Review: Sherlock Homes: Crime And Punishment

Become the most celebrated detective of all time: Sherlock Holmes! Use your impressive talents as a detective to solve six thrilling and varied cases: murders, missing persons, spectacular thefts and numerous investigations that sometimes lead you into the realms of the fantastic.

Pros:

• Graphics are incredible, Without doubt this is the best looking Sherlock game so far. The level of detail in everything is next level. The environments themselves look fantastic. Especially the London streets where you feel like you are in a real breathing city.
• Controls are not that hard to learn and with the option to press in both sticks to bring up the control layout, You are never far away from knowing what needs to be done.
• First and third person views are available and can be swapped around at will.
• The game just oozes atmosphere at every turn. The ambiance of the hustle and bustle of street life to the cool calm tranquail settings of the country side, The game does it all.
• You can fast travel between locations using your notebook which is really handy.
• Notebook not only has the fast travel map but also contains all your important bits, Clues, findings,descriptions are just a few examples.
• Speak to victims/suspects and question them how you want to and build up a character portfolio on them. Revisit them to get more information or present new clues to get more options. Watch them squirm,cry or blatently lie in your face by reading their expressions.
• You have to special abilities as it were Sherlock vision will bring up descriptions of items in a room or scene which helps with identifying clues. Deduction vision is a bit more in depth showing off foot prints or scuff marks etc.
• The game uses the DS4 touchpad and is used for shortcuts for activating the two visions. Swipe one way for one and the other way for the other one.
• Locations in the game as said before look really really good. You will start off in the grimy streets of London and land up in far away lands, the country side and many other.
• You still have your science bench at home where you can use clues and findings and do tests to make a better deduction and it is all really easy to do.
• Tutorials will always be available to you and the game does a good job of breaking you in.
• Mini games will pop up from time to time and these are just simple little brain teasers. For example you may find a selection of clues, You then need to match them up and get the information off it. Another could be more a visual game where you need to adjust your view in order to see the big picture.
• You collect clues, build profiles on people and analyse the crime scene. Then at any time you can go into full on deduction mode, Here you attempt to sting together a theory which in the end will yield a positive or negative deduction result. Here is where you will usually end up before accusing someone of a crime.
• There are 6 main cases for you to solve and whilst every attempt is made to mix them up a bit, A few do feel similar. There is variety but very limited is the take away point here.
• Interrogation tactics are in place and you can ask questions from a list of given ones, You can adjust and tweak your line of questioning when you like.
• Asking/answering questions may sometimes have to be said/answered correctly in order to proceed. These are far and few between but luckily if you do mess it up and fail, The game will just loop straight back round on itself and you get to go again straight away.
• The loading times considering the size of the game is actually pretty quick.
• The humour in the game is improved over previous games and I feel it takes a bit more from the great BBC Sherlock TV show. For they have made the relationship between Holmes and Watson a lot more bearable and in many cases funny. Its actually a nice thing to see the way in which they bounce off each other.
• The voice work in the game is every bit as good as the music. You fear that any bad voice work would undo all the hard work so luckily this isnt the case.
• You are free to roam around crime scenes, Jump between areas as you please, Obvious limitations are in place but generally you get to play the game how you want. The game is less restrictive than previous games.
• There may only be 6 cases in the game but bar a few short ones, Each one is good in both length and story telling. Its like you are playing through a series of Sherlock, Each case getting better and better.
• Full Platinum trophy list.

Cons:

• Facial work especially the mouths can still look a bit Sesame Street in places with a few just going all Thunderbirds up in here. Otherwise its passable but a few close ups bring it down.
• From time to time you feel like the whole game is just a big interactive murder sim, With so much hand holding in places you wouldnt expect it and no help at all in others, You feel its just a bit off.
• Like I say a few cases start feeling the same in terms of the way it plays out and the methods used.

In Summary, This is the best Sherlock Holmes game yet! From the much improved graphics to the excellent story telling, The game has really ramped everything up. I look forward to interactions with Watson as more humour and tom foolery is in there, Holmes is still Holmes but feels a bit more human than in previous games. I can never get enough of the Sherlock games so to have one that is so polished and so much fun to play is brilliant news. Yes it has a few slight little niggles but to be honest, The story telling and whole deductions game will keep you busy that you may not even notice the flaws! So in short the game is defiantly worth a look, It lacks any real replay value but the ride you take is a glorious one!