Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments Reviews
Rough around the edges, and some bad puzzles, but this is an atmospheric detective adventure that actually lets you do some detecting.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments dazzles visually, but disappoints with murky conclusions to its cases.
Evidently, Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments isn't about rights and wrongs so much as it is about interpretation and judgement. Being right all the time is a fitting tribute to Homes' monstrous ego, and it's also an interesting premise for a detective game - a more effective one than it might initially seem. However, the lack of character development and some lacklustre supporting players result in a feeling of detachment from a game that only excels if you are invested in it. That's a shame, because there was potential for Crimes and Punishments to be a truly great detective game, instead of just a mechanically sound one.
In terms of pure gameplay this is perhaps the best serious detective game so far, but the issues with the script and characters remain more than a one pipe problem.
A great example of how player choice can shape a gameplay experience. Most cases offer a variety of conclusions
All-new game mechanics, first-rate graphics, and involved sleuthing make Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments a great adventure game.
Crimes and Punishments is the best Sherlock has been, but it's just short of great
At the end of a case, the player is given a rating, either highlighting their compassion or their steely sense of justice. They're also given a breakdown as to how other players resolved the case and the option to find out if they identified the right suspect. Your enjoyment of Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments will depend on whether you want to be guided on a series of baffling murders or have the great detective be fallible.
It's difficult to find a detective game where you can actually solve a mystery how you want to. In Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments the deduction board gives you this ability, which ultimately leads to a number of different conclusions to each case. You can also enjoy a great sense of satisfaction as you make a plot revelation. Visually, Sherlock Holmes is brilliant, from the detailed crime scenes to the realistic facial animations. The clunky gameplay, frustrating mini-games and inconsistent voice performances do detract from the overall experience though.
While an excellent step in the right direction and a guaranteed hit among fans, the layperson may find too many faults to enjoy the experience extensively.
This is a game that will make you think and it will show you lots of pretty pictures and scenery whilst doing it. Unfortunately, the combination of all the technical issues makes Crimes and Punishments an imperfect game. However it is still a playable and thoroughly enjoyable imperfect game.
Each of the cases offers a unique and interesting story, and discovering what happened at each location is fascinating. While constantly pressing X to examine what seems like every object in a room becomes tedious it is easily offset by eureka moments that pop up every so often. The environments you explore are great but are unfortunately not helped by ropey visuals and a slew of technical issues. Perhaps Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments' greatest achievement is how guilty you feel when you punish an innocent person – even just being able to get it wrong is a superb idea.
Overall, this is the best Sherlock Holmes game we've encountered and a very auspicious debut for the consulting detective on Switch. This is far from a lazy downgrade, with developer Frogwares presenting a full-featured and compelling experience from start to perhaps-too-soon finish. It looks great and plays brilliantly, with only occasional annoyances and some weak (though thankfully skippable) puzzles to knock it down a peg. The fact that the game is willing to allow you to get it wrong means it feels less prescribed and inevitable as other titles in the detective genre, and that's quite refreshing. A little ironic that it took one of the form's oldest characters to finally land such a novel approach.
A confident reinvention, despite the obviously low budget.
So, so much effort has gone into this. But sadly, to little entertaining result.
Underneath some flaws and clunky controls, there's a very strong Sherlock Holmes game present in Crimes and Punishments. Those who can look past the issues will find enjoyable deduction based gameplay, but for others the problems might outweigh the strengths.
I absolutely loved diving into the mind of Sherlock Holmes while playing this title. People who have read, watched, or played anything else from his world will no doubt find something familiar and enjoyable in Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments. My time as Holmes was extremely exciting, fun, and immersive, and I was impressed with how long it lasted. Every case had some new gameplay element introduced, like getting to play as Holmes' hound Toby to follow a scent trail. Each character was beautiful in detail, but not in animation, and each case elegantly came to an end while Holmes' life went on to the next one, and I was happy to be a part of each and every moment.
While the narrative is a bit disconnected, Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments uses the short story framework to its benefit, keeping each of its cases focused on pure, thrilling detective work.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments is not without its issues, but it is loyal enough to its source material and the adventure genre to make it worth a look if you're a fan of either. Just don't expect any of the high-octane set pieces of the Robert Downey Jr films or the ingenuity of the Cumberbatch show.
Mini-games are hit-and-miss and frequent loading screens frustrate, but there's a lot to like about this latest series of detective adventures with some immersive cases and a decent production quality.