First of all, this game works like a charm under Linux with wine (7.0.1 under Debian). The game will please any fan of Sherlock Holmes. The atmosphere is faithful, pleasant and beautiful. The game aged well IMO. If you enjoy murder parties, or if you stop just before the final revelations when you read a Sherlock Holmes novel to come back on all the details of the story and try to solve the mystery by yourself, this game is really for you. It alternates between phases of evidence seeking, where you explore places as in many adventure games. The evidence are usually visible on the screen and quite often you know what you're looking for. Occasionally you'll be a bit stuck and hover your cursor everywhere, waiting it to change but with a bit of thinking, this can be kept minimal. You're also talking to many characters. There's not much you can do here outside of exhausting the list of topics to discuss. Occasionally finding a piece of evidence or talking to another character will unblock more topics, but this is rather the exception. Then comes a phase of recapitulation: analysis of evidence and yes/no questions with supporting evidence. These usually easy to answer. You'll sometimes hesitate, so either you try multiple combinations or look for a walkthrough. But I'd say it's feasible easily without external help. There are 2 other unique phases: an infiltration sequence where you can be caught and a timed "labyrinth" where you have to find your way back quickly. It's important to save before these. You also want to save before the last (5th) day's questions as once you answer them, you don't have access to your clues anymore. You'll really need them if you want to answer by yourself the next (optional) set of questions which really consists in solving the case. That's where it's very difficult and it feels like reading a Sherlock Holmes. I spent 2 days of hard thinking and managed to get a few pieces of the grand scheme, but missed some important parts.
Le jeu était magnifique à sa sortie. Maintenant les graphismes font vraiment pitié pour de la 3D pre-calculée mais à l'époque c'était du haut niveau. Pas tout à fait au niveau d'Atlantis qui date à peu près de la même époque mais comparable. On regrettera le côté un peu saccadé dû à l'absence de transitions entre les différentes positions. L'univers du jeu est riche et original. Les énigmes sont faciles et le jeu est très linéaire. On est plus dans de l'histoire interactive. On peut rester bloqué sur certains puzzle (surtout au début, le chapitre 1 étant le plus compliqué). Mais je trouve que les puzzles ont généralement un sens et chercher dans le livre de l'explorateur (disponible dans le jeu et en PDF) aide parfois à trouver la logique. Le jeu est découpé en chapitre ce qui offre des occasions de faire une pause et sauvegarder en étant satisfait d'avoir atteint un jalon, plutôt que frustré d'être bloqué sur une énigme. La fin est un peu rapide, semblant indiquer un empressement à boucler les 2-3 derniers chapitres pour sortir le jeu, sans aller jusqu'à gâcher le plaisir.
I loved this game when I was a kid. I only had the first one and I don't think I ever finished it, but I loved the graphics and the music. I also enjoyed the concept. Replaying it is very nice and having the 2 & 3 (that I never played before) coming with it is a very nice bonus. The non-skippable animation at the beginning of the 3rd one is quite annoying though! It's also a different game play (to start with, it's using the mouse) and I didn't try it much yet.
