy decision to make. But a lot of water will have flown under London Bridge by that point.
From the time you first visit the scene of the crime until you are able to solve the case, there are a lot of things for a hard-working detective to do. Typically, the very first step is to perform a thorough investigation of the crime scene itself: if there’s a body, Sherlock will have to examine it in detail, and then interview presumable witnesses. This often calls for you to perform a character analysis on the spot, or in greater detail in the interrogation room at Scotland Yard. No detail escapes the detective’s trained eye, while the player uses the analog stick to examine every inch of the subject’s face; does he have any particularly distinguishing features? Does he look suspicious? Is she wearing a wedding ring? What does her clothing say about her social status? What’s up with his hands? Afterwards, you won’t just have more dialogue options available, but you’ll also have more information about the character added to your notebook.
This procedure makes up a substantial portion of the evidence gathering process. Throughout much of the game it’s obvious that not just your imagination, but also your powers of concentration, are important parts of the gameplay. You can use “Sherlock Vision” to take a closer look at things and even see where objects are missing or have features that would otherwise be overlooked. Evidence like documents can be picked up, turned over, and – especially in the case of letters – opened up and read, which more often than not raises even more questions. You can also use certain objects to interact with your surroundings, conduct research in your archives, or take them home and give them a more thorough examination at Sherlock’s analysis table. Using your magnifying glass and chemistry set, you can often find information that would remain hidden to the naked eye. For example, you can determine the chemical composition of a suspicious piece of metal by dripping acid on the sample and on a silver coin at the same time – if both yield the same color, you’re clearly dealing with a piece of silver.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is full of easy little puzzles like this, but they don’t ever really mess with the flow of the game. If you have enough of them, or you get tired of the constant lock-picking sequences, you have the option of just skipping them. You can also play as Dr. Watson or as the tracking hound Toby sometimes, when the situation calls for it. For the most part the controls work as well as they should, even if things do get a bit clunky when you’re in third-person perspective. I found the optional first-person perspective to be more convenient, and it also offered a more immersive experience.
Graphics and sound – not so elementary
Using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3, Crimes and Punishments has taken a leap forward in terms of technology when compared to previous games in the Frogwares series. While this does mean that you have to sit through load times – sometimes long, sometimes short – every time you change locations, you’ll find that graphics overall are a real feast for the eyes. The compact locations are pretty diverse and full of detail, creating an atmosphere that makes you feel like you’re actually there. Bathhouses, huge gardens, dark and spooky catacombs, opulent villas, as well as 221B Baker Street itself are all absolutely worth checking out – no matter where you look, there’s always something to marvel at. The interplay between light and shadow is also really impressive, as are the character models with their wide range of facial expressions. For adventure fans, this game is on the level of L.A. Noire and Heavy Rain in terms of the visual experience.
The graphics run very well on the PS4, with nothing standing in the way of a great cinematic experience on a big-screen TV. The English-language voice acting is excellent, and every little vocal intonation and accent stands out.
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