Honest Review: The Testament of Sherlock Holmes

[Josh]

My reviews are pretty simple, not lengthy at all, lets begin.

Gameplay: Decent gameplay, not bad for a 5 dollar game, however... the story goes on for ages... it drags on for hours on end. Puzzles are a main feature in this game, and each puzzle is unique in itself... it requires alot of thought, however, sometimes you get stuck doing the same puzzle for an hour, then you know you need online help.

Graphics: Decent graphics, amazing textures and shadowing

Controls: Horrendous, i have to admit, it was the most annoying thing about this game... the "WASD" controls are completely flawed as you need to tap w, then hold w to walk... When you sprint... it takes a while to actually sprint/jog...

Character models/voice acting: Deep conversations that are intelligent are a good thing in games, it unveils the mystery of the game...

Rating: 6/10

[Mountain Man]

Why is it that whenever somebody presents a negative review, they always describe it as "honest", as if more positive reviews are somehow less honest?

But just as a counterpoint, here is my honest review -

Summary: A decent enough adventure game and a treat for fans of Sherlock Holmes.

Review: I won't say this is the best adventure game I've ever played, but I enjoyed it for what it was worth. The fact that I'm a big fan of Sherlock Holmes did help me look past some of the game's rougher spots, but I'm not sure someone else would be so forgiving. The overall narrative, suffice it to say, is no match for the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle originals, but it's enough to hold the game together, which is really the most you can expect from a video game story.

I called this an adventure game, but I think "puzzle game" might be a more fitting description. Who knew the denizens of Victorian London were so fond of locking their secrets behind intricate logic puzzles? You will encounter around two-dozen puzzles throughout the course of completing the game, and while I didn't find the puzzles particularly difficult once I understood them, the rules and operations of the puzzles were sometimes vague, so it wasn't always obvious to me what I was supposed to do, or if it was obvious, it wasn't obvious exactly how I was supposed to go about doing it. I suppose that's part of the gameplay experience, figuring out exactly what the puzzle is and how to solve it, but there were times I honestly wasn't sure if this was intentional or simply poor game design. No matter, walk throughs are easy enough to find on the internet these days if you need a prod in the right direction; alternatively, the game does present the option to simply skip a puzzle if you're well and truly stumped, but what self-respecting gamer would choose that route?

There are also the more traditional adventure game puzzles that have you exploring your environment for clues, picking up everything you possibly can, and occasionally combining various objects in your inventory so you can proceed. Thankfully, the game has a "Sixth Sense" feature where you press the spacebar to momentarily have points of interest highlighted for you which eliminates the frustrating pixel hunt.

The presentation is a somewhat mixed bag. The environments and character models are generally oustanding with great attention to detail and lots of atmospheric touches that really make Victorian London come to life. The overall character animations are good for the most part, but the lipsynching is atrocious with the characters frequently flapping their lips for a few seconds after delivering their lines, which I found distracting, and the voice acting is average at best. I never really took to Watson's melodramatic delivery where every line is spoken with an awkward urgency, and Holmes speaks in a drone, sounding almost bored at times, as if the whole business of crime solving no longer interested him. Curiously, the bit players you encounter throughout the game are often better acted and sound more convincing then the stars of the show.

The game controls well enough with a mouse and keyboard, although the mouse movements felt somewhat sluggish even with the sensitivity turned up to maximum in the settings. I played mostly from the third-person perspective which gives you a good view of your surroundings, and while a traditional adventure game perspective is offered, I found the controls too awkward (although people with a gamepad seem to have good success playing from this perspective). I'd like to pass on a couple of tips on controlling the game since I'm not sure if it's mentioned in the manual or if I only read about it in other reviews: 1) you can use the mouse wheel to quickly scroll through individual items in your inventory; this is a lot faster and more convenient than opening your inventory screen, although you still have to open it if you want to combine one object with another; 2) if you have a bunch of hotspots clustered together, you can click the left-mouse button to highlight one and then use the WASD keys to cycle through them until you've highlighted the one you want; click the left-mouse button a second time to activate it; otherwise it's just way too fiddly to try and maneuver your character into the right position.

None of the criticisms I've noted are fatal, and I did spend an enjoyable 14-hours completing this game. With the noted exceptions, the puzzles are clever and fun to solve, and I have to say again that I found the art design to be terrific making each area a joy to explore, particularly when I came across obscure references to the original Conan Doyle stories. If you're a fan of adventrue games, and especially Sherlock Holmes, and you think you could look past the weaknesses I've noted, then I would recommend this game.

[Mr. Lambert]

It's ridiculous to describe the voice acting in this game as "average at best"." Performance by the main characters is terrific. There's not an adventure game out there with better voice acting by the main characters.

[MrBusDriver]

I liked it.

[Mountain Man]

Originally posted by Mr. Lambert:

It's ridiculous to describe the voice acting in this game as "average at best"." Performance by the main characters is terrific. There's not an adventure game out there with better voice acting by the main characters.

That's just, like, your opinion, man.

Although it's an odd defense to say, "This is the best voice acting ever! For an adventure game." I don't care if it is "just" an adventure game, I expect better voice acting for such a dialog heavy presentation. Dragon Age: Origins has excellent voice acting, as do the frist two Batman Arkham games. If you want a pure adventure game with better voice acting, how about the 1995 LucasArts classic Full Throttle?

[[FROG]Wael]

Because mountain man, you compare games for which the price of the voices/cinematics is 3 times higher than the price of the whole production of the Testament of Sherlock Holmes. Adventure games have traditionnaly lower means compared to mainstream games. Lucasarts and Full throttle being exception, there were already very expensive in their time. Of course money is not an excuse, but it helps...

[Mountain Man]

I understand that, but I still feel that the voice acting detracted from the overall experience. Keep in mind that despite these criticisms I did enjoy the game and would recommend it to others.

[Fargan]

I think the voice acting was accurate. Sherlock Homes is meant to be a cold logical personality who won't let emotions temper with his deduction, while Watson is the emotional counterpart. Often astonished by Homes skills but also not very fond of his coldheartedness towards the victims of his cases.
At least that was my impression i got from the Sherlock Holmes stories i've read so far.

[The Fallen Character]

So far, so good

[Necrius]

My honest review - the game was amazing. Controls were below average, but whole impression is great.

[Moskibear]

I actually felt that despite the voice acting isnt high budget, it seems to contribute to the atmosphere. I won't deny that Watson's voice actor sounds like he had a little too much fun with the role but the voice acting isn't the worst. Sherlock sounded very good, calculating and focused. Just wanted to drop my 2 cents as I am enjoying the game so far :-)

[th0ma5]

I haven't completed the game yet but the voice acting so far is much better than average imo. The one thing that isn't explainded very well is how the deduction board works. It's probably one of the main things but there doesn't seem to be any in-game help or tutorial showing how it works. Maybe I missed it at the start but I eventually figured it out, then I thought it was just scene based, I wasn't expecting the crime and the deduction board to span over so many different scenes (which is great btw). Anyway I get it now and I'm enjoying the game a lot so far.

[gcanders1]

The voice acting in the game is an easy 10/10 The puzzles are great. The graphics are good. The story is excellent. The controls are a bit clunky. Overall game is a 9/10

[katzenkrimis]

Originally posted by Mountain_Man:

Why is it that whenever somebody presents a negative review, they always describe it as "honest", as if more positive reviews are somehow less honest?

It's just a bad habit in the english language. Written and verbal.

Ever noticed how many times hockey players and coaches use the word 'obviously' in interviews? Same bad habit. If things were so obvious, then we wouldn't need to watch the game.

As far as honesty goes, Instead of saying that their viewpoint is an honest one, they should simply say it's a personal one.

Nothing is beautiful from every point of view.

[Hawk Tuah]

The kids were by far the worst part of this game. Creepy, annoying, and added absolutely nothing to the narrative

[PA_Parsons]

I thought the voices were pretty good. The one thing that would help is to eliminate the gaps between sentences when one character is meant to be speaking over another, so that it really feels like they're interrupting them. That may be a limitation of the sound system, but it may be worth integrating those moments into the same sound file so that the flow works.