Posted on: January 4, 2022
Neawoulf
Verified ownerGames: Reviews: 3
Not entirely bad, but still disappointed
I love the original Sherlock Holmes stories, some movies, the TV show with Jeremy Brett and most of the games by Frogwares. Still i can't decide whether i like this game or not. The core case solving mechanics are very similar to previous games. You gather information by talking to people or examining crime scenes and have to combine all that knowledge to find out what happened and who's the culprit. The game respects my intelligence. That's very rare in story focussed video games these days and i love that. But on the other hand there is a lot of weird stuff in this game. For example a nicely designed, but very static open world. It looks good, but the only thing it adds to the game is more walking around. You can use fast travel, but using that makes the open world completely obsolete. Some outfits are more steampunk/fantasy, than authentic. And then there are a lot of small side tasks like treasure hunts etc. that feel like they come directly from a Ubisoft open world playground. It's fun for an hour, but then it gets very repetitive. And the worst part: Combat! Why?? It's one of the worst and weirdest features i've ever seen in a game. You enter an arena and fight against around 5 to 10 gangsters with your pistol, but you can't shoot someone in the chest or head because they wear metal armor on their arms?? That's just weird. Feels like the game was already finished and somebody said "You know what? Let's add some combat." It doesn't work at all and it's terribly executed. The main story was nice, but it didn't feel like a Sherlock Holmes case. I wish the devs would go back to Jack the Ripper, Testament or Crimes & Punishments, take a good look at them and make a new game based on those. For me, even though it wasn't entirely bad, Chapter One was one of the weakest Sherlock Holmes titles. Too much focus on a much too static open world, too little focus on good stories, characters and authenticity based on the original stories from Arthur Conan Doyle.
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