Most importantly, though, is that the game is fun. It keeps you thinking, throws you a good number of curves, and for the most part is challenging but fair.
Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis has its share of faults, but overall it’s a solid game in the adventure genre. The characters and setting are very believable, the story of the hunt for Lupin is compelling, and the puzzles are challenging.
An epic story with many twists and turns, compounded by a multitude of head-scratching puzzles of great **** story loses its luster when Sherlock meets the Prime Minister and Queen Victoria at Bucks **** seemed terribly contrived and unrealistic. The "go fetch" a book in the library sequences at the British Museum became annoying and tedious. The clues/poems were terrific and sometimes very difficult to decipher without the aid of a walkthrough. Quite a challenge. Events are preceded by actions and statements which are necessary in order to continue the game. The dog food preparation was utter nonsense and I lost interest dead-away.
Having said all this, I found the game mesmerizing, well-acted and -voiced (great voice-overs), and generally quite suspenseful. It was a pleasure seeing a high-brow video game set in such classic London locations as the National Gallery, the British Museum, Baker Street (of course), and um, well Bucks House too. Not for everyone, but those intensely interested in Sherlock and Watson will find a lot to savour in this story. I recommend highly with reservations. Looking forward to the next chapter (I realize this is a 2008 production, but the graphics on my higher-end desktop, fully-maxed out, were quite excellent. Warning..this is not a short game (which is fine by me), and can eat up an enormous amount of time.
We start where we left it, and with the introduction from the previous chapter, our favorite detective is forced to face a new challenge. In this episode, Holmes faces a game proposed by Arsène Lupin itself! And very soon the theme absorbs that playful dynamic of puzzles with a heavy real implication, and opposed in the first games of the franchise, was for some reason, solving a puzzle would open magically a door using the power of Bluetooth. For me, the theme only takes interest at the very end, where the intentions of the famous thief are clear since until then it just feels a bit of a pointless cat and mouse game.
The music, as always, perfect, and the variability of the environments is very charismatic, but sometimes it turns a bit generic in the most aristocratic setups. The characters are a bit bold, and with exception of the 3 stars that carry the weight of the action, none of them will remain as charismatic with exception of the librarian.
There are only 2 elements more that I would like to mention and are related to the puzzles.
The addition, as in the previous videogame, of the spacebar as a finder of clues solves the “pixel hunting” that the first games suffered, and do not compromise the difficulty of the puzzles since map is always full of things to distract your eyes. But here comes for me, the best element of the game, and this is the genuine difficulty of the puzzles.
I think that with this chapter the developers achieved that perfect valance in terms of the puzzles and their difficulty. Letting aside, the natural feeling that all share, we are going to go from pure inside game logic association to pure logic combinatory exercises. Even sometimes you are going to deal with culture mazes where your knowledge about British History is going to take a protagonist role, as is in the case of the museum. Sometimes the puzzles can come tedious since, in order to avoid try and error strategies, you are going to see yourself forced to go back and forward to the same place to collect different pieces of the same puzzle or opening the same file/ letter with the clues to follow the correct order a bit too much (we are talking, as for example, in the case of the medals, more than 15 moves checked individually)… Maybe a bit more difficult in oppose to repetition would have been better suited and could have turned the game a bit more engaging but is definitely one of these aspects that have proved to be a pro vs a flaw.
Lastly, just to say that the humor expressed at the very end of the game is just perfect, was off of what we would be expected in games of the genera and for me a great detail for the most “senior players”.
“The danger is imminent, instigated by a man of Machiavellian, twisted tendencies, who is deprived of all sense of morals and scruples. Furthermore, he is French!!!”
-Sherlock Holmes
I felt that this title lost a lot of the charm of The Awakened by reducing the number of investigation segments and keeping the story rooted to one place. Fans of Sherlock Holmes or adventure games should go out of their way to pick up this title.
Nemesis too is not without its rough patches, but still represents a return to form of sorts, another solid Sherlock adventure that showcases better understanding of character, narrative, structure and pace than most of its genre peers.
This is by no means a stellar adventure game, being too strict and occasionally lacking atmosphere, but it does some justice to the license and has enough unique elements to make it at least stand out from the rest, if not tower above them as it probably ought to.
The confrontation between the greatest Victorian detective and French gentleman burglar who never met each other on the cards of the novels provides hours of mind exercise and also frustration - search for the relevant details turns into a painfully irritating hunt for a changing cursor and unfortunately everything hinges on it. [June 2008]
The game is good, but not as good to be on the top. The most controversial thing here is, you don't actually investigate crimes, you just follow The Riddler (in this world he's called Arsene Lupin) and solve his puzzles, so it doesn't make you feel like a detective, actually.
I played SH:Nemesis for the plot. Graphics are not so good (even for a 2008 game) but the storyline is interesting and I never got bored by the characters. The third-person perspective and the keyboard controls are golden add-ons that increase the level of attractiveness of this game.
Big Sherlock Fan, this wrecks it for me, something about the amount of glitches I had, and the texture problems, and the whole point to walk idea! Should make a Third-Person game of Sherlock, I would be happy to play $30 for it...Just not this game. Glad I bought it on sale...
Summary(Also known as "Sherlock Holmes versus Arsène Lupin") Having grappled with the machinations of a cult of Cthulhu in his last PC adventure, the world's greatest detective is now ready to challenge Arsène Lupin, the gentleman thief. Lupin, a character invented by renowned French writer Maurice Leblanc, has thrilled millions of readers wor...