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.

You play Sherlock Holmes. The detective.
I love crime stories. I love detective work. I should love this game.
The idea of running around deducing conclusions based on evidence is a great concept. Many people love the idea. Sherlock Holmes is also beloved.
There have been made several of these Sherlock Holmes games, but I will keep to reviewing this game as a stand alone and do no comparisons.
You go through 6 separate cases and have to solve whatever crime has been committed.
I liked 2 of the stories most. It was the roman steam bath and then the flower garden. The other ones were not quite as good.

I played the game with controller and never tried the mouse/keyboard combo. The controller mechanics were fine.
The game shifts between finding clues to deducing to solving puzzles. This never gets boring as they are spread out evenly throughout the game.

I love the concept and mechanics of the deducing part, but it not often used well. You very quickly get the idea that most deductions are 2 fold. So if you only have 1 deduction, wait a little, find more clue and then you suddenly have a choice. Most often these choices are extremely straight forward. The game also helps you out way too much.

Why does the deduction overview paint some choices red? Well because they clash with 1 or more other deductions you have made. Why tell me? Why not just leave it up to me to figure out? You are holding my hand and making me feel like playing with a handicap.

Why when I try and match clues are you telling me "Wrong". This is making it way too easy. Just try them all, one by one, and if some of them match, ding-ding-ding.

I also love adventuring crime scenes. I love walking around and finding clues. Looking at dead bodies and plotting routes in and out.
But why are you constantly prompting me "HERE... OVER HERE". The entire game feels like being played with a tutorial activated.
"Now press RB to activate focus mode", because there is now something you should focus on. Come on. "Now press LB" because Sherlock has an image in his head of how this might have been done.

You can examine objects. ALL objects you examine are important. All. And when you find an object you do not need, then it tells you that this object is of interest.... Because later in the game you need it.
It is insanely frustrating to have the game shoving the only fun thing of the game down your throat.
When do I, the player, get to do actual detective work? Sherlock is giving off all the clues. All I need to do is push the buttons when prompted and watch load scenes and cutscenes.
This might as well have been a QTE game. Which I am sure it is not. WHAM... MOVE STICK HERE AND PRESS.... TOO LATE... She died. WHAT? A QTE in the middle of everything. Come on. 2 Quick Time Events put in the game, and I apparently had to be ready for them. Whatever.

And mentioning load scenes. This reminds me. Optimize please. It was actually very smart to have the deduction and inventory part available during loading scenes, and the loading was not awfully long, but they are so frequent, that they annoyed we after the first 2 cases. I do not have that much deduction work that I need to spend that much time in there.

I also get to interrogate witnesses and suspects. AWESOME. Well.... Not really. You get to ask them stuff that you have clues about. This gives you more clues. And once in a while you have suspects that are telling you a lie, but the game tells you with a QTE that this is a lie. PRESS X... NOW. Okay I press X, but why do I need to? We already now they are not telling the truth as you do not prompt me unless they are. And then I get to answer with one of 5 clues, and only one of them is the write answer for the lie. But it is extremely easy choice unless you skip through all dialogue and do not at least try and play the game (which I am fairly certain you could do, and still complete it).

The only story that had me wandering around looking for clues a lot was the train station story. As the scene were big and there were quite a few, I was wandering around looking for "Examine Me"-popups too much. Well I knew I needed more clues because the game would tell me when I had done enough by giving me a cutscene, so I kept combing the scenes until I got it.

As long as you can't deduce a perpetrator because the game said you had too little evidence, then you need more evidence. This forces the player to just find all the clues. And as they are easy to find, if you miss some it is because you got bored when you finally could point to a perpetrator, that you just pointed to him to make the story end.

This game could have been awesome, and this type of game is right up my alley. But the implementation was dreadful. I am glad that there were only 6 cases

So torn on this game, which does a great job of adapting the feel of detective fiction in general and Holmes in specific but is also simultaneously way too hand-holdy, undercutting much of the joy the player might have in figuring it out themself, and has resolutions that feel kind of unfair, like flipping to the back of the Encyclopedia Brown book so Donald J. Sobol can tell you that actually there isn't One Clue That Unravels It All, but instead Master Brown is a licensed psychologist.

And like hey, given the title and certain themes, that might be the point! However, the game hasn't really pushed strongly enough in that direction for me to give it the benefit of that specific doubt.

The episodic nature is a strength, though.

Enjoyable mystery game. Sherlock's eccentricity makes for a jolly time and the connecting of clues to make conclusions felt very satisfying, especially since you can get them wrong. That being said there are some annoying leaps in logic you have to make but it's not usually a big deal. The voice acting was pretty good and writing was decent as well though the ending felt a little weak. Also the game was a little janky, particularly the movement, lip syncing and the glitch that forced me to skip the garden case by indicting the cult. Fun time overall.

The Sherlock Holmes adventure series has had its ups and downs. If the story isn’t up to par with the show or books it’s clunky controls or poor gameplay. Crimes and Punishments sound darker than it really is. Honestly, the game is more about the characters shining through and less about the crimes or gameplay.

The game starts out surprisingly cinematic for a point and click. Watson is dodging Holmes gunfire in his study as he ducks and weaves between furniture. It shows just how more nuanced the series is and just how much it has grown. Among the four cases, you solve neither of them is all that interesting. The game tries to get you thinking big mysteries but honestly, the dull way of going about the cases keeps you from really caring.

The gameplay consists of walking around areas and finding anything you can click on. Some items can be examined, certain characters can be profiled where you scan the character in slow motion to find interesting points. There are various puzzles as well but these seem to be half broken since pieces won’t snap in place and various objects won’t register. Surrounding that is figuring out where to go and then solving clues to bring the whole thing together. Hopping back and forth between areas gets old especially with the long load times. The character interactions are somewhat interesting and I couldn’t help but smile at Holmes’ sarcastic way of going about things. Other than this the game offers a dull experience of the detective mystery of old.

I played through the first two cases and honestly started losing interest. Each case has the same exact way of being solved. Wander around an area and pixel hunt, interview characters, run back and forth between areas and rinse and repeat. The game looks really good and the facial animations are surprisingly well done. Adventure game fanatics may love this game, but anyone else wanting a bit of action or suspense like in the Telltale adventure games won’t find it here.

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!