Sherlock Holmes Chapter One

I liked Chapter One very much. It was not too long, but not too short either (like devil's daughter). The mechanics were good, and the world was amazing. some thing were anoying, but not so much that I would stop playing. The story was good right at the end, an di hope Frogwares continue the story in their next game. All in all very solid detective game.

At first, I hardly even wanted to start the game as I noticed that it doesn't include first person view while I played all the previous games that way. But it was a very good decision that I still tried it because it gave me an awesome experience. The game as a point & click game seems to be very fresh in its mechanics, I played Crimes and Punishments - The Devil's Daughter - The Testament of Sherlock Holmes - Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper - then this one in a row in just a few months, and I didn't get bored of it because all of them were mechanically renewed, the developers have always put some new twist which made all of them fresh compared to the older ones. (As I recall, they are Ukrainians... I wish them the best from Hungary.) MINOR SPOILERS: As a gay autist, it was also a very personal experince for me, especially that I didn't even know anything about the game before I started it. I can understand that it is not everyone's thing, and some people will be like "this LGBTQ stuff again", but the angle of this game meant very much to me, I mean it. Such topic in art prior to these years often excluded topics such as this, as if LGBTQ people didn't even exist. There were many other minorities like this in history. And the game doesn't even state anything about Holmes's sexuality, there are only hints about it, just like about his autism. For those who don't like it (because why would everyone like it, I too don't like every renewal I see in art), I advise to only focus on the game mechanics and the aspects they can identify with, and don't accept the other aspects as canon. This way, they too can get a very good experience.

I was reluctant to play "Chapter One" after the disappointment that "Devil's Daughter" was for me. The game, however, pleasantly surprised me, even if it is not without weaknesses. The number of investigations here is very large if we include the side quests. In addition, many of the latter are complex, long, interesting. A real job was done on the writing even if I found the dialogues talkative and not as clever as in "Crimes and punishments" which adapted short stories from Sherlock Holmes (not everybody can become Conan Doyle). But the game goes all over the place, wanting to unnecessarily reuse all the fashionable formulas in recent years: open world, infiltration (Assassin's creed is an obvious influence), or addition of action scenes (which take place in identical environments which makes them repetitive). Most of all, this game includes elements... Not subsequently exploited : the mind palace, profiling. So, while the surveys are diverse, the survey mode tends to be repetitive. The open world is pleasant to explore with a real artistic (and historical) touch even if the interactions are limited. I am delighted that the next episode, "The Awakened" returns to a tighter formula. Wait and see...

I played most of the Sherlock Holmes games that have been released. Loved Crimes and Punishments by the same developer. This part didn't capture me though. The graphics feel very outdated in 2023, and are even somewhat sluggish running on my nvidia rtx 3060. But it is not just the graphics, the athmosphere, the music, the voice acting, nothing really works for me in this installment. German audio is missing, which is a shame because it was incredibly good in some of the previous parts. If you feel you must have this game, I recommend to wait until it is on sale.

Besides Holmes looking ridiculous in his "fancy" clothes and beeing called "Sherry" all the time (every time a pain to hear), there is a lot of useless, mediocre looking environment only to run through to no avail, a bunch of non-informative icons in the notes with no order in it, a clumsy "chemistry-system", uninspired answers from people who have "nothing to say" (I wish they really wouldn´t) while Holmes is locked in place and has to listen, and worst of all, there is "combat". I have played Tomb Raider, I`ve played Alpha Protocol, I`ve played the Witcher, I`ve played Deus Ex - I just don`t get it what to do to arrest someone in this game. There is a circle with a line, a get a hint what key to press, I press the key - and get hit ... and that`s it. I shot the first guy in the police training ten times to be able to try again and now I`m done with it. May be the main case is good, I don´t know. The mindmap is basically telling you what´s wrong and what`s right, so you don`t have to think there either. What did they think when they made this?! What was wrong with the controls in Crime&Punishment? Whenever the imaginary friend complains about beeing bored, I can relate from all my heart. Sadly this is much more effort than it`s worth.