After the disappointment I felt with Frogwares' The Sinking City, I yearned for a more traditional detective mystery, which is exactly what I got with Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments. I mean, what could be more traditional?

Crimes & Punishments is a simple, yet effective caper, taking the dynamic duo of Holmes and Watson through six cases with their own unique circumstances, locations, and stories to tell, all while an overarching plot slowly unfolds in the background. Unfortunately, I felt that this overarching plot was one of the weakest parts of the game, as it's barely mentioned halfway through before being shoehorned into the ending decision of the game.

The rest of the game, however, consisting of self-contained mysteries, is consistently solid from the first to the last. While the penultimate case was the weakest in my view, it still delivered a solid story and suitable motivations for the characters.

The mystery-solving elements themselves are nothing new, though they don't really need to be. They mostly consist of your basic loop of investigating, collecting evidence, and interrogating. What truly sets Crimes & Punishments apart, however, is the free-form nature with which you connect the dots and ultimately draw the conclusions. There's some handholding and guidance along the way, but the case's resolution is ultimately up to you putting all the pieces together and discerning the guilty party.

This part of the game is by far its most compelling and engaging aspect. Though its systems and logic can seem convoluted and archaic at times, this is one of the closest instances in which a game has emulated the feeling of being a real detective.

The puzzles that you solve along the way in your investigations are also largely solid, albeit with some unnecessarily elaborate ones, like the lock-picking mini-game, which the game starts to throw at you with frequency towards the back half.

Despite these setbacks, however, I truly enjoyed my time with Crimes & Punishments and hope that as I move forward, the series can build on this formula and throw a much stronger overarching narrative on top of it to really deliver the full Sherlock Holmes experience this franchise deserves.

7/10

Indubitably!

From the minute you take control of Sherlock you are immediately transported to late 1800s London and are swept into arguably the most immersive detective role to date.

With engaging and exciting deduction, to outstanding visuals and some truly striking scenery, this is truly an incredible Sherlock experience. Even the often harshly criticised excessive use of different mini-games, I still adored. They gave more life to the character of Sherlock and truly made you feel like you were working the ins and outs of the detective job.

And boy... the cases are all fantastic. And with such a glorious ending how can I give this anything bar a 10/10?

Very tight detective game that doesn't run on for too long yet doesn't run for too short a time also. You can tell the developers frogware really care about the Sherlock licence as the amount of attention to detail that they've put into this single game is something i think a lot of AAA developers can benefit to learn from.

Crimes and Punishment presents you with a total of 6 full cases to play through, all with differing lengths and subject matters. On one case you could be solving a stock standard murder while on another you will be tasked with finding a disappearing train. It's the variety in cases and outcomes of each that simply adds to how consistently engaging the whole package is with the exception of one. The "Kew Gardens Drama" is the odd man out as that case turns out to be very simple and dull despite being the penultimate case. By that point you would have expected a much more grandiose case, but it comes out to ultimately be a staggering pace breaker.

Each case, we are also presented with a series of very differing minigames. After the collection of certain clues within the cases you'll be tasked with a minigame to further the story, these can involve examples such as arm wrestling a drunkard sailor for information or creating a mold for the perfect murder weapon, the very strong aspect of this is the fact that each case brings about its own set of new and unique minigames to play meaning that the attention that Frogware has given to each and every part of their game is once again, more than what a lot of established AAA developers do.

It hasn't aged the best but for a kickstarter indie game made in 2014, it is a very good time.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments is a 3D adventure game that follows the titular director in a series of cases across Britain. Each case has him travelling between locations, searching for clues, questioning people and making deductions in order to point out the culprit.

The game strikes a nice balance between linear storytelling and detective work: it forces the player to get every relevant clue and solving all puzzles before proceeding to the next parts of each case, while also allowing for them to take on some more open-ended tasks by making links between pieces of evidence on their own and arriving at the conclusion they want.

On that note, I particularly like how the developers mapped Sherlock's abilities to gameplay. There are two (admittedly underused) forms of detective mode, one centered around deductive reasoning and another, around his imagination. The player can also profile people by pointing out details on their person as the camera pans around them.

Last, but not least, there's a deduction screen that contains the information gathered until that point in the case. Here, the player is able to decide on what they think are relevant -- for instance, is the explanation offered by a certain suspect satisfactory, or are they lying to conceal their involvement? Is an event a coincidence or an important link? By making these choices, different conclusions start to form, with the player ultimately deciding on who to pin the blame on, and whether or not to turn them in. Your choices lead to a different ending to the case, but the game continues regardless of whether you were correct or not.

A friend described C&P to me as the archetypal 7/10 game, and having completed every case, I think I agree. It's not mindblowing, but is a pretty fun time, and while it's clunky, that clunkiness never becomes particularly bothersome. Heck, if a puzzle or minigame proves too annoying, and some of them will, you can even skip it with no penalty whatsoever. The game is pretty honest about its own level of polish.

So if you're looking for a detective thriller to spend a weekend on, check out the Frogwares take on Sherlock Holmes. They're a good rendition of the legendary detective, and are definitely worth your time.

Просто, но мне понравилось.

Если разбирать «Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments» на элементы, то она рассыпается: головоломки и мини-игры слишком простые (и их можно пропускать), в допросах нельзя ошибиться, а загрузки между локациями безумно раздражают.

Но каким-то образом, несмотря на все недостатки, почувствовать себя Шерлоком в этой игре очень легко. В этом её главное достоинство. Не все шесть дел (не связанных между собой) интересны. Но система «дедукции», когда найденные улики и факты нужно связывать в цепочки умозаключений, и на их основе обвинять подозреваемых — хороша. Ошибиться, кажется, можно только в двух делах, но всё равно — захватывает.

Графоуни, озвучка и прочее — норм. Так что это, по-моему, лучший способ почувствовать себя детективом.

Look, the only thing I still don't get is why the fuck I look at an old, fat lady's cleavage when I look out of my window. WTF?!

Besides that, the mysteries were suspenseful, interesting and I had the feeling the game didn't think I'm an idiot.
Even though I sometimes was. :/
You get to do your own research, put clues together, do some experiments and even your dog helps you at one point!
Good dog!
Best boy!

P.S.: this is not the one with "creepy Watson". That is the "Testament of Sherlock Holmes" if I'm correct. Just FYI.

This game is basically garbage. Sherlock and Watson are terrifically dull, every attempt at humor or deeper characterization falls flat on its face, and the puzzle controls are consistently bad enough that the developers let you skip any puzzle without consequence because a couple of them are straight up impossible to figure out purely based on the poor controls. It does some sort of interesting stuff when it comes to concluding the cases, but by the time that happens you’re just wishing it would be over (and then it throws you a half-baked quick time event after your decision that can ruin any sense of satisfaction if you fail it). This shit stinks!

This game was a delight to play. Intriguing Mysteries to solve, Good enough visuals, Decent Music to fit the environments, Great voice acting for the most part, and a very unique gameplay feel.
This is the definitive Sherlock experience in my eyes, with just enough freedom to shape the story yourself in both gameplay and story.

I have my complaints like the puzzles being a bit simpler, the sort of casual hand holding the game does, and the absolute annoying minigames that randomly pop up however I think the puzzles and hand holding works in its favour in this case.
The simplicity of it offers a new audience of people who are afraid to explore the genre of puzzle games a great starting point and hopefully lead to them trying more complex games in the future. It also allows fans of Sherlock Homes the ability to experience the IP a lot easier.
I did notice that when playing on PlayStation 5 some shadows tended to freak out a lot, when switching to my PS4 the shadows did not have that issue

These are always a fun formula. Gather clues, interrogate, and solve complex cases with varying motivations and suspects. The choices never feel like they really matter as you aren't exactly judged either way. You get a quick cutscene and maybe a letter later on. But it's the process that's fun. Finding the right combination of theories that unlocks a new investigation path is exhilarating. More so than some mobile puzzle game. This one requires careful attention and analysis of all the players and details. Though it got mixed review I'll probably get the new one when it goes on sale. I do find it funny they keep making the same game over and over again with different cases. But hey it's like they say - Write What You Know!