I'd give this one a 10, but alas, only 5 are possible. Pros: The game is diverse, with many gameplays and styles involved (and exploited), the story is rich, the actors are, well, world-renowned ones. The graphics may look a little rough at first, but then one remembers that it's a 2013 game. Nevertheless, you get used to it soon enough. The ending is satisfactory, and leaves you longing to replay it again, to see the other outcomes. Cons: Quite a few continuity mishaps: one frame (The Party intro) the driveway is empty, next cut - people are taking photos of the sun. The Dinner - you order pizza, they take two slices, then only two slices are left in the box. A few more, but only those two come to my mind at this hour. Nevertheless, this game gets a 5-star from me, with the clear intention to start it over tomorrow evening. Thank you, Quantic Dream, and thank you, Sony, for this experience!
I bought this game because, as someone else said, the trailer reminded me of Inside and Limbo. I was nicely surprised by the overall creativity invested in this game. The soundtrack is, for the lack of a better word, perfect. The gameplay is involving, the story is touching, the ending is epic! A beautiful game not only for when you want a break from the shooters or RPGs. This is a gem! Thank you!
As an avid Sir Arthur Conan Doyle reader I must say that playing this game was a delightful, though rather short, experience. The guys from Frogwares kept strictly to the books, portraying the protagonist to the letter as how Sir Doyle wanted him and, delving into areas not written by the author, it is my humble opinion that they performed admirably. You will control a young Sherlock, not yet cut out to be the hard boiled investigator we all know and love, but a fragile youngster barely showing the signs and attitude of the man he is to become, investigating the death of his mother 10 years later on the island where his family moved after the passing of his father. As a treat to readers like myself the story ends with the starting scene from A Study in Scarlet where Sherlock meets John Watson for the first time. The cases are intriguing, the running around the map to search for clues might be tremendous, but the outcome, when you solve the case, is definitely satisfying. As for the technicalities, there are a few things that are to be desired. For one, myself playing on a high-end computer on Ultra settings, one could clearly see how they tuned the Unreal engine to be playable on low-end computers - the NPCs in the distance skip frames - they literally jump places, the mirrors are not reflecting accurately but rather distorting, the lipsync (with English voice act) is worse than Assassin's Creed Valhalla. The game simply seems hurried for release. I hope those will be fixed in future updates, for they genuinely spoil the experience. Hence the missing 5th star in my rating. And for second, the game is really short - no more than 12-15 hours of gameplay when one mainly follows the main quests. Although, as I said, the cases are really intriguing, fascinating even. Overall, I would recommend this game. One can lean back and enjoy the story with their feet up and live through the youth of Sherlock Holmes with pleasure!
