Recent reviews by Duchess

I have never before finished a game and felt so strongly that I had to write a review immediately after.
Dear god, what a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
After finishing Crimes & Punishments for the second time I was on the fence about purchasing this game, but the sale tempted me and I figured, what the hell, right? Ha ha. What a stupid mistake.

Now my main gripe is not with the change in look for the characters. I could get over that. One of my biggest issues is the fact that all the sets (221B Baker Street, Scotland Yard) are EXACTLY the same as C&P! You can't have a new Holmes look and not change everything else too (I mean, they used the exact same Lestrade model, c'mon!) It makes no sense. Essentially I'm supposed to pretend that this is in the same universe, and that really takes you out of the immersion from the offset.

Another gripe, is that Lestrade and Sherlock do not have nearly the same dynamic as they did in Crimes and Punishments. One of the best parts of C&P for me was that the relationahip was very reminiscent of the books, in that Lestrade had respect for Sherlock's intellect and would gladly invite him to a crime scene. The reason their relationahip worked was because Sherlock never took any other credit for the solve, he just wanted the challenge.
Here Sherlock is treated as a nuisance. Why? Because that happens in the movies and the TV shows, that's why. And it's lazy.

So many of the puzzles here feel like filler. Not once in C&P did I feel like I was genuinely wasting my time. It had some clunky cases, sure, but the puzzles were generally spot on. Here it's mostly a case of trial and error. It's just plain boring. When I completed one there was no sense of accomplishment, or a pat on the back for really thinking it through and solving it with logic. I would just think 'Thank god that's over' and move on. Without the feeling of accomplishment for the player, there is literally no point in these 'puzzles'. They may as well have not bothered.

C&P was not without its faults but it came from a place of understanding. Playing that game made me feel like a kid again, like I was reading the books in my bedroom. There was a magic to this game, and I think it's because it wasn't like all the films and TV shows, which have turned Sherlock into some kind of mental superhero. C&P was the first bit of media I'd experienced in ages that felt like the real Sherlock Holmes. It infuriates me that they've thrown all that away in favour of attracting a 'broader demographic'.

This game made me feel like I was in a cinema watching a dull movie, wishing I could get my money back.
There is 1 decent case in this game, everything else is a chore. The ending to this game is an absolute travesty (A Moriarty name drop does not a Sherlock experience make).

The saddest part of this whole thing is that Frogwares have been making Sherlock games for years, maybe the ideas have finally run out. It's the only reasonable explanation for this godawful game.

Do not buy this game. Do not buy it on sale. Do not accept it for free.
It's a joke.
I will never get the 8 hours I wasted on this game back.