Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments

This game, while definitely not the ground breaking or best of its time, is the prefect step in evolution of Sherlock Holmes titles. Its more complex and better executed than the Testament… It has more thought out cases, some with real twists and tuff choices to make. While some of the riddles may seem linear it perfectly fits the idea of legendary detective that almost always knows the answer. Only shame is that many of the ideas were one use only. While the graphics have a few years it still does not hurt the eyes. Definitely not the game to for the people that like to exercise their brain with complex and multilevel problems. But if you like a good story that sometimes engages your brain this is the game for you

I am new to the Sherlock Holmes series but having had a recent interest in some detective games it seemed like a good fit - Crimes and Punishment was pretty highly rated and it turns out it was for good reason, too! C&P is a set of six individual cases for you to investigate, each with their own locations to comb for clues, suspects to interrogate, and conclusions to draw. They are not specifically strung together although there is a broader story occuring during the course of the game that gets touched on occasionally before it comes to a head at the end. The high point of the game has to be drawing conclusions; after gathering appropriate evidence, you link them together to make some kind of determination - a murder weapon, a motive, an inconsistency in a story - with different options for what *really* happened. And the best part is that the game doesn't hold your hand by directly signifying what the **right** decision is in the moment. While ultimately there is a correct conclusion to come to in the cases, you are never meant to feel like you made a mistake as Sherlock can describe clearly how one would come to a given conclusion. There are also a variety of minigames to occupy a little bit of your time on a case. Not all of them are particularly stellar, but they aren't that difficult either. There is no penalty for failure, but you may have to repeat some several times before you succeed if you don't want to simply skip the puzzle or minigame. The only real knocks I have against the game are that it feels a little thin at times, and there can be a lot of time spent just loading between zones. Each case took a little over an hour to complete, and that was with uncovering all the evidence and completing all the puzzles; much of that involved fast travel between points or wondering why an objective wasn't completed because there was some innocuous element I didn't catch on first inspection of an area. But all in all, an excellent little adventure game.

‘Crimes & Punishments’ is the Sherlock Holmes game that I’ve been looking for. Everything I dislike about the previous game in the series has been fixed here. No contrived puzzles. No illogical puzzle designs that are unconnected to the reality of the game. No surprising reveals of Holmesian insight that players are not privy to, despite their playing as Holmes himself. ‘C&P’ is a well-made game with game mechanics that were well-devised and implemented. ‘C&P’ is a collection of 6 cases. The stories are solid, and the mysteries are diverse. The game really involves you in solving the cases, though it does nudge you to move in certain directions at times. You’ll need to observe your surroundings to gather clues, examine and analyze evidence, profile persons of interest, interrogate suspects and catch them in lies, play some mini-games and solve some puzzles that are organic to the game’s stories and settings, as well as make deductions. Deduction is the best part of ‘C&P’. Your thought processes are represented by connected neurons. Connections are made and altered as you deduce various aspects of each case. This is culminated with you making a final deduction to determine the culprit, and deciding whether to condemn or absolve him/her. Depending on how you’ve drawn your conclusion, each case can have multiple outcomes. ‘C&P’ doesn’t tell you whether or not you’ve made the correct or most moral decisions, so you can replay the cases should you come to regret your verdicts. The graphics still look fantastic over 5 years after its release. The character models are so well done and realistic, especially during close-ups, that I often tried to figure out the actors after whom the characters were modelled. The only major flaw that distracted me greatly were some flickering textures, like window drapes, foliage, papers, and even Toby the hound! Aside from that, I have very little to object about ‘C&P’. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves detective games.

I bought the game on Sale for approximly 10 Bucks and it was worth every Penny. The Gameplay is nice, the cases are puzzeling and interesting. The best Part about the cases is the decisions that you can make. Should a murderer hang or get to prison? Can murder be justified? "Crimes and Punishment" confrontes you with such question and will maybe reverse your view of "justice".

I am enjoying the game story wise but I am starting to feel sick from the controls. Only other game that did this to me was Pine. Controls seems too sensitive and loose. You tend to twirl rather than turn. Holmes keeps blocking your way which starts to get on your nerves after a while. sorry only 2 stars as it really spoils the enjoyment. add the crashes and well...not great