Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. What happened here? I really want to know, what on earth happened here? It was all going so well. Crimes & Punishments was a renaissance for a series that had long languished in obscurity. A huge step forward for Frogwares' series and detective games as a genre, with higher production values, more open-ended puzzle design and a brilliant structural shift to multiple, short cases rather than a single, sprawling one. Frogwares achieved the seemingly impossible: completely reinventing a long-running series whilst respecting and incorporating its identity.

And then came the Devil's Daughter. After a decade and a half of honing the perfect, Holmes-ian tone, they spaff it all up the wall and make a dull, action-centric semi-reboot. (God that's too many hyphens) Gone is the long-familiar aquiline face of Sherlock, replaced with some John Hamm looking motherfucker. Bye bye, perfectly cast voice actors, hello generic modern British voice. Guess what? Sherlock doesn't wear suits anymore, no, of course not, he's just too cool for such fuddy-duddery! No, now he looks like he's tumbled through a burning River Island, emerging clad in a boring woollen overcoat and horrible scarf, his boring face now permanently smeared in out-of-character stubble.

There's an obvious retort to all of my complaints, and that is "well who cares? If it's a reboot, then just see what they do with it" and that is where you, rhetorical strawman, are dead wrong. This is not a reboot. In fact, this is the most serialised entry in the series, directly following on from the ending of Testaments four years prior. (spoilers) Sherlock is a dad now. A sexy dad to an evil daughter and it's truly dire. C&P was ingenious in its decision to play down the connecting plotline, but DD does the exact opposite in building flimsy, short cases around a confusing and offensively shit central plot that culminates in a stupidly over the top finale that puts the nail in the coffin of Sherlock's characterisation.

Deep breath now. Wow. Yeah I didn't love this game, but it's not just about these things that go against what I hold so dear about this character and this game series. The mechanics from C&P have returned, but they might as well have not done. If you thought that game was easy, good god, Devil's Daughter practically begs you to finish its puzzles before you can even collect all the pieces. Its cases are woefully underbaked, with dull minigames, simplistic puzzles and obvious outcomes that never surprised me. The padding on display here is outrageous, every twenty minutes you're forced to play through another dire minigame or worse, a protracted QTE sequence. Be it, I shit you not, lawn bowls, canned stealth sections or an extended chase scene from a gunman, this game loves to make you do anything other than sleuthwork. When half of your game has a giant "skip" button in the top right, you've probably fucked up and need to go back to the drawing board.

You might think I hate this game, and to be honest, I probably do. But I can't find it in me to blame Frogwares. Even while they're completely fucking it up, you can still feel the love and passion they have for this character. More than anything, I'm confused. How could this have happened, how could such promise be so thoroughly quashed so quickly? I think I know the answer: BBC's Sherlock. Yet again Stephen Moffat has inadvertedly destroyed something that I love, and I'm not even surprised.

“Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter” é um point and click investigativo com uma pitada de puzzles e alguns quick time events, acompanhado por uma ambientação de suspense bem legal. O jogo tem como protagonista, obviamente, o Sherlock Holmes e foca na resolução de cinco principais casos. Cada caso é meio episódico tendo a presença de alguns personagens importantes do universo de outras obras do protagonista. Os casos vão desde sumiços até assassinatos e a única coisa realmente importante para a finalização da história principal é a relação de Sherlock com sua filha. Sobre a gameplay, é possível controlar Holmes em primeira e terceira pessoa, durante o jogo é possível utilizar o modo talento que ajuda a rastrear coisas ocultas, modo de inspeção, no qual é player analisa características físicas, como trajes e machucados, de alguns personagens, modo de exploração, que é auto explicativo e o modo de dedução que é como se resolve os casos, nele ficam algumas pistas que são adquiridas durante os casos e ao juntá-la aparece as possíveis soluções com diferentes escolhas éticas, não possui certo ou errado na resolução dos crimes. Como todo point and click, os diálogos são de extrema importância, mas outra coisa que divide o foco dos diálogos nesse game, são os puzzles que tem alguns que são realmente trabalhoso e demorados, tendo uns quebra cabeças que o player controla dois personagens para resolver (que deixa mais demorado) e outros que são meio chatinhos de se entender (sendo realmente difícil até pegar a manha do que fazer), mas caso o player não goste ou simplesmente ficou preso em um puzzle é possível pular, fazendo o game progredir para depois da finalização deste desafio. O jogo possui uma trilha sonora boa, o que deixa a imersão bem legal, mesmo com gráficos um pouco abaixo. O jogo demorou a me prender, mas quando prendeu foi rapidinho pra terminar, foi meio cansativo, pois não é meu gênero favorito mas valeu a pena, a única ressalva que eu tenho é nas exploração que os controles poderiam ser mais polidos, parece que o Sherlock anda com sabão nos pés e isso junta com o mal polimento dos objetos, que faz uma simples cadeira ser uma parede invisível imensa, deixando difícil passar em locais estreitos.

Muitas melhorias em comparação ao anterior, mais puzzles, melhorias de mecânica, maior exploração do mapa com um mundo semiaberto, melhores composições de cena e uma boa construção narrativa durante todo o jogo, mas com um problema que diminui sua qualidade: a conclusão dos casos. A maneira abrupta que o caso se conclui, após todo um complexo processo de investigação pode deixar o jogador desapontado, independente de sua escolha. Poderia ter uma cutscene mais impactante para finalizar o capítulo.
Os casos não apresentam muita dificuldade, diria que possui um nível médio, e ao meu ver podiam ser um pouco mais longos (entendo que poderia ser entediante se fossem maiores, mas como eu sou fã do Sherlock, eu ia gostar) e melhores desenvolvidos em certos pontos.
O dublador do Sherlock Holmes teve um trabalho excepcional, ele deu vida ao personagem que pareceu ser um filme live action e não um personagem de desenho, não posso dizer o mesmo do dublador do Watson, mas não é ruim, porém podia ser melhor. O personagem principal, Holmes, é muito bem trabalhado, porém seu desenvolvimento não é tão notório, suas questões com a Kate parecem ter sido desenvolvidas apenas no final, apesar dos outros capítulos tentarem construir a relação das duas personagens. Além disso, faltou a cômica e fraternal relação entre o Sherlock e o Watson, este que teve pouca participação e tempo de tela no jogo, sendo que nas obras de Arthur Conan Doyle, os dois atuam boa parte do tempo juntos e se completam como equipe.
Dito isso, daria uma nota 7.5/10 ao jogo, me diverti com ele e gostei, mas senti que poderia ser mais, visto que teve um grande avanço em relação ao jogo anterior.

The gameplay is obsolete and stiff as hell, and some of the mini-games are frustrating to say the least (God, that temple section was a nightmare). It looks like they tried to make the game more appealing by throwing in a bunch of elements from different genres, but couldn't manage to do a decent job with any of them.

The cases and investigation parts are good enough to make it worth playing, though. I was always wanting to find out what comes next, and not all resolutions were as obvious as I expected. You have the freedom to choose the culprit based on the evidence you could collect, but the game does not show you the direct consequences of your choice. The case just abruptly ends without any kind of closing scene or cutscene. There are also some leaps in the plot that disorient the player quite a bit. For example, at the end of the first episode you find yourself in a completely different place being hunted by someone with no transition nor explanations about how it happened.

Maybe we cannot expect polished gameplay from such a small studio, but there's a lot of room for improvement.

Fever dream of a game. I played Devil's Daughter because it came bundled with Crimes & Punishments for $50 cheaper than either game on its own. Despite being bundled with C&P, it's actually a direct sequel to Testament, a game I have not played, in which Holmes and Watson have adopted Moriarty's daughter Katelyn.

Not that the chain of sequels and prequels really matters, because Devil's Daughter's biggest stylistic influence isn't either of its predecessors, but Guy Ritchie's Holmes films. Which is fine, if you liked them. Though I can't understate the uncanny valley effect of seeing C&P characters alongside Watson's Jude Law glow-up and Holmes's dangling suspenders.

I'm genuinely unsure if I enjoyed this or not, let alone how to rate it. There are a truckload more QTEs than C&P (including the entire final segment), but they play better. Cases 1 and 4 are good (or at least, good fanfiction of the Ritchie movies)--case 4 in particular I enjoyed far more than anything in C&P. The domino effect deduction was great fun, and it didn't overstay its welcome. On the other hand, case 2 mirrors Sign of the Four down to the racist elements, and the treatment of Alice is just awful across the board (at one point you can backhand her).

Mostly, I was left baffled. A sequence I can only describe as Assassin's Creed: Wiggins (featuring a "lung disease" meter) had my wife in hysterics. At one point, Sherlock Holmes is hunted for sport. There's a metallurgy rhythm game, a lawn bowls tournament, and a sewer platforming level. And the final case is... how do I even describe it. It's directed like a "journey to the centre of the mind" dream sequence, but for no apparent reason, because all the events are supposed to be actually happening. I felt like I was playing an improvised children's bedtime story. When the case ended abruptly after perhaps an hour, I turned to my wife and whispered, "What the fuck?"

Kdybyste si na dvou či třech listech A4 v bodech přečetli o čem nové případy jsou, jak jsou (vy)řešené, tak byste si řekli "jo, to je rozhodně cesta po vynikajícím minulém dílu a dá se na tom stavět, je to nesporně v tom nejlepším šestákovém odkazu holmesovek". Problém je však v exekuci jednoho každého z těch bodů; od otřesně napsaných dialogů po zakomponování herních prvků až po výstavbu jak postupovat. Předně je třeba zmínit, tentokrát to již není adventura ani náznakem. Chtělo by to být "narativním zážitkem s akčními vsuvkami v podobě miniher". Jenže chtít nestačí. Problém je, že pro samou přímočarost se to stylově až příliš odklání od předchozích dílů. S ryzími (jakkoli otřesnou technickou stránkou stíhanými) adventurami to nemá lautr nic společného. Horší je, že to nepokračuje ani ve vynikajícím "přehození výhybky" z Crimes & Punishments, kde bylo nakročeno k něčemu velkému, ale pár nedotažeností a drobností to sráželo.

The Devil's Daughter navzdory Unreal enginu vypadá hnusně a odfláknutě kamkoli se podíváte. Pohlédnete na stěnu na dobové plakáty a jeden je ostrý a druhý rozpixelovaný, že by se i VGA titul styděl. Chybí jakákoli umělecká vize, genius loci viktoriánského Londýna a cokoli nad rámec očekávaného "unreal standardu". Modely (i stěžejních) postav jsou zaměnitelné (dokonce doslova; v prvním a čtvrtém případu se opakuje stejný model/herec pro nesouvisející postavy), ulice Londýna jsou reskin, kamera si dělá co chce (v režimu pohledu třetí osoby je to takřka nehratelné kvůli navigaci "vrazím do všeho", v režimu z první osoby je zase divná výška usazení pohledu), dabing je unylý a bez špetky zájmu (v tom lepším případě; v tom horší na urvání si uší viz dcerka), časté glitche, životnost postav je znázorněna tím, že se všichni neustále komíhají a vypadají, že mají právě epileptický třes. Děs. Jenže to je u série v podstatě zvykem (s výjimkou Crimes & Punishments) a jakkoli by to vytrhávalo z imerze, tak dobrý příběh, dialogy a adventuření by to spasily. Jak tomu ostatně v sérii již nejednou bylo. Bylo, ale tentokrát tomu tak není.

Autoři se totiž rozhodli veškeré adventurní prvky zahodit do koše a zprostředkovat něco ve stylu tvorby Quantic Dream v nízkorozpočtovém podání. Dalo by se polemizovat, zda vůbec tvorba Davida Cage je hodna následování, ale to je vedlejší. Horší je, že aby to fungovalo jako narativní zážitek, musela by zde být alespoň nějaká filmová režie, zajímavé charaktery, dialogy, dabérské výkony a propojení toho všeho do soudržného celku s následky rozhodnutí. To tu není. Herní prvky však také ne. A tak místo rozhodování, používání předmětů či hledání důkazů pro dedukce na vás čeká nalajnovaný průchod, kde je vždy jasné co/jak/kde udělat. Ony veškeré ty prvky tu jsou, ne že ne, ale jsou vám neustále podsouvány závěry, stopy, lokace, otázky i dedukce. Nemáte tak pocit, že byste na něco přišli, ale že jen potvrzujete předvolby autorů.

Hratelnost se simuluje skrze nekoncepčně na sílu naroubované minihry představující mnohdy "úkony denní rutiny" (Cage, já vám to říkal) zatímco vás autoři posílají od čerta k ďáblu... Hned první seznamovací případ začne po úvodní dějové animaci (jak jinak) ve vašem pokoji (několik desítek vteřin), odkud se vydáte po dlouhém loadingu do čtvrti, kde máte najít budovu (otázka vteřin), prošmejdit a prokecat jednu postavu (minuta úhrnem), přesun na jinou lokaci s triem miniher (odposlech a dedukce) na pět minut, následuje echt zdlouhavá a nudná "zpoza krytu sleduj napříč městem týpka co tě nesmí vidět", abyste neusnuli tak je to proloženo třemi minihrami (vyčisti komín, ano logika do háje, sledujete na ulici někoho koho nesmíte ztratit z dohledu, ale odskočíte si vypulírovat komín), poté nasednete na kočár. Následuje další dlouhý loading, jste u budovy, kde zjistíte dvě zásadní informace (cca dvacet vteřin), následuje dlouhý loading zpět do Holmesova bytu, dějová animace rychlé zjištění informace v kartotéce, další dlouhý loading zpět k té budově, následuje cca pět minut dialogů a průzkumu, dlouhý loading do bytu před sledovačkou, v něm půl minuty, dlouhý loading domů, dvě akce v bytě (půl minuty maximálně) a dlouhý loading zpět do toho bytu, kde jste teď byli! Tam vás čeká minutová čmuchací minihra za psa, který umí otevírat dveře ve větší výšce než kam dosáhne. A takto je to tu pořád, žádná logika, žádný design. Bez nadsázky častěji sledujete loading než hrajete, grrr. Je to kvůli tomu rozkouskované a bez tempa.

Není taková celá hra, některé případy jsou dějově (když už ne dialogy a postavami) povedené, jenže vyznívají do ztracena, nemají dopady a postavy znenadání mizí a již se neobjeví; viz třeba nápad se Sherlockovým "dvojníkem" ze třetího případu... Výstavba dobrá, ale nic z toho není. Je tu pár skvělých pasáží, ne že ne, jakkoli paradoxně nejlepší je "indianajonesovská" puzzle pasáž z mayské pyramidy, kterou si však Sherlock pouze vizualizuje. A to tak přesně, že v ní může i zemřít. Nikdo nepřemýšlel a tak se lámalo přes koleno a roubovalo vše, co autorům přišlo na mysl bez ladu i skladu. Několik (málo) miniher není vyloženě zlých. Ovšem v rámci deseti hodin potřebných k dohrání je takových momentů málo (krom pyramidy stojí za zmínku sotva pár puzzlů a nápaditý i naléhavý úvod čtvrtého případu) a většina "stopáže" působí jako obstrukce k umělému natažení doby spíše než herně opodstatněná a scénářem zasloužená délka. Nejhorší na tom ovšem je, že z předchozích dílů dobře víme, že ve Frogwares to umějí výrazně lépe i záživněji. Tohle je pro vývojáře i sérii sice odvážný krok, bohužel však ne kupředu, ale hodně do strany. A co hůře; pořádný krok zpět co se hratelnosti a kvality scénáře týče.

Based, underrated detective game. Respects time period and players intelligence. I only played C&P before and I would rank them about equal. Cases still rely heavily on red herrings and unreal coincidences, but I have faith that logic is intact. You just need to pay attention. Not everything is put into your journal. I suggest writing down your own notes, because fun factor relies heavily on putting it all together yourself. Unfortunately it ends abruptly. One second you are finishing 3rd case, and the next you are seeing end credits after underwhelming finale.