Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments

Bottom line: Awesome game if you're into detective games, which although being detective do not require you to be insanely smart Short review: Pros: +Engaging investigations: Inspect crime scenes and suspects, arrive to conclusions in the mind palace, just like a true Sherlock :) +Nicely told cases +Varies puzzles If that's your thing: +/-Light gameplay, progress mostly flows but still gives sense of achievement +/-And along with that there are weird, very specific moments which felt, to me, like a difficulty peak +/-You can skip many of the challenges if not into them Cons: -Limited replayability -Mild problem of random crashes (but not enough to ruin experience, sheesh) Longer review: Here's to getting into ~1-2 decades old franchises. So, having read some of the short stories and watched Sherlock, some Elementary, I'd say I'm (not a die-hard, but still) a fan of the character, and had my eyes for a while on this series. Also contemplated on whether I'd like to start with the original series or the more modern reboot, and here I am writing a review after having completed Crimes and Punishments. I must say I had a great fun and this went above my expectations. I'm guessing part of it was due to the game being very accessible. While this is not a "Hidden Object" casual, I'd say the gameplay is definitely leaning towards the casual side, which is not definitely a bad thing when you've busy life. The beautiful thing is that I felt it still managed to preserve the sense of actual detective work, although I didn't find it very challenging most of the time. So, some details - gameplay is a bit of a point & click style in spirit, although navigating in a 3D world, but you're going to analyze scenes, looking for and at objects around every corner. Naturally there's also interviewing suspects. There's an interesting (although a bit too simplistic) mechanism of inspecting characters while interviewing them, noticing details and coming to conclusions. As you gather clues, you have some sort of a minimalistic "mind palace" where you'll have to connect the dots, and be able to arrive at several conclusion, it's up to you to pick the correct one. An incorrect conclusion can also be picked, and there are no many true consequences for this at the game, as far as I know. Several mini-games\puzzles are obviously also apparent, which were quite diverse, and I mostly found them fun and engaging. In case you don't, you can always choose to skip, which is a nice gesture from the devs for those who may have a little less patience. As I've already said I found the gameplay to be relatively light but not too much, so I've personally really enjoyed this construction, allowing me to flow with the game without grinding my teeth, and still have the sense of achievement. Another point I liked is that the game is very friendly towards short sessions, it auto saves pretty much your every bit of progress, and without any annoying loading screens and opening sequences, I could easily come to this game after a long day with very little free time, and just have a 10-20 minutes' go. I appreciate this very much. Most of the cases I found cool and intriguing, I'm not enough die-hard to know whether they're based on the real stories and if that's a good adaptation, but I did enjoy the experience. I didn't feel the soundtrack, graphics and ambience were anything extraordinary, but definitely did the trick if you're not looking for anything out of the ordinary. I did find the voice overs to be a bit irritating, but I guess one could live with that. Perhaps I only found two true downsides - As I said the game is generally with fair to light difficulty, yet at some specific instances I felt it was extremely unclear what should be done next, or alternatively some Case solutions seemed either extremely unlikely or I didn't truly find any sense in the final conclusion. Another annoying point on the technical side was random crashes to desktop, as well as constant crashes on certain part which after a long research I found out is caused when two controllers are connected to the PC, which is very weird, but at least solvable. It is a bit annoying as there is not much info about ways to work around issues and general technical support for this game. Luckily the random crashes were not that frequent, and along with the frequent auto saves, the experience wasn't ruined. Perhaps only shame is I felt this game has little replayability value. At some points you could make some choices which would result in slightly different cutscenes, but really, after one go with everything solved, I imagine future runs will feel a little pointless. Still, it's an awesome game if you're into detective games, which although being detective do not require you to be insanely smart ;)

Crimes and Punishments is one of the best in the series.

I loved solving the cases and completing the mini-games. It also has a soothing rhythm that is good to experience once in a while. Games don't have to be enormous and complex to be enjoyed. I also loved the deduction system.

Very good investigative game . Most puzzles are logical and intuitive. A few ones are a bit bizarre and rely on tedious steps, but overall it is pretty well designed.

The puzzles aren't completely illogical (barely needed a walkthrough), fun puzzles and story, nice decor, I had fun playing this while streaming it to my friend. Not worth its full price but get it on sale

This is the first Sherlock game I have ever played and it is so solid. There are times when I had to pull up a walkthrough, but I wasn't glued to it to finish any of the cases. I would say that if you start one of the many cases, you should finish them in one sitting as you forget where you're supposed to go next or what to look at when you open it up again. Anytime I would stop and pick it up again later I had a hard time finishing the case without a walkthorugh bc I would forget what I already did any what I need to do next even with the objectives list. Overall, it is such a good game, I would recommend this as a strong mystery solving game that isn't too difficult and it never loses my attention to solving the cases.

Amazing Game.. Cool graphics, Intriguing cases and very nice game mechanics. Apart from few strange case conclusions, the game delivers what you would expect from Frogwares ! 9/10 recommended !

There could be more suspects & interrogations and less puzzles, but still good enough for brain exercise. 6/10

Hello gamers and detective fans! This is my second game about Sherlock Holmes I have played. The first one was right the next chapter with the name Devil's Daughter, which I prefer way more then the "Crimes and Punishments". How so? Just the continuing of the story is more interesting and you will NOT loose anything if skip the original game.

10/10. I should have played it a long time before

yep