The Testament Of Sherlock Holmes Reviews
Platform: PCAlso on: PS3, Xbox 360Publisher: Focus Home Interactive, AtlusDeveloper: FrogwaresMedium: Digital DownloadPlayers: 1Online: NoneESRB: T – TeenYou may not be aware of how smart Sherlock Holmes is, but that’s because it’s only as smart as is convenient for the plot. So he’s relatively smart. Relative being to normal people like you and I, who are stupid. Are we on the same page? If you find yourself interested in the Testament of Sherlock Holmes based on any other previous adventure games, books movies, novels, graphic novels, or a funny story you heard about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at a holiday party, then you’ve come to just the right place to figure out what happens in this version of Holmes.Also this is a ‘version’ of Sherlock Holmes. I don’t know if that’s important or not, but if Robert Downey Jr.
It's the story that really shines in Testament, something that makes sense when you consider the source material.This original tale which centers on the downfall of Sherlock Holmes nails the atmosphere and style of Arthur Conan Doyle's work, and it also embraces the mature nature of many of his cases.
Is somehow definitive in your eyes, then you can still keep it that way and wonder what this comparatively dry character has in common with an action movie.Dear reader, the story of The Testament of Sherlock Holmes revolves around some FMV kids in an attic reading a journal from Watson detailing how he’s trapped in a partnership with an intolerable genius who deliberately withholds information for dramatic intent. Sometimes this is told from Watson’s point of view, and other times it’s told from Sherlock and other characters, which is jarring to have an assortment of characters play the part of a detective when the game was contradictory throughout– telling me there was only one greatest detective in London. At the end I had to assume it was just being clever and that I, as the player, possessed an intuition that could rival one of fiction’s smartest smart people: me as Sherlock Holmes.Eventually, a Bishop is found dead, and once Sherlock is done poking at the body and shrugging, he tricks everyone into leaving so he can thwart them by doing nothing but repeat all the questions he had originally about why the Bishop was murdered. He then drags Watson throughout London to commit several felonies and a few murders, solves some puzzles, and then the game ends with more FMV child acting.Does this mean when Sherlock kept telling me that the solution was elementary that he knew some kids were reading about this game in a book and that it was just a literary comprehension level?
I’ll never know.Normally, a game will balance great gameplay with an interesting story. The Testament of Sherlock Holmes would rather juggle an insufferable protagonist — Holmes as an arrogant and perpetually annoyed sleuth — with puzzles that seem to be designed with the goal of being more obtuse than an obtuse angle. Thanks to this new direction, you’ll never have to worry about enjoying the game as a whole.It might sound like I hated this game, but that’s not the case; I only hated that it wouldn’t knock off its aggressive, self-important attitude.
I don’t have a lot of investment in Sherlock Holmes, and approached this as an entry point in one of the detective’s great adventures. I was greeted with an unfamiliar asshole who regularly belittled everyone down to his colleague, and then served situational puzzles with little to no direction as to what mechanics existed for operation. Had I understood how coldly the game intended to treat players, then I could have prepared by lowering my expectations as to what end I should bother.On the other hand, I did appreciate some of the approaches taken towards the adventure genre. Having the option to play the game entirely in a first or third-person perspective was refreshing for what I expected to be a point-and-click ordeal, while still offering the traditional control scheme as what I assume is a force of habit.
I also enjoyed a lot of the character and set design, as the art direction helped bring a Late 1800’s London to life in an elegant and realistic vision. Whitechapel looks appropriately like a shit hole while Baker Street and more upscale neighborhoods were a delight to visit. I would have loved to see more venues such as Baker Street’s interior or the judge’s mansion fleshed out, but also appreciated the variety of locations throughout the game with few repeats to draw out the experience.The great disappointment of this game may be that while the settings were wonderful and intricate at times, that the scenarios taking place in them were more tedious than riveting. It says a lot about a game that can suck the life out of unraveling the various subplots taking place alongside each other in an old prison work environment, or bore me to tears while spamming the space bar for Holmes’ ‘sixth sense’ to kick in and show me where the final piece of copper is located on a half acre of property.At one point I thought that I was just being an idiot and not paying attention somehow to what characters were saying, but in fact the game simply provides very little direction in its mechanics.
While the player is instructed on a few basics such as movement and how to interact with the environment, quest items are no different than items in one’s inventory, and their application sometimes requires components to be combined in the inventory before use is available– a particular mechanic that I found myself having either forgotten or never learned at 7 hours in when I discovered that re-allocating my inventory produced a gear icon that was communicating an action previously unknown to me. I could have sat for hours listening to a sound bite tell me that ‘I need something!’ had I not stumbled upon this oft-used mechanic beyond that point.Additionally, semi-regular activities such as the chemistry set (or any old puzzle for the most part) will simply present text for an obvious goal; such as, ‘Use the chemistry set or whatever to figure out what the answer is,’ instead of more precise instruction on how to operate or interpret what you’re looking at. This is at times not an issue, but generally a few minutes of trial-and-error can be assumed for just about any logic puzzle you’ll come across.
This wore down on my will to persevere and eventually lead to frustration that the game is working against players in order for them to progress. While it can be argued that more transparent puzzles would simulate the ease that Holmes can solve puzzles with, the goal seems to be in players finding accomplishment in discovering the mechanics of puzzles which are a regular pain in the ass to solve. Maybe the game is trying to tell us this is hard for Holmes. Even though he’s always going on about about how these trials are child’s play.To the game’s credit, the most challenging puzzles are optional (with an achievement hiding behind some of them for completion), although that just compounds on how inept someone pushed to give up would feel in the first place. This doesn’t save poor design from shrouding half of the game’s scenarios in mystery.The linearity of the game is useful for pacing, but when at one point I lost a good half hour of progression and encountered a bug that locked me in a classroom with no way to continue, the order in which things need to happen revealed itself to be easily broken.
This was a successful analogy to the product as a whole, I decided in the end. Why should trial-and-error end up resulting in a game-breaking bug that is only going to punish the player? It would only make sense, as up until now there was a regularly occurring struggle between my wanting to progress and the game substituting usability on its part for asking players to go an extra mile.Obviously this instance was an oversight in an environment where puzzles were meant to be approached in a modular fashion, but the fact remains; the direction is so precise that it’s as if the game was made for one type of person who would play it in a manner which everything made sense. If we begin to look behind the curtains, there is clearly someone behind the scenes who is forcing players to stay the course without concern as to whether it’s worth it anymore. Players are forced to decipher gameplay mechanics, forced to endure Holmes’ personality, and then when presented with contrivances and convenient plot twists, must necessitate a blind eye in order not to witness how the story is forced into a shape around what could have been a wonderful entry in Sherlock’s adventures.The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is conflicting for me. I liked its subversive art direction in a day and age of games that need to blow my socks off with special effects and set pieces, and appreciated the horror of each victim’s physical state in contrast to the milquetoast demeanor of the everyday universe it created.
Investigating bodies was always interesting, and the deduction board was a productive method of leading players to concluding their investigations without having Holmes outright exposit the plot. Conversely, I’m lukewarm about the voice acting, and obviously took great issue with the plot and gameplay instances.
I would have liked to see the game branch out more as an adventure title; just as it gave players flexibility in a control scheme, why should its systems be so staunch and unmoving? Even when in the last few hours the title begins to branch out and explore some well-established foundations of adventure games in basic character swapping, and taking puzzles outside of static graphics and into the game environment, there are only a few hours left to glean some potential before it’s over.All I can say is if you’re a maniac for Sherlock Holmes stories or adventure games, then there’s going to be something here for you.I’m not sure what I’d call it, but it’s definitely something.
These Aren’t, “Put Peg In Right Hole,” Puzzles.For people who thought the puzzles in the original Legend of Zelda were too difficult to figure out, the Testament of Sherlock Holmes is completely out of your league. The game provides brain busting puzzles within the first half hour of playing the game. While the difficulty of the riddles can be off putting to any player, even a veteran puzzle solver, they feel completely in place accompanying the character of Sherlock Holmes. Players who are purchasing this title are fans of the highly functional sociopath. Whether they’re fans of the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle series of novels, or perhaps fans of the 2010 BBC miniseries, they are aware of this character.
If you weren’t familiar with the character of Sherlock Holmes and decided to pick this game up on a whim, you wouldn’t have a fun time. I’ve been a Sherlock and Watson fan since I was eleven or twelve years old and read my first Sherlock tale. This game, pushed my brain to the limit, and I loved every single second of it.Here’s the deal with the puzzles; they’re not your run-of-the-mill puzzle. In one circumstance toward the beginning of the game, Sherlock must break into a safe to discover what the murderers in this particular case were after. You must use a chess piece to try and figure out the code. In a game where the possibilities of moves are endless, the inclusion in the game is fantastic.
It’s also controller throwing worthy. This puzzle alone took me over forty five minutes to figure out. About halfway through my hundredth attempt, I practically threw my controller at my television, before deciding to grab some grub. I had high hopes it was a lack of food which was making this seemingly impossible riddle block me from discovering who the murderer was. What keeps you going, then, when the aspect of having fun in a video game is removed? When I eventually figured out the puzzle, the utter elation which crept into my bones made the entire experience completely worth it.
This is how the puzzles play out throughout the entire game, except the difficulty intensifies with each new discovery made.Considering the puzzles make up the entirety of the game, it’s absolutely fantastic the game switches up the types you must complete. Most of the puzzles occur at the actual crime scene you are called to. After walking around the room, investigating certain areas Sherlock must examine, a puzzle is brought up on the screen which must be solved. One of the more logical puzzles which pops up throughout the entire game is in Sherlock and Watson’s, “Deduction Notebook.” This puzzle is a matching game and to solve it, you must associate the proper answer with the question being asked. This requires some rational thinking about the case on hand and provides a challenge as you must come up with the proper answers the case provides.
For someone like myself who is utterly obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, the feeling of being on the same level of brilliance as he is for a short period of the time makes the game completely worth it.Is there any action?One of the problems with the game is the complete lack of action. Understandably, a puzzle game is not going to hold up against a game like Uncharted, but the exclusion of action makes the game drag on at certain points. While the plot thickens, the anticipation you as the player feels also grows. The perfect offset to this would have been to include some kind of simple action, like a chase or a fight. Sherlock fans will know of Sherlock’s love for boxing and any form of sport which will get his heart pumping while on a case.
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It would have been absolutely fantastic if Frogwares had included a fight between Sherlock and a murdering felon, or a chase to find the fleeting fox. Action would have provided a clean break between the complicated, brain frying puzzles and the extensively long cutscenes.Does It Resemble The Books Or Movies?While there isn’t a direct correlation to either the books or the movies, this Sherlock title leans more toward the traditional Sir Arthur Conan Doyle characters then the Stephen Moffat versions. Setting the game in an early 20. Thcentury plays out extremely well with the case you have been selected to solve. The gruesome murder plays heavily on beliefs associated with this time period, while the macabre occurrences work well with the overall noir tone.
There were some factors missing which I thought should have been included. Not once throughout the duration of the game does Sherlock use cocaine or methamphetamines.
Sherlock is a well-known drug user who uses the stimulants to hasten his thinking while working on a case. Considering the ERSB has rated this game mature, the inclusion of a drug scene wouldn’t have been out of character, and would have been a nostalgic throwback for fans.
John Watson, Sherlock’s only friend and trusty sidekick, played an excellent boy scout in this game; a feat no one should ever be proud of. Instead of the witty banter which has been carried throughout each medium over time, Watson spurts out obvious statements and becomes increasingly annoying. The combination of all the different aspects makes the game its own, but not very successfully.It’s A Text Adventure Without Text.The best type of game to compare this to would be the old school text adventure games.
Some of you who are reading this piece won’t know what a text based adventure game is and this section will seem completely useless. Text or graphic adventure games, however, were very popular before the age of major consoles and allowed players to delve into a variety of plot lines, having full control over the game and using pure thinking power to get to the end. The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is precisely that, minus the text. Like the early CD hit Myst, You must use only your brain to come to the conclusions Sherlock would. Once you’ve mastered this remarkably difficult concept in today’s modern age, you can sit back and vicariously enjoy the cinematic experience as the world’s greatest consulting detective. Sherlock, like the text based adventure games, doesn’t change the gameplay mechanics. The puzzles change, but the overall mechanic is the same.
Go to a crime scene, investigate, go home, and begin to solve. You know exactly what to expect, in terms of actual playing, and was one of the first examples which drew me to the text adventure based games analogy.Did You Have Fun?The concept of fun in videogame reviews gets left out quite a bit these days, instead replaced with grunting and moaning. The biggest question I know I have when I’m looking where to spend my next $60 dollars is will I have hours of fun. If you are a puzzle fanatic, if you like to endeavour on ludicrously difficult challenges, and if you’re a die-hard Sherlock fanatic, this game is right up your alley.
If your idea of a fun game is Battlefield or Bioshock you may want to save your money. I had a ridiculous amount of fun with this game, and found it an excellent accompaniment for bed. It’s a game you can throw on and not have to worry about high scores or online cred. This game plays excellently for fans of single player campaigns and heavily involved plot lines.
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is a complete toss up though, and if there are any doubts in your mind, I’d wait until it drops in price.