Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishment Review

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishment is one of the interesting games I’ve played this year. Now just based on the name you may think it may be not worth your while but actually it is. There are plenty of reasons for that and the main one is that it looks absolutely gorgeous.

NPCs are rendered in glorious detail and in a way the game reminds me of LA Noire and it’s impressive facial tech. Developer Frogwares have done well to reach a great graphical fidelity.

You play as Sherlock Holmes who has to solve a bunch of cases (what else would he do?). There are six total in the game and while it may seem less, each one of them have a lot of thought put behind them and there is a morality system as well.

The game runs on Unreal Engine 3 and that is one of the main reasons why the game looks so, so good. I was actually surprised we have managed to reach such a visual fidelity from a game that probably doesn’t have a huge budget. But that doesn’t take away from what we have here. The attention to detail is simply fantastic and that’s one of the main things that kept me going.

The voice acting is sublime as well and it really puts you in the shoes of Holmes. When he is called to the crime scene you have to gather clues by talking to people, examining the environment, adding up the clues, and then doing the needful. You also have an option to switch between first and third person. I’m glad we have an option to switch between views because the first person view makes it a lot more immersive.

It’s upto you to experience all the cases since it can be a bit spoilery to describe them. I wish there were a bit more cases because it can take you around an hour or more to do them, and some puzzles can be skipped as well. There are also disguises which you can wear in your wardrobe and people react to you depending on the disguise you are wearing while talking to them.

There’s a QTE system as well which one should expect in games like these. Although, it can be a little annoying. I am not really a fan of QTEs, never was, but in an adventure title it’s probably wise to expect such a system.

You have to put together the clues in your head and there’s a neat system in the game where you do that. It’s like putting 2 and 2 together, and it’s a fairly simple system. The previous games were mostly for fans of these kinds of games but this one is a lot more accessible. Having tremendous production values helps a lot too.

You can also let your suspect go and this is the new morality system we have in the game. It’s a nice little touch to the game as you can end up with different suspects depending on how you add the clues up.

There’s no connection between any of the case although I wish that was the case. The game reminds me a lot of LA Noire but it isn’t as complex as that game, obviously. If you were a fan of LA Noire, then you definitely ought to check this game out. Frogwares have been massively improving with each of their Sherlock Holmes outing, and I’m really excited to know what their next game will be like.

The game has great production values and it’s something you should definitely check out. If you are into such detective/puzzle/adventure games then it will be worth your while.

Score

7.5/10