Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments – Focus Home Interactive – Frogwares – September 30, 2014 – Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, PC – $59.99 — Rating: 7.5/10
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is a point-and-click adventure veiled with 3rd person exploring. The mysteries tied to the game bring out the best elements in the Sherlock Holmes world, from the grisly murders to the supernatural thrillers. Even those that aren’t expressly interested in tackling cranial puzzlers will find a lot to be had in this game from the gorgeous characters to beautiful soundtrack.
Some of that title screen and scenery
Using your notebook as your main tool, Sherlock and Watson find themselves jumping from location to location uncovering clues and deducing a result. The locations include: Scotland Yard, 221 Baker Street, multiple crime-scenes, train stations and more. The deductions system is one of the best features of the game. As you gain insight into the case you unlock deductions as you uncover these they begin to flow like a circuit board connecting and disconnecting until you’ve come to a final verdict. This verdict is then linked to a moral choice, which has you second-guessing yourself. Do you let Mycroft handle the issue and spin it into his personal gain? Or do you let the local authorities take a whack at it and potentially cause international crisis? Much like other morality based systems the end of each case show you how others solved it and how you stacked up.
The voice acting and character interaction for the game is spot on
The voice acting and character interaction for the game is spot on, as it needs to be for a game that is almost 100% character driven. There are small scenes of action requiring you to use a weapon to defend yourself, but for the most part you are talking to witnesses, interviewing victims and exploring crime scenes. While this leads to fun puzzles, the process of exploration does feel at times a bit stale. The saving grace for this is that while each case can take up to 2 or so hours you are moving through unique pieces of scenery and interacting with interesting enough characters that it doesn’t drag as much as you’d expect.
John Watson is at times, creepy.
The one major critique for the game are the hilarious AI issues with Dr. John Watson. At one point during the disappearing train mystery he had become stuck on some barrels near a door. I went into the waiting room to investigate and find evidence, all the while John was walking me through what I was finding (even though he was outside the train station stuck behind barrels, running in place). While his AI is not something that is crucial to the gameplay elements it did on several occasions create odd moments, where he was across the map, outside, or simply nowhere to be found, and yet somehow talking in my ear. John Watson is at times, creepy.
Crimes and Punishments is our favorite Sherlock Holmes game to date.
Crimes and Punishments has perfectly captured the essence of Sherlock Holmes and gives you an absolutely fun adventure from point to point. His dry delivery of comedy, sarcasm, and at times brutal honesty only add to the fact that you are solving interesting crimes as the world’s greatest detective.
I wouldn’t recommend snagging this if your bread and butter are action-packed FPS, or grinding thrill rides, but this is a great change of pace and an opportunity to delve into an interesting story, and solve some great mysteries.