RandomReview: Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (Xbox One)

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments Review

Well, I wanted to do another review before this one, but I want to get this out before it goes away from the Xbox games with Gold for the month of March. So if you’re convinced by this review, go ahead and grab it before April 1st.

Developer: Frogwares

Publisher: Focus Home Interactive

Format: PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Xbox One (Xbox One was used)

Released: September 30th, 2014

I know I’m really late on this one, but I wanted to return to this game and see how it is now that a second one is on the way. I’ve been putting it off for far too long. I’ve put it off so much that it’s about to be taken down from the Xbox freebie section. At first glance, I decided against the game - favoring other titles instead, assuming that the game wouldn’t be too interesting. What a flawed view of mine. Now I’m here wanting to explain why you should pick it up if you haven’t already.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is a marvelous game that holds true to it’s characters, and maintains a style that should be appreciated by those familiar with the Holmes tales.

Those familiar with the novels should be happy to see that the game resembles that style completely. You are given six cases in total, each taking place in different periods of time. Sometimes a year will spread the gap between cases for Sherlock. I also love the general idea of Watson constantly stumbling in on Sherlock doing something crazy - like trying to shoot flower vases while blindfolded, or perhaps even filling the room with bees.

The voice actor for Sherlock here, Kerry Shale, is good at what he does. He doesn’t exaggerate Sherlock’s lines too much, but still withholds a level of professionalism that you’d expect Sherlock to have. You only hear the line “Elementary, my dear Watson” once in the entire game - and even then, it didn’t feel forced at all. Very noddy work on Sherlock’s voice. The game does the character justice, portraying him perfectly.

In terms of gameplay, it really reminds me of a point-and-click adventure, combined with a set of puzzles. A bit of Nancy Drew, if you will. The player controls Sherlock while going around examining for clues. A lot of the clues involve puzzles throughout the course of the game. Almost every puzzle is skippable - but skipping would make you miss out on a trophy. You don’t need every puzzle to get the trophy, however, and you’re free to skip through puzzles once you earned it.

A lot of these clues will be put into your deduction area, which is a simulation of Sherlock’s amazing deduction skills. You piece together clues in order to form deductions within this screen, while the deductions themselves must be pieced together to form a final conclusion to the case. In some cases, Sherlock will deduce that an experiment is required in order to further his thoughts on the case. Without spoiling too much, I’ll give an example. The first case involves a man being impaled by a harpoon. Piecing together deductions will result in Sherlock wishing to see if an average man could throw a harpoon to impale someone by sheer luck instead of pure strength. With experiments like these, the player is given the option to put some deductions to rest, finding them unproven.

The player never actually finds out which conclusion is correct unless they want to. After choosing a conclusion for each case, the player is given a prompt to see if they were correct - which is purely optional. An option is also available to go back and make a different deduction instead before moving on to the next case, which I found interesting. I found myself remaining unsure of my decision in many cases, going back to redo the deductions as a result.

The cases are the only part of the game, however. The only reason to replay the game in it’s entirety is if you missed some of the achievements, or if you’d like to enjoy the experience once again. Although, I fail to see how the game would have implemented any other method of replay value. Crimes and Punishments is a game you’ll play through once to enjoy, then play a second time for any trophies you missed. It’s fine with that. Any attempts made to add more modes to the game would result in the game’s detriment, I believe - which is very telling of how similar it remains to the novels.

After each case, Sherlock will receive a newspaper article or letter in relation to the decision he made. Although there are varied conclusions to every case, each conclusion has a sort of “karma choice” to it. For most options, Sherlock can either condemn or absolve the suspect. Condemning the suspect usually revolves around pure justice without much remorse on Sherlock’s part. “It will be trial and the rope for you. Good day.” Absolving the suspect usually shows a lighter-hearted side of Sherlock, causing the suspect to obtain leniency in their ensuing sentencing. The letters and newspaper articles received will acknowledge your choice. The choices even culminate into a “personality ranking”, which is a judge of the player based on what you do.

One thing that bothered me is the fact that the personality ranking is basically meaningless. At the end of the final case, you get to make what seems to be a big choice. I thought the choice was supposed to represent your personality ranking somehow, but that choice seemed like it didn’t mean anything at all. If that choice took place at the end of the fifth case and impacted the sixth somehow, then I’d find it more meaningful.

The game runs on the Unreal engine, which makes the game itself look good. I like the look of it, especially during the second case, where Sherlock roams the countryside instead of London. Technically speaking, if there any bugs or glitches in the game - I didn’t see any. Though, this isn’t my problem with the technical aspect. The walk animation is very wobbly while walking around the different environments, and I found it very annoying after a while. Thankfully, the game can be played in first person as well, which really solves this problem.

Environments are rather small in this game, though I don’t see the need for them to be any bigger. You’re simply looking for clues, after all. The interior of Sherlock’s Baker Street home is well-done as well. It really resembles how’d you imagine it would be. The player sort of fast-travels between each area via a map in order to explore them freely to look for clues. The areas vary from case to case, with Baker Street and Scotland Yard appearing in almost every case except for the second one.

Quick-time events reluctantly play a part in this game, mostly after conclusions. Some conclusions will result in a scenario where these take place - completing the quick-time successfully will usually result in a trophy. These events take place in conversation too, where Sherlock will protest a person's statement, in which you must present the proper clue to back the protest up. I like these quick-time events more, since it's really cool how quickly Sherlock is able to deduce things just from reasoning and piecing information together in his head. I do wish some of the trophies weren't behind quick-time events though.

In terms of trophy difficulty, it's a 4/10. The trophies are easy to get, but are easy to miss. Kinda of like South Park: The Stick of Truth. Play it once to enjoy it for it what it is, then play a second time with a walkthrough to get all those easy trophies.

Edit: Forgot to add this in here. The image on the cover never actually happens in the game, which I find funny. It's just cool artwork. Maybe it'll happen in the next Sherlock game?

Overall, Crimes and Punishments is definitely worthy of portraying the character. In today’s era of gaming, it feels great to see something different like this be executed well, staying true to what the property is known for. Sherlock is done justice in this game. People who are fans of the novels should find the format very familiar and entertaining. I highly recommend it for those people in particular. People who are looking for something different might find the game a bit too simplistic with it’s choice system and morals. Regardless, the game is worth a try for anyone looking for an intriguing mystery puzzler.

Before I go, let’s talk briefly about the next installment. Supposedly, the next game in Sherlock series will be released on May 26th of this year. Two major changes in development have been made, however. The game will now be published by Bigben Interactive instead of Focus Home Interactive. The game will also not reprise Kerry Shale as Sherlock, either. Supposedly, the game will feature a different incarnation of Holmes, with a different actor in the role. With no reason given for the change in publisher, I find myself worrying about progression in the series. I do hope they maintain the same style instead of imposing a brand new kind of story. I prefer the case jumping rather than an original story, honestly.

And that’s that. If you’re on Xbox One, you can grab it for free right now before April 1st. If you’re on other consoles, the game’s price should be cheap by now anyway. Go ahead and give it a try! I really did love the way this game was presented, and every case was interesting.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments gets an 8.5/10.

RandomReflection: Tiger Electronic Games

Tiger Electronic Games

For Video Game Amino's #HandheldWeekend. The AVGN references are strong with this one.

Since everyone is speaking of handhelds so far in mostly a positive aspect, let’s talk about some handhelds that were an absolute atrocity.

Tiger Games… the rock bottom of the entire video game industry. During the 90s, Tiger Games became increasingly popular due to the novelty of having a portable video game on the go. The GameBoy was expensive and used up more batteries, but it was much closer to a mobile NES game. Tiger didn’t care about quality. Everyone had one of these handhelds! At school, kids would pass them around and try each other’s games out. Tiger had formed a cash cow over these games due to their concept. They were cheaper than the Gameboy, and only needed two batteries to play.

That doesn’t mean the games were any good. Oh no, definitely not. The craving of a handheld game is what the kids really wanted, and their craving was answered via these games.

So here’s how they worked. The background was a static printed image that changed depending on which game it was. In front of it, a bunch of sprites were put on the screen. All of them were faded out, and would light up during gameplay to give the illusion that you were actually getting somewhere.

This Tiger got it’s claws on everything, though. With the money coming in from these games, Tiger went on to produce even more of them. Eventually, they even got the holds on several franchises - like Mega Man or Street Fighter. Almost anything could be turned into a Tiger Handheld Game. Even Full House had it’s own game.

Mega Man uses a gun in his Tiger Game. Yeah. Mega Man with a gun. It was possible for him to run out of ammo as well. That’s no fun, right?

Here’s Street Fighter…

It gets worse, trust me. Tiger Wrist Games. Yeah, totally. You’d be awesome walking around with a portable wrist game. The screen’s even smaller, of course, but the games aren’t much different. They’re still pretty bad in quality. Granted, it was cool with the kids then. Games on the go? Awesome!

Talk about desperate… Why bother? You could barely get any entertainment from one of these.

It was all about the money, though, and people kept eating up what Tiger produced. Despite the success, Tiger didn’t seem satisfied. Their first attempt to create a cartridge-based handheld system came in January 1995, with the R-Zone.

The R-Zone is basically an even worse version of the Virtual Boy. As if the Virtual Boy wasn’t enough of a failure, huh? The R-Zone had a headstrap, at least. You would strap it on and then insert a cartridge into it. The device projected the game onto a piece of glass that you stared at in order to play - using LCD technology. This was portable, of course...but would you really want to walk around with one of those? By the way, the games aren’t any different here either. The games did not progress from the handhelds whatsoever.

Needless to say, the R-Zone flopped. That’s what they get for trying to copy Nintendo. The Virtual Boy and R-Zone came out the same year. Too much of a coincidence. Tiger must have assumed that red and black games were the key to success. Bad move, huh?

They didn’t stop at the R-Zone, though. In total, three different models of the R-Zone released during it’s lifespan, although they all received around the same amount of success. Tiger kept pushing for an entrance into the cartridge-based systems, though. Soon, Tiger released a “competitor” to the GameBoy - the Game.com.

Even though it’s name is spelled “Game.com,” it’s actually called the “Gamecom.” When you turn the system on, a voice announces it for you - just in case you needed reassuring is all. A lot of the games were just ports, like Mortal Kombat Trilogy or Duke Nukem 3D.

The Gamecom was also the first touch-screen device, featuring a stylus and PDA-like features. It had simple things like a calendar and a calculator. The device was also able to read your email via a phone jack port… Which means you couldn’t leave the house anyway, since it needed to be hooked up to a modem. Why not just use a computer?! The Gamecom’s browser was supposed to be used to access online leaderboards and things of the sort. With the internet capabilities as a main selling point, the Gamecom did poorly.

Tiger later released a smaller version called the Game.com Pocket Pro. It didn’t last long, though. In 2000, Tiger pulled the plug on their bold console experiment, pulling out of the games market entirely. They move on to produce toys instead, which are aimed at children. An emulator for the Game.com was released back in 2011.

Well, there’s Tiger Electronics. All for #HandheldWeekend. Now even though I talked bad about it, they are a part of many people’s childhoods. I even remember having a few Tiger games. That doesn’t mean that the games were good, but we appreciate the joy they gave kids in the time they were popular… and realize that they sucked.

RandomReview: Fallout 4's Automatron DLC - Quick Review (Spoiler-Free!) (Xbox One)

Fallout 4 was amazing! It pains me when people say that 4 was disappointing, to be honest. Like, my chest actually hurts. Feels like all the hours I put into it so far was wasted until I get over what they said. That's just me, though. The game is great. Gameplay wise, Fallout 3 can't hold a candle to it. It's just not comfortable, you know? I even tried replaying both FO3 and New Vegas recently to get a feel for why they could be better, but I can't see it. They honestly aren't in terms of gameplay. That said, I don't mind talking about its shortcomings as well. If you don't like it, fine - but by no means say it's not good. Because it definitely is a good game - a fact that can't be denied, even by the stubborn fanbase the franchise has. That's a rant for a different time, though. For every disappointed fan, a new one replaced them. Simple as that.

Automatron is here, though! Is it worth it? Well, in this short blog I'll detail it for you! Spoiler-free, I promise.

This is a Quick Review. Just a quick synopsis of the pros and cons before I inform you of my opinion on whether you should buy it or not.

Cons

If you're looking for substantial story from this DLC, don't bother. You won't find it here, trust me. The story is only about five quests long and culminates into a lackluster finale that begs for more. Unless you want the Mechanist outfit, or you want to see some bonus lines from the Silver Shroud when they confront the Mechanist - you won't get much story from this.

Jezebel is the worst. You'll meet her during the QuestLine. How can a robot be so insulting? She will basically beg to be killed once she's built. It got to the point where I made a video in which I blew her up with a mini nuke. What a useless and rude character.

Not enough new content in terms of weapons or armor. Besides the aforementioned Mechanist outfit, there's only one new set of armor pieces to go along with the only new weapon included. Unless I'm missing something, that means I'm only getting 1 new weapon, 1 new armor piece type, and 1 new outfit.

I didn't notice many companion affinity changes in this one at all. I only saw a "Piper liked that" once in the entire DLC. They don't comment on anything, or have swap comments with the bots at all. I did hear that Nick has a lot of Affinity changes in this one, but I haven't tried him out yet. Very sad, though. Companions are one of the best features of Fallout 4, and I'd like to hear some more quotes from them. I understand why, though. All the VAs would have to be brought in again, which costs time and money for just a five-quest long DLC. Still, though. Why can't X6 say something about the Institute using these bots?

Pros

Building robots is what you'll get this DLC for. After completing the QuestLine, all the mods will be unlocked for you to use. You can collect armor pieces from destroyed bots to use them for your own bots. The bots function as companions, so more companions! Awesome. You can send them to protect different settlements too, if you wish. Bots also don't judge you, so if you're worried about affecting their affinity - don't. You can kill settlers in front of them and they won't care.

Pimp my Codsworth. I can finally mod and adjust Codsworth to my pleasing. Have him as a companion while using the Robot Workshop, and you can literally change him into a Sentry Bot if you want to. This works for Curie too before her personal quest.

Roaming bots and the Rust Devils. Robots will roam the Wasteland on a whim, and can be encountered randomly. The Rust Devils are a brand new type of raider gang, who love tech. The game has been programmed to treat the Rust Devils as a hostile faction as well, so you may even find them attacking your settlements! I had a group of them attack Bunker Hill in my game.

Difficulty is definitely ramped up. I play on Normal for the most part, since I feel like the enemies slip too far on each end of the spectrum. Normal feels just right in my opinion. This DLC, though? I was getting wrecked by robots at times. The eye laser Assaultrons are no joke. Only some clever quick-saving saved me from their wrath. The fact that they play the Deathclaw music over Assaultron encounters only adds to the feeling of a challenge. So people who feel like vanilla Fallout was too easy can expect the DLC to deliver on ramping it up. Bethesda really delivered there.

Bottom Line

This is tricky. It's one of those DLCs that isn't for everybody, you know?

If you're looking for more story content, then you should probably pass on it and wait for Far Harbor. Or wait for the modding kit to release, which will allow people to make custom quests.

If you like being creative, this is totally for you. Definitely go out and get it. My productivity is slacking from all the robots I've been grinding to create. The amount of customization available is amazing.

If you are somewhere in between, I'd say you should put some thought into it first. If you like the process of post-game FO4 (Do Radiant quests while grinding Companion affinity in order to build settlements, weapons, and armor.), then you'll appreciate something extra to do. It'll definitely hold you off until the next DLC.

Overall, I really love it so far. I have so many robotic companions now that I just love. It's really fun to build and mold something at your discretion with all the options at your disposal. I could make literal mini-tanks out of bots if I wanted to, which is unbelievably cool. Very lackluster in story, though. I wanted somebody special to take the place of the Mechanist, to be honest. Maybe Butch! The Mechanist has a Pip-Boy after all, right? Tunnel Snakes Rule!

RandomReview: Charli XCX's "Vroom Vroom EP"

It's strange, to be honest with you. Charli XCX is such a random singer for me to be a fan of. People who know me personally are familiar with the fact that I'm mostly a Retro, EDM, and Soft Rock type of gal. I can go for a bit of Pop every so often. It was Charli's first album that drew me in, though. "True Romance" was great! The retro vibes and bubbly beats to the music were very intriguing. I thought she had a lot of potential as a singer, and had already become someone I was looking out for. Spotify described her genre of music as "neon goth," which I thought was a noble way to put it. Yes - retro vibes, goth vibes and pop mixed together in one album. Noddy work. That notion, though, left me completely disappointed when her next album "Sucker" came along. God, that was such a disappointment. I suppose I should have seen that coming after "Fancy," huh? It was like the opposite of being baptized.

Did you know that we (as in me and Charli XCX) have the same birthday, by the way? What a fucking coincidence, right? That's awesome. Let's rant about her work, now that we got that out of the way.

Let's see what the Vroom Vroom EP has to offer. Don't disappointment me again, please, Charlotte.

So, the mini-album's flagship title comes first - "Vroom Vroom." Oh God, I can feel the disappointment already rising from the title. Look, it's okay to call your label that, but the album? Kind of ridiculous, in my opinion.

Listen to "Vroom Vroom" on Spotify here.

It's alright, to put it simply. The lyrics that cushion themselves around the chorus are what I hate most about music these days. It flows nicely, true, but it just feels so arbitrary. Like, okay... cool. Got anything that's actually worth some meaning? I don't want to hear about cars, bitches or parties. I know you're hot, Charlotte - I fucking get it. I don't care. Tell me something different for fuck's sake. Supposedly, Charli is known for "experimental" music these days. Cool! How about you experiment with some positive vibes, huh? Maybe you should ask Leafyishere for some advice.

Although the lyrics are bothersome, the intro to the song feels too strong as well. It suits the tone of the lyrics, though, so I can't knock it too much. It's just the fact that I don't like the tone.

The strong suit of the song is obviously the chorus. Very great work here! That's where Charli excels in most of her songs. I found myself bumping to the beat in this one, actually. Whoever did the beat really knows what they're doing. The outro to the song is rather good, too. Now, if only we could merge the two somehow... Like maybe sing the song in that tone instead of the cars and parties one?

I'll leave this one here and say... it's alright. Not great, not good either. Just O.K.

"Vroom Vroom" gets a 5/10. 

Next, we move on to "Paradise."

Listen to "Paradise" on Spotify here.

Funny enough, the song on the mini-album that features another singer is the one that shines brightest! Hannah Diamond's voice is gentle and simply marvelous. It's gentle melody harmonizes the combination of both of their voices nicely. Beautiful work in this song. Great beat as well. Feels like a beat Childish Gambino would use, actually! Very much his kind of style. Regardless, noddy work here ladies.

The editing on the voice at the beginning is weird. It shows up in the chorus as well. That's the only thing that really irks me about this one. Why have it at all? Just have a simple duet during the chorus.

Otherwise, this is definitely the best song on the album.

"Paradise" gets an 8.5/10.

Things are looking up. Let's move on to "Trophy."

Listen to "Trophy" on Spotify here.

So this song starts with a sample taken from "Pulp Fiction." Cool choice. I fucking love Pulp Fiction. What was in that damned suitcase?! It's Uma Thurman saying, "I wanna win. I want that trophy." Just for those with ghastly curiosity.

That's all the good things I have to say about this one! Honest. I really abhor the direction this song decided to morbidly preach throughout. This song is ASS!

The Hook, for starters, consists of "Throw it up!" Plus some use of the sample, that's it. Like, what? What the fuck is that? This was complemented by completely obnoxious beats in the background. Ugh.

I was pretty much done at the first line of the first verse. Yeah, that soon. "Yeah bitch, I'm here to take that crown." Ugh. What is wrong with you? What happened to the Charlotte I knew from the song just before this one? Or the one from "True Romance," for that matter.

It feels like a song you'd play in the club, but a song you'd play at 2 AM when every one's already hammered out of their minds, so they don't pay attention to the lyrics that much. I say that because again, whoever does her beats is very talented - at trashy club music too, it seems. Their range of genres is amazing!

"Trophy" gets a 2/10. Shit the fuck.

"Secret" is next. God, help me.

Listen to "Secret" over on Spotify or whatever.

Not bad, actually. I don't like the theme, of course, but it flows nicely. This is the first time I'll knock the person in charge of the instrumentals. I feel like they tried a bit too hard here. The drops don't have to be so emphasized. Despite this, Charli really excels at the chorus in this one. Worth a listen or two from the catchy nature the Hook holds - but only for those few times. The song is remarkably bland overall.

I don't really have anything much to say about this one other than that. The hook is alright, but the song is boring. Not bad, though.

"Secret" gets a 6/10. 

Overall, I remain very disappointed in this mini-album from Charli XCX. I think I'll have to remain disappointed. She doesn't look like she'll be on her way back to the "True Romance" vibes anytime soon. I do digress, though. It might just not be for me - this style of music. Despite being just 19, I absolutely despise any type of music that mentions cars or parties as methods of flaunting. It fucking sucks. I want the old Charlotte back! That's what I'm basically saying.

Averaging it off, the "Vroom Vroom EP" as a whole gets a 5/10 from me. It's not great, but Paradise is worth a listen when you get a chance. I'd save Paradise in a separate playlist on Spotify, so you can avoid the worthless piece of shit it's forced to sit around. I'm very disappointed in this little "experiment," Charlotte. I know you're better than that. If there's anything Charli XCX needs to take from this mini-album, it needs to be "Paradise." Hannah Diamond was great, but you can't rely on other singers to make you great. She needs to make songs like "Paradise" without the assistance of others.

Give a listen to "True Romance" when you have the chance. Now that was a good album from Charli. Better than this one, surely.

Introduction

Ello, ello, everyone! Welcome to Random.

In my attempts to make this intro brief, the blog is essentially my place to store rants, reviews, or things of that sort. The blog can consist of any variety of subjects. Whether it be gaming, music, current events; anything can receive the brunt of my rants here.  Hence the name - Random.

Although initially, it may seem like the blogs tend to be drifting to a negative basis, I promise you that it won't be that way for every blog. I'm not filled with hatred. I'm only 99% hate! There are plenty of things in this world that I love.

I do use a lot of swearing, though. Beware of that beforehand if you dislike that kind of thing. I don't care. I swear all the time. Why the fuck not, right?

Regardless, though, enjoy your stay here. I hope you find some entertainment from the random things I have to spout out.