Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments Review

Murders, mysteries, and intrigue: these are the things in store for you in Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic Victorian-era detective, Sherlock Holmes, has been brought to life in almost every artistic medium imaginable: from the books that started it all, to television shows, movies, plays, visual art, and even music. Now, publisher Frogwares has put Mr. Holmes’ many talents into your hands.

Crimes and Punishments is full of many fun and complex puzzles to solve. Each case is one long puzzle that will have you traveling back and forth and back again to different areas on your map in order to solve it. A new clue discovered will become a question you can ask a suspect you met ages ago, or a boot you found will have to be brought back to see if it fits into prints discovered earlier.

However, the correct conclusion is not necessarily required. Each case has multiple endings depending on how you interpret the clues you acquire. Pressing Y will transport you into the neurons in Sherlock’s brain: his deductive reasoning. Players must connect two related clues to come up with the case’s causes and motives; however, most clues lead in two completely different directions. This leaves a lot of the onus on the player to choose who they think is guilty or innocent. It is a very interesting mechanic, and it affects Sherlock’s reputation as well. Will you be seen as ruthless or sympathetic? 

This, of course, means there is a lot of replayability to be had in Crimes and Punishments. Players can go back and replay the cases in order to see all of the different endings for each.

Besides using Holmes’ all-important deductive reasoning skills, players can also access his brilliant imagination and special detective vision. Sometimes, Mr. Holmes will be on the cusp of making an important connection, such as the smell of a cigar triggering a memory; this is when you can delve into his imagination. These puzzles involve an abstract picture that players must rotate and move around like a modified slide puzzle. Once the picture is in the correct orientation, Holmes will make the connection and you’ll receive a clue. 

Mr. Holmes is, of course, a brilliant detective. This is because he has the power of detective vision! Entering into detective vision mode will allow Sherlock to piece together a crime scene and discover hidden or missing objects. 

The game flashes an icon on the screen whenever use of the imagination or detective vision is required. I found that this took a lot of fun out of the game, with it feeling like it was holding my hand a bit too much. While it is fine for something like a tutorial stage, after getting into the more meaty cases it would be a lot more rewarding to figure out for yourself when you might need to use your powers. Having the game say: “Now you need to press this button” makes me wonder why I need to bother with the special vision in the first place. 

That said, there is a lot of fun brain-teasing to be had in the individual puzzles. Holmes has an alchemy set that he can use to brew up helpful chemicals; these puzzles were especially fun and challenging tests of logic. 

The game is a mixed bag graphically. There are a lot of close-ups on character faces as Holmes is quite verbose. The faces themselves are quite realistic and well done, you can see the individual pores on a character’s cheeks, nose, or double chin, and the lips move quite realistically. However, zoom out a little bit, and things get a bit less glossy. Clothing hangs strangely and stiffly, and textures can take several seconds to load in. This means you have that unpleasant sensation of standing in a strangely blurred room until all of the gack on the walls and floor decides to stop being shy. 

The game can be played in either third or first-person mode. I found first-person mode to be much more accessible, however, for some reason, they added in a somewhat ridiculous little bounce in Sherlock’s step, so it feels like he is quickly skipping everywhere instead of walking. 

One of the most frustrating parts of the game is the load times. Each time you change locations – which is something you need to do frequently – you must sit for a good fifteen to twenty seconds while the game loads. These load times really affect the action and can pull you right out of the game. The only saving grace is that you can still access your Casebook (the menu full of all of the information you’ve gathered so far) and your Deductive Reasoning menu while each area takes its sweet time loading. 

The audio features of this game are fantastic. The voice acting is excellent, and the background music for each scene and/or location does a stellar job of setting the mood. 

If solving mysteries is something you fancy, then delving into the puzzles of Crimes and Punishments will be a worthwhile experience. Just make sure you have some popcorn on hand to help you wait out the long load times.