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.
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.