To be clear, I do like what I have played of this game so far. It has a lot more to work with it seems in investigation, the number of clues you juggle with and a more interesting cast of characters in each case compared to watch I recall from C&P.
What I have found has held back the game are the mini games acting as quick time events, as well as the following missions. The controls do not feel as crisp as other adventure games or platformers I usually play, so any stealth elements just feel terrible to playthrough personally, although others may enjoy it.
If you love to figure out mysteries and the setting of 1800s London, this game is up your ally. Just dont expect too much from the mini games on offer.
I have been a fan of point and click and other Sherlock Holmes games since childhood. I like this game as much as I liked Crimes and Punishments. I like the new elements (maybe I miss the old kind of item searching and combining, but other people might not have liked it), but what I like about them the most is that these are probably the most gamer friendly games in the series. I think the genre of point and click became unpopular because the games in this genre are usually irritatingly hard, even myself, a lover of the genre couldn't finish many of them because I just gave up. Maybe these can revive the genre a bit. Another one I really liked (where the puzzles were completely enjoyable) was Egypt III (or Egypt: The Fate of Ramses), for those who agree with me.
So I did what people usually tell you - rightly so - and played Crimes and Punishments, the previous title in the series first. I enjoyed it immensely. I found it to be a clever, atmospherically dense, superbly written, highly engaging game - that innovated on classic adventure tropes and succeeded in making them better and the genre more approachable.
Then I continued on to "The Devil's daughter' and its a gut punch.
During the intro sequence, they spooled off the following tropes: Token black women (first game must have had too few for the new publishers taste (game set in victorian London)), knocking on Holmes' door, becoming a flirt/love interest to Watson, Holmes acting fashionably cool, then dissing a child - to show he's edgy.
Then diagnosing 'no, the child is not sick he has cried' without any context given, as one of the first player actions (with Watson idle in the background), then switching into acting overly sweet towards the child, because that would be the PC thing to do - someone told the dialog writer, with the child then turning out to be a blueprint of Tiny TIm, with a lame arm, who's lost his parents.
A few minutes later Holmes encounters his daughter, who is back home from boarding school - and greets her with a non sequitur about "how not to tell her about a case, because its so not age appropriate".
Then a few minutes later you have one of Holmes' street urchins cleaning a chimney - (governa'), in a mini-game, in the middle of a chase sequence. And after a few more scenes, you get Holmes shouting at Watson who had just plot advanced, that Holmes' daughter isnt his real daughter - while on the doorstep of a new, unrelated location, that his daughter' shall never be told that she is not his daughter. Ever. Because he would loose here. And thats the end of it. Looking dapper, and bachelor.
The previous game had an intelligent, cynical, sharp, crude main protagonist and on the point, intelligent story delivery and a great supporting cast.
The Devil's Daughter still is an enjoyable game, yes it has a few gameplay design choices that are less than stellar, but the core is still strong. Holmes as a character is a very hands on individual so an action scene, a bit of stealth and so on make sense. It's not perfect, but hardly something to be angry about. Well worth when on sale, just remember to search online afterwards for the performance fix, it's just to lines in an .cfg file so not a big deal.
