Sherlock Holmes Chapter One Reviews
Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is gorgeous in graphics, with in-depth gameplay mechanics, and a deep, emotional story about mental health and trauma compile it into the masterpiece that it is.
Personally, I’d say that Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is one of, if not THE, best game from Frogwares so far. It takes the open-world and immersive quest gathering aspects from The Sinking City and brilliantly combines them with the charm and quirky nature of Sherlock Holmes. Although the performance isn’t perfect at launch, it never impacted my enjoyment of the very interesting story, intriguing cases, well-written conversations, and wide variety of missions. Having to be mindful of what you wear, who you talk to, and what you talk about, makes you feel like Sherlock himself, it’s a level of immersion and interaction we’ve not seen in any of his prior adventures.
Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is a masterpiece of a detective game as it manages to deliver a thoroughly enjoyable open-world adventure with an interesting cast, stunning environmental visuals, and highly immersive and engaging sleuthing gameplay.
Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is the best Sherlock game made by Frogwares to date. The franchise managed to make a big leap to the new generation without losing its essence, bringing a complete, cohesive and fun title.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Overall, Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is a fantastic detective game that is unique from other games in the series. The focus is on the origins story of Sherlock Holmes which has not been done in video game format. While the game doesn’t hold players hands, it provides a great deal of information to help to progress the story. It even allows for players to skip over combat if it is a feature that they aren’t interested in. Due to the level of care taken in the title, I absolutely adore Sherlock Holmes Chapter One. In my opinion it is one of the best detective games next to games like The Return of Obra Dinn. I absolutely love this title and can’t wait to see what comes out in the future!
We are facing a great work of Frogwares with Sherlock Holmes in his perhaps less explored variant: that of his youth. Maybe the character at times you do not like it, or you find it unfriendly, but I think there you can also see the hand of the writers who portray a stage of more insolence in the human being and from which the great detective is not exempt either.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is an exemplary experience for anyone wanting to enjoy time with our eccentric investigator. The story behind Violet Holmes' demise will pull at your heartstrings, and the cases you'll decipher on the way there just make you appreciate Chapter One all the more. Yeah, there are some technical issues, and you're most likely going to get stuck at least once, but unraveling the best laid plans of the most conniving criminals is a delight to accomplish.
Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is one of the very best series installments, thanks to a great story powered by solid writing, charming characters, varied cases, and new open-world gameplay mechanics that fit incredibly well. While some of these mechanics do require a little tweaking, such as combat, Chapter One is a very solid game that no fan of the series or adventure games should pass on.
Sherlock Holmes Chapter One has weak combat and an empty open world, but its excellent detective gameplay and powerfully emotional story easily put paid to these issues.
This is easily my favourite game of the year. I haven’t been this captivated by Holmes since I began reading the original works by Doyle.
Although there are still some problems with Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One as an innovative work, there is not much to blame for in terms of big play and storylines.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
Chapter One is Sherlock's biggest and best adventure yet. It's a welcome change from other current games and a very diverse detective adventure. There are are few technical hiccups here and there however.
Review in German | Read full review
The PC version of Sherlock Holmes Chapter One avoids the frame drops and other glitches that some PS5 owners experienced with the console release, and gives us a fairly good detective game, with several culprits to find in a beautifully crafted turistic island. Fans of Sherlock Holmes might discover a quite different hero from the one they are accustomed to, but the overall experience of Chapter One is absolutely pleasant.
Review in Italian | Read full review
An island full of riveting mysteries, stuck with some truly awful and jarring combat.
I was impressed with my initial dip into Sherlock Holmes Chapter One in a previous preview and I really love how the full game expanded upon that. Cordona is a fantastic island to explore and its mysteries, whether directly related to Holmes’ journey or not, are quite fun to solve. Some animations are iffy and I kind of wish the combat wasn’t there, but I constantly felt like my logic and rationale were engaged by the clues the game presented me with. It also helps that Sherlock Holmes Chapter One has options to skip past annoying segments when they don’t feel worth it. Overall, however, I felt like the entire investigation was worth it and this is an origin worth exploring for any fan of mysteries or the great Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is Holmes but not as you know him, with a fantastic and unique story, plenty of crimes to solve, and a sprawling tropical island to explore.
The detective returns to his childhood island home to solve an elegant series of cases in this lively open-world story
Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is a big story-driven game with familiar characters, captivating cases to solve, and a big open island to explore. All the fantastical stuff aside, the team at Frogwares treats Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work with utmost respect, and for that we are grateful.
Review in Russian | Read full review
With a strong narrative and exceptional investigation mechanics, Sherlock Holmes Chapter One manages to one-up its predecessors. Sadly, it also doesn't reach its full potential, though we can hope that future titles are more in-depth.
Quite possibly developer Frogwares’ most accomplished crack at the iconic detective yet, Sherlock Holmes Chapter One combines a compelling story, detailed world, and involving investigation mechanics to great effect.