We have seen the reinvention of Sherlock Holmes quite a bit over the past few years and now it would seem that that trend has carried over to the world of video games. Frogwares have had their hand at making games based of the classic detective before, but with Crimes & Punishments: Sherlock Holmes they have finally nailed it in almost all respects.
While our setting for Crimes & Punishments is set firmly in the classical literary world of Sherlock Holmes, the style and methods used by our protagonist is more akin to the Benedict Cumberbatch portrayal most recently on television. The merger of both worlds works to the games advantage and is most certainly something that would please the character.
What Frogwares does well with Crime & Punishments is to break up the story into six separate adventures (or cases) that involve the team of Holmes and Watson handling more and more baffling crimes. It is nice to be able to devote a few hours toward solving a single case, and in this way the game never becomes stale or monotonous. Each story is unique and will build upon the deductive skills you have practiced, becoming more and more complicated and involved as they go. Theis means that the focus of the game is squarely on Holmes (and you the player) mastering your skills without having to create any sort of deep backstrory for any secondary or tertiary characters that we meet along the way.
What struck me most while playing is the care taken by the developers at Frogwares to really create the character of Sherlock Holmes with impressive detail. Yes, this is a literary character, but the team have managed to create a bad-ass without sacrificing that British charm. The voices for characters used throughout the game are excellent and Sherlock Holmes himself is voiced splendidly. From the opening lines of the game onward, not once did I ever question that I was hearing, or seeing the real Sherlock Holmes in action.
Crimes & Punishments: Sherlock Holmes uses the Unreal engine to great effect as the detail with the world and its characters is fantastic. The care and detail put into the city streets and small villages really helps draw you into the experience. Character models, especially with regards to facial features, are top-notch. You are going to be running a number of interrogations, and using your extra special perception, will pull out clues from the smallest ticks in speech and appearance. While it may not be quite up to the level that L.A. Noir was with its facial animations, Crimes & Punishments is pretty darn close. The ability to pause during interrogations to notice that the person may be perspiring heavily, or scan to notice fresh dirt user their nails, or even to catch a quick glimpse of a ticket stub in their pocket all make for a very layered and deep interrogation system that makes you feel like Sherlock Holmes instead of playing as him.
While the interrogation system is a great deal of fun, the standard investigation aspects of the game fall more in line with the traditional adventure game. You will explore various connected areas and uncover clues that will ultimately lead to capturing the culprit(s). But, things aren’t always as simple as they seem within Crimes & Punishments. It’s not a matter of just aimlessly wandering around a set number of environments, instead Holmes must unlock new areas and clues with the use of a lovely new “imagination” mechanic that the game has implemented.
When you find a clue of value you can open your deductive reasoning menu. This menu is laid out like a number of synapses in the brain that have, or have yet, to fire. When a new clue makes sense in connection with another (something that you connected in a sub menu), a synapse will fire, most often leading to a new revelation and opening a new avenue of thought and exploration. But wait, there’s more! If that wasn’t already nice enough, the developers have added yet another layer of depth to the investigations. You will have a say in which direction the synapse will fire, thus leading you to a completely different outcome than someone else playing the same game.
Once you have made enough connections by collecting the required clues, the player will be presented with a series of events dictated within the mind of Sherlock Holmes. The fun part is that you really get the feeling that you had an active part in coming to these conclusions, as opposed to the game just shuffling you down the correct path. It should also be noted that there is a ranking system in place at the end of each case that compares the manner in which you completed the scenario, and your final moral choice with that of others that have played. It’s great to be able to see how similar your choices were to others that have played the same scenario and many times will have you questioning if you really made the right choice.
The moral choices made will weigh heavily on the player. Do you let the police handle things and resolve the matter, or do you grant leniency to a person who was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Not only that, but then being faced with how others made their choices can really show you something about yourself as a person. What is to say that another player, who pieced together the clues in a different manner is anymore wrong than you are? Crimes & Punishments plays on this by giving you the option at the end of every case to see the correct outcome, or to continue on not knowing entirely if what you did was correct. It’s a fantastic system that encourages to get others to play and find out the paths they take.
While I really enjoyed the open-ended nature of the gameplay, many might find the lack on a solid right or wrong choice to be difficult to come to terms with. Still, I commend this style of narrative as it really connects the character in the game to the player instead of the other way around.
All that being said, Crimes & Punishments: Sherlock Holmes is a great game with a few flaws. You are going to either love of hate the perspective that you begin playing the game with. As with most things Unreal engine related, you can play the game in a third-person over the shoulder view, or the more traditional first-person view. While the first person view works without any problems, the third-person view is very clunky and makes connecting with objects and clues much more difficult than it needs to be. They would have been much better off just leaving it out altogether.
You are also going to encounter a lot of loading screens as you travel back and forth between locations in quick succession. You won’t have to wait a long time, but with so much traveling it will certainly begin to get to you. It must be said that Frogwares have done a great job of trying to negate the tedious nature of these loading screen by allowing you to access your journal and deductive reasoning menu while they are going on. I actually found myself checking notes and linking clues during these segments which helped cut down on they waiting. It’s also nice that while loading you see Holmes or Watson sitting in a carriage reading, and when loading ceases the carriage comes to a stop; A really nice touch.
Lastly, many veteran adventure gamers won’t really find Crimes & Punishments all that difficult. There are no penalties of any kind for make a wrong choice as the game is set up so openly. You could easily make all terrible choices and still complete the game without even knowing you did anything wrong at all. The game is also chock full of lots of various mini games that are very easy to complete (most require an elementary level sense of logic) and turn Holmes from a legendary detective to a kid at the school science fair.
These things aside Crimes & Punishments: Sherlock Holmes is a great adventure game and is more than worthy to carry the name of the character. If you are a fan of the world of Sir Arthur Conan then you are going to definitely want to pick this one up. Crimes & Punishments: Sherlock Holmes is available on PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
We reviewed Crimes and Punishments: Sherlock Holmes on the PC via STEAM with a key provided by Focus Home Interactive.
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