Focus Home Interactive and Frogwares has been releasing Sherlock Holmes adventure games for a while now, and even though they are usually rough around the edges, they are pretty fun experiences. It is now left to see whether we deduce this to be worthwhile outing or not.
Inspired by the original stories of Sir Arthur Boyle, Crimes and Punishment presents you with several different cases to solve. To help you out, the game provides you with a deductive edge in order to truly set you in the mind of the world’s second greatest detective (first is Batman) Sherlock Holmes.
The game has a lot of unique features and mechanics that really make you feel like Sherlock Holmes, especially the observation mechanics where you look at a person to analyze what they are like. The way this is implemented is pretty cool, as the time stops around you, the clock starts ticking (you only hear the sound), and you start looking for any unusual or exceptional features to construct a mental image about the person or to help you with your interrogations (more on that later).
Other features that stand out are the imagination, and detective sense. The imagination feature allows you to basically theorise about what has happened by seeing these holograms of people who seem to be interacting with different props. This pretty much allows you to try and construct how the crime may have taken place. Secondly, the detective sense is somewhat similar to these mechanics that you see in games such the Batman Arkham or Hitman series, where your screen turns a bit dark and items of interest start glowing. This is certainly useful during some places, as it may help you highlight crucial items that you may have missed.
The cool thing about these features though, is that they are not forcefully imposed on you. So, for those of you who are elitist detective gamers, you can play the game without having to toggle this on or off, mostly. However there are some cases where you are required to use this, but it really doesn’t interfere.
One thing about the great detective, Sherlock Holmes was not just a fast thinker and a well studied man, but was also a master of disguise. The game makes well use of that and for some confrontations you will be required to wear a disguise. One reason this really works is because the voice actor for Sherlock Holmes is pretty talented, and can change his accent to suit the disguise, really fitting the Sherlock Holmes image. However, there are still some characters whose voice work feels rather dull and lifeless.
The cases aren’t really hard to solve, and they all boil down to finding as many clues as possible in order to piece them into a deduction, and the way that is done, is rather innovative. Basically, by going into the deduction menu these small cells appear. Some are single and some are double. The single cells state the facts you have founded while the double ones are basically theories. For the double cells, you have to choose the more plausible theory out of the two in your opinion and connect them to other cells. Cells will only connect if the reasoning behind them follows the same logic.
For example, during the first case, for the first cell you get to choose whether the harpoon throw was lucky, or was in fact a skilled attack using a powerful thrust, then there is another cell that states that suspect 1 killed the victim Peter out of passion, while victim 2 was caught stealing something. Now, if you were to choose “a powerful thrust” option, and choose both suspects as the murderers, these three would connect into the final deduction which states that the two of them banded together to kill the victim, each with their own motives. However, if for the harpoon throw theory you were to choose lucky throw rather than powerful thrust, it wouldn’t be logical to connect to both of them, but will be if you chose just one.
You can then use your formed deductions to select an outcome and use it to frame a suspect. Of course, you can check whether your deduction is right or wrong at the final confirmation screen, or whether you have found all the clues available on the particular case. Before that though, you get to decide if you want to condemn a person, punishing them severely for what they have done or abolish them, giving a second chance. These are moral choices you get to choose. In this sense, the game seems to be obviously resonating author Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, which deals with the morality of crimes and their respective punishments.
As I said before, your goal is to unearth as many clues as you can to make a solid deduction. One way is through interrogation, as by asking the right questions you will unlock specific clues. One thing that really helps you with this is the observation mode which I mentioned at the beginning of the review. Using it you can get an idea of what your suspect is like, and open more dialogue trees (as seen in the video below).
For some crimes there are specific steps that you will have to take in order to reveal clues. For example, in the first case there is a note, which after being washed is barely legible and in order to actually make sense of it you have to mix it with a specific chemical. Then there is a point where you have to get a sailor talking, and the only way to get a sailor talking, is by getting them drunk to hell. However, to do that you have to open the option by defeating him in arm wrestling. Lastly, you have to test out the attack pattern to figure out just how much it takes to kill with a harpoon. Actions like these require you to play through the mini games, some of which lack polish and some are very well made. In any case though, they can be skipped if you get stuck.
The game’s locations are pretty much open, and depending on what you need, you are allowed passage to different scenes. These locations can be anywhere from the crime scene to your home on Baker street. You can select where you want to go by bringing up your notepad. Your journey is usually accompanied by loading screens; however these are not your ordinary loading screens, but instead depict Sherlock Holmes sitting in his carriage. While you’re in the carriage, you can either bring up your notes, or go to the deductions menu.
This helps pass the loading time which to be fair, isn’t usually much. However there are times when I think the programming may not have been polished. For example, I’m already standing in the Scotland Yard office, and yet the loading journey plays when I want to speak to the lieutenant about my case who is already there. But this doesn’t always happen, and sometimes you just get to the lieutenant without a loading screen. What I think is going on is that they only have one loading screen available, and at the point I wanted to speak the lieutenant resources might’ve needed to be load. Still this is me pretty much just nitpicking, as it really isn’t much of an issue.
The graphics, although nothing special are pretty good, and the game ran absolutely fine on my Nvidia GT 660m that is present on my laptop. It didn’t experience any kind of hiccups or framerate problems that shouldn’t have been there. It runs fairly good, and didn’t break due to any unforeseen bugs or problems. Though I would say that it is due to them using Unreal Engine for the game, and the Unreal Engine is pretty good. The sound quality too is pretty good, but the music is rather generic as there are no outstanding cues or memorable melodies, there aren’t really even any main themes that are played for the characters.
Lastly, there are some animations that could have been better polished and controls better thought out. If you are using a mouse and keyboard, Sherlock’s movement may feel a bit stiff at times, hindering your gameplay experience. So I would advise you to walk when you are indoor by pressing the shift keys and run outside. The game supports and works perfectly fine with an Xbox 360 controller if you prefer playing Third Person Games with that, like me.
Overall, the game is really fun and actually makes you feel like Sherlock Holmes. The mechanics are interesting, especially the deduction one which I hope more detective based games build up on. I do wish that the voiceovers were better than what’s presented at the moment and some animations were less stiff, including the controls. Still, those in no way heavily hinder your experience. So, if you loved games like L.A. Noire, the previous Sherlock Holmes games, or just adventure games in general you’re bound to love this one. Definitely do not miss it if you’re into the literature version of Sherlock Holmes as this is really authentic to the original Baker street style of Sherlock Holmes. Case dismissed!
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