Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments Review | The Case of the Great Mystery Game

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is the tenth game of the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series by developer Frogwares. A point and click game that lets players delve into six different crimes as the titular detective, Crimes and Punishments has an updated list of abilities to use and makes for the most advanced Holmes game to date.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is by far the most visually impressive in the series, being the first Adventures of Sherlock Holmes title to use the Unreal Engine 3. Frogwares has done an excellent job of capturing the feel of Victorian England, and has put great detail in every setting. The series has seen a massive improvement in textures, lighting, and shadows with this latest iteration. Animations are still a little wonky, but not terrible for Frogwares‘ first try with the new engine. This has to be one of the prettiest and most accurate depictions of a Victorian setting out there.

Sherlock Holmes Crimes and Punishments
Our delightfully eccentric hero in one of his more interesting incarnations.

There has been an influx of mystery games in the past year with Murdered: Soul Suspect, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and now Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments. Frogwares‘ latest game may borrow some influences from the other titles (Floating text and projections of crime scene elements anyone?), but Crimes and Punishments does provide one of the greatest detective experience to date. Holmes has always had almost super human abilities, even before modern interpretations gave him godlike mental acuity and foresight, but it seems that Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments has finally drug Frogwares‘  Holmes into the twenty-first century. There’s a more modern take on his capabilities through the addition of two types of Sherlock Vision and slowing time to give a suspect the trademark Holmesian once over, gaining insight into the character with Sherlock’s all seeing eye.

 

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments
Nothing escapes Holmes’ keen eye.

Each mystery will have dozens of clues to discover and then it’s up to the player to establish links inside Holmes brain to create deductions as to how things played out. There are multiple ways to interpret clues, and different conclusions you can reach in regards to who’s guilty.

Once you’ve made your decision–which can be right or wrong–you’re given moral options such as punishing or absolving your suspect. With all of these options, every case has at very least four different endings that you’ll have to live with. Some cases seem more cut and dry than others, but I remember one case that actually had me agonizing over my moral choice for a good fifteen minutes. To me, that’s an impressive feat compared to any other game with a moral system.

Unfortunately, as good as the game is, it has a number of defects from mild inconveniences to glaring issues. There’s the usual complaints about texture pop-ins and there’s a very nasty stutter in some places even on lowered settings. It’s nothing damning, just a mild inconvenience at times that mars an otherwise gorgeously stylized and detailed game. Sherlock’s detective vision can also take a little while to register that a clue is on screen, leading to frustration if you look over the clue too quickly and no sign pops up on your screen.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments
Rehashing. You’re rehashing. We already did domestic violence in case number one.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments consists of six cases. It’s a decent number considering how in depth they can get, but why have two of them centered around a battered wife with an abusive, dead husband? These two cases can play out almost exactly alike with players having the option to retread the same string of deductions.

Those issues are small potatoes though. The biggest problem is the camera and movement. This complaint is centered around the third person view. The camera is terrible, awful, or any other word for bad you please.  It’s plain unpleasant to move around Crimes and Punishments in third person. It was the first time in my life I had ever become motion sick. I quickly learned the game does much better in first person, which is the point of view I encourage anyone to use.

Share this article:

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on tumblr
Tumblr
Share on email
Email
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp

Recent Posts

Mad Catz Strike 11 Keyboard. A keyboard with red and black keys Hardware & Tech

Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. 11 Mechanical Keyboard Impressions

I have been on the search for a decently priced wireless keyboard and there is no shortage these days. Our friends over at Mad Catz sent over their S.T.R.I.K.E. 11 …

Hardware & Tech

Level Up Your Set Up with Nanoleaf

Nanoleaf has been one of the market leaders in the gaming lighting space for years now. They have a variety of products to level up not only your office space …

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Gaming News

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and What’s Next For Xbox | Let’s Chat

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the next big game set for release and the rumor mill has been set ablaze with talks of Xbox going multi-platform. We take a few …

Gaming News

The Pimax Crystal 8K VR Headset | CES 2024

AR and VR were some of the bigger topics during this year’s CES. Last year I was able to go hands-on with the Pimax Portal but this year it was …

CES

NVIDIA Announces 40 Series Super Cards and More at CES 2024

A year can’t go by without a huge announcement from NVIDIA. During CES 2024 in Las Vegas, NVIDIA announced an upgrade to its 40 series cards. The GeForce RTX 40 …

Game Reviews

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Impressions

Videogames based on movies have been around as far back as the release of E.T. on the Atari back in 1982. Movie-based video games have not always been the best …