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.
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