| Game Information |
| Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments |
| Platform: PS4 (reviewed), PS3 |
| Developer: Frogwares |
| Publisher: Focus Home Interactive |
| MSRP: $59.99 |
| Released: September 30th, 2014 |
Propelled by the runaway success of recent Telltale Games titles, adventure gaming is primed for a critical and commercial renaissance. Meanwhile, the BBC’s adaptation of Sherlock Holmes — appropriately titled Sherlock — has been one of the network’s most popular shows of recent years, and CBS’s Elementary hasn’t done half-bad, either. In the middle of all this, Frogwares’ line of Sherlock Holmes games somehow hasn’t found the same audience.
I’m not blameless, as I’ve never looked twice at a Sherlock Holmes game. I think that it’s about time that we correct course, because I’m happy to say that Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments is one of my favorite games of 2014.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments is a first- and third-person adventure game (you can swap perspectives at will) that puts you in the shoes of the famous gumshoe as he solves six separate mysteries around Victorian London. These include murder most foul, daring heists and robberies, and even more murder. Along the way Sherlock will be assisted by his good friend Dr. John Watson, Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard, and a couple of others.
Gameplay is largely straightforward, with a lot of time dedicated to walking around as you click on objects and speak to witnesses and suspects to piece together whodunit. But as one of the world’s greatest detectives, there’s plenty of additional ways to gather information. Occasionally clues will be brought back to Holmes’ abode on Baker Street for forensic analysis. Sherlock’s brilliant perception is also on display as he assesses the people he meets by analyzing how they present themselves, while also possessing a “sixth sense” that allows him to detect minute but important details that others would miss at a crime scene. And as a master of disguise, you’ll even play dress-up to slip through the cracks to gather otherwise unobtainable information from time to time.
By and large, each of these gameplay elements is highly enjoyable. Forensic analysis of clues is essentially an excuse to throw a few extra puzzles into the game, but with the exception of a couple that overstay their welcome — here’s looking at you, mold rebuilding and reagent mixing — they’re quick and satisfying ways to flex your analytical muscles. Even if you find yourself stumped, you can skip the puzzle entirely. Gathering testimony is also a delight, as it shows off the ridiculously detailed character models as you examine their person to gather details about them that they’re unwittingly broadcasting. Pointing out that something a character says is contradicted by their otherwise innocuous clothing is just cool, damn it. Even the simple act of walking through and examining the world is a treat; aside from rare cases of texture pop-in, Crimes & Punishments features genuinely stunning environments that immerse the player into Victorian-era London.
As you progress through each case collecting evidence and testimony, little bits of information enter the Deduction Space. By gathering all the clues deducing what connects them, you’ll flesh out all possible conclusions for a case — not only who committed the crime, but how and why. Once you’ve reached the end, all that’s left to do is finger the culprit. Well, not all that’s left to do, as you’ll also make a moral choice on how to deal with the criminal — you can either absolve them of their crime or persecute them to the fullest extent of the law. As far as I could tell, however, the only difference is in how Holmes talks to the culprit in the closing cutscene.
The writing is such that, barring the most simplistic conclusions reached with the first handful of clues, every case presents a number of plausible outcomes that each leave a little room for doubt in the back of your mind. Crimes & Punishments presents a short summary of the case that includes your final deduction, and you can press a button to tell you if you missed any clues and, more importantly, whether you reached the right conclusion. From here you can either move on to the next case or replay the end to see another outcome. Pressing that button to see whether you were right or wrong is an intensely harrowing experience, I’ll have you know, but one whose intensity is surpassed only by seeing that you’ve nailed the right perp.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments isn’t a perfect game, of course. Despite how impressive the graphics are on PlayStation 4, some of the animations come off as a little wooden; Baker Street is the only place where Watson isn’t robotically and unblinkingly standing at attention as Holmes does his thing, and it’s a tiny bit creepy. The voice acting from a few of the tertiary characters also comes off as uninspired. The loading time between areas is long, eased only by the fact that you can look over clues and deductions while you wait. And the few instances where the gameplay breaks off into something very different — tasks that include firing guns and crossbows, and even arm wrestling (???) — are best forgotten.
Really, though, it feels like I’m just picking nits. The writing and gameplay isn’t just a delight for fans of Sherlock Holmes and mystery adventures, but it’s also a tremendous entry point for anyone interested in dabbling in any of it; Crimes & Punishments feels less like a grand epic and more like a collection of the short stories that made the detective famous in the first place. There also aren’t enough games that let you play as a bloodhound picking up a scent, and Crimes & Punishments is happy to indulge you in that for a few minutes, too.
Whether or not it comes as a surprise, Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments is a great game with a lot to offer. And not just because it’s gorgeous murder mystery catnip — the average length of each case is a little under 4 hours. That’s a lot of sleuthing, sure to keep you busy over the course of a week or a long and lazy weekend.
As to whether or not you should buy Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments, well, the answer to that is elementary.