Sherlock Holmes Chapter One

NOTE: I played the whole game with all additional cases To FROGWARES: 5 stars for the story, atmosphere, and length (brilliant as always !!!) 4 stars for graphics (although nice, could be optimised better for this price) 3 stars for waiting a long time for all additional cases (so that you can charge each separately ?) 2 stars for the price (with all the additional cases it costs almost €60 ! It is an insane price !) 1 star for combats which absolutely don't make any sense. They felt like you finished the game and then decided to throw some combats in to make it sell better. Really ?! Please do not add any combats next time. 0 starts for not being playable on Windows 7. Yes, some parts did play, until we got 'M for Mystery' which then crashed the game. (Many people still have W7 and need it for various reasons, myself included. However I have 2 OS on the same PC and luckily could play the game till the end. Many SH fans have not been so lucky). When calculated this doesn't amount to overall 4 stars, but I am still giving them to this game, because quite frankly - I enjoyed it. Minus combats, that is (and trying to forget its price, lol).

Not the best one, by far. Too few interactable objects, interiors, and, choices in conversation. The map is terrible, as relevant waypoints and POI's must be triggered by pinned journal entries. Huh? Yeah, you read that right. If you don't have a specific journal entry pinned, you could wander for hours, like me. Oh, and, you must be called "Sherry" for the entirety of the game by your imaginary "friend" named Jon. Frogwares, get off your high horse.

This world is wonderful. Cinematics, lighting, scenery, open world are outright amazing for a team that was 80 people at their peak. The overall story design great (case design less so), dialog is stellar. Its the world design and the characters, that draw you back in. Its gameplay also feels congruent, but with a few very odd choices, that point into the direction of some of the game assets/systems maybe having been developed using outside help, having been tied together by a casemanager. One youve got the game, to its credit, it never feels clunky - but to get there proves quite a challenge for some people. No GPS pathing, no map markers for progression. And then on two instances you get map markers. A fighting system thats very fun once you master it (flows really well), but makes it harder for people if they miss QTEs the first time around, and sometimes feels forced in its implementation into the plot. Great character model design - that doesnt seem to please all fans (give it a chance ;) ) and a tutorial that actually allows for the player not not understand what they are doing and continue, which comes back to haunt them, once they realize there is no GPS, and no mission markers, and your friend sidekick doest give gameplay tips anymore after the tutorial phase (only in journal entries). Icons are only explained in a help menu. :) That said, once you get it, you'll have no problem picking up the throughline from clue texts and dialogue, works woderfully. (Just dont think, that the crowd system means NPCs on the other side of the (gameplay wise a bit empty) open world will give you case clues - because, there are 7000 of them and not enough voice actors in the world.). Its polished, and yet has such a hard time getting the player to where they are proficient playing it - no GPS and no glowies on the map seem to be a hurdle too high to overcome for many players these days. Still, it remains wonderful in tone and execution, even with case design being ambiguous.

Just got this on GOG, but I've been mostly playing on my Xbox. A major critique I've had about The Sinking City was how little the Open World had to do with the core investigation gameplay loop. Often, Investigations required using the in-game map to locate the approximate location of the next investigation site and trekking there. In The Sinking City, this was a problem as it tended to break up the flow of the investigation with tedious navigation in a static world filled with lifeless wandering NPCs. (Just to be clear, the art direction and world itself were very well done, but the gameplay didn't fully justify the Open World format which was my major gripe) This game solves this issue by actually injecting some life and purpose into the open world format by introducing a new mechanic that allows the player to interrogate the NPCs in the world to learn new information regarding the case. While there is still a longer way to go to fully justify the Open World format in this game series, this game does a decent job of integrating the open world into the investigation gameplay loop while also experimenting with new and unique combat mechanics that asks the player to do more than just aim and shoot. In short, this is a very good game.