This is far from a lazy downgrade, with developer Frogwares presenting a full-featured and compelling experience from start to perhaps-too-soon finish. Overall, this is the best Sherlock Holmes game we've encountered and a very auspicious debut for the consulting detective on Switch. This makes you a better player and the game a better, well, game. You're committed to your decisions in such a way that it's very much incentivised to do the best detective work you can rather than brute-force your way through. Cleverly though, while your assessments may well be logical, they may not be correct, and the game won't tell you that until each chapter is over. Once you've gathered enough facts, you're able to hit 'Y' to go into Deduction mode in order to try and piece them together. It's also possible to hit the 'L' button to trigger a "detective mode" style feature that will highlight details that others besides Sherlock may not have noticed this avoids feeling too perfunctory because you are required to linger on the suspicious detail in order for it to trigger, which causes related deductions to form on screen (rather like a toned-down, less bombastic version of BBC Sherlock's take on the "Mind Palace"). Examining a crime scene is as simple as approaching objects of interest and tapping 'A' when prompted, enabling you to get a close look to pick out details à la Ace Attorney. We found, though, that we needed Holmes and his fetching (and customisable) hat on screen at all times we just enjoyed his impeccable dress sense. You can move around each scene in third-person, or switch to first- for a more immersive experience. This leads to an experience that feels more organically like a detective game than any we've played before (outside perhaps of the PC-only The Painscreek Killings). Situations will arise where the wrong option, or simply moving too slowly, will cut off a potential lead - and you don't get a do-over. These aren't entirely linear, either - while there is a prescribed correct "path" through each case, you'll need to use your own intuition and deduction to piece together the truth yourself. Character models are superbly detailed, too and they need to be, as small blemishes and other details can make or break your solving of a case, here.įlitting back and forth between locations as Sherlock, you'll speak to witnesses, examine victims, interrogate suspects and use good old deductive reasoning to try and get to the bottom of six different cases. Environments are detail-rich and beautiful, with impressive depth of colour and lighting. Of course it's a relative downgrade from the heftier consoles but it's still deeply impressive. This is no lazy half-baked port Crimes and Punishments runs at a locked 30fps and looks, quite frankly, like a million dollars. The first thing that struck us about this anthology was its excellent graphics the game was very much a looker on PC and that's true on Switch as well. And, despite the somewhat unavoidable feeling of unoriginality, it all works rather brilliantly. Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments feels like a hodge-podge of characterisation and direction, borrowing liberally from the aesthetics of Guy Ritchie's efforts while incorporating elements of the BBC Sherlock series for the deduction sequences. What we're getting at here is that any take on Sherlock Holmes detached from all of these previous presentations is necessarily going to take inspiration from its predecessors and must work hard to find its own identity. Going back further we have Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone's iconic portrayals, and who could forget Tantei Opera Milky Holmes? Most luridly, of course, there is Steven Moffat's Sherlock, as well as similarly contemporary take Elementary, plus the Robert Downey Jr. With an apologetic tip of the long, fancy hat to original author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, we think it's fair to say that Sherlock Holmes' many adaptations have supplanted the original text in terms of prominence. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
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