Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is a masterpiece of a detective game as it manages to deliver a thoroughly enjoyable open-world adventure with an interesting cast, stunning environmental visuals, and highly immersive and engaging sleuthing gameplay. The fact that I was having such an awesome time made dealing with the odd progression issue worth it as I loved taking in all of the sights and stories.
Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is a big story-driven game with familiar characters, captivating cases to solve, and a big open island to explore. All the fantastical stuff aside, the team at Frogwares treats Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work with utmost respect, and for that we are grateful.
I don’t know why people don’t like this game more. I feel like it was a step in the right direction. I really enjoyed not only just the detective aspect, but also the fact that they added a compact aspect as well. I will admit that some of the fights got a little bit repetitive after a while but they just added this sort of thing in so it’s understandable that they haven’t worked out all the kinks yet.
They also seem to be trying to make it more open world and putting different investigations all around the map. Up until this point most Sherlock Holmes game just felt like a point and click which isn’t bad necessarily but not too exciting.
I feel like the people who made this put a lot of effort into it and it shows. There’s still a lot they could do to improve it, but I like where they’re going with it. The recent game they made Sherlock Holmes: the awakened was good, but it felt smaller somehow in comparison to their first game.
Given the crisis in Ukraine, it’s understandable that they haven’t been able to do much in this regard as the last thing anyone’s thinking about is making a video game. However when things settle I hope to see their work even more later down the line because they really are good at what they do and I believe they could truly make Sherlock Holmes into a game that all types of gamers like whether it’s open world, point and click, or straight up combat.
Way better than Devil's Daughter, Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One has a captivating focus on Sherlock himself, but the open world feels there just for the sake of it.
If you can get through the relatively humdrum, lifeless and unneeded open world of Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One you'll uncover a whip smart detective adventure that is up there with the series best. It's just a shame that a smattering of technical issues and poorly executed combat sections detract from what should have been the Pride of Baker Street's triumphant return to PlayStation.
I can from the get-go just admit that I'm biased writing this review, since I want to encourage all developers within this genre to continue producing detective games, especially such an experienced studio as Frogwares. With that said, I can recommend this to any sleuth out there looking for a fix.
The general gameplay is well crafted and provides an appropriate challenge and suspense in most of the mysteries. There are several new mechanics that gives anyone the prerequisites to feel like a genuine gumshoe. However, they have thrown in a horrendous combat aspect of the game which is just as repetitive as it is comically... bad. Thankfully it appears seldom in the main story, but for all non-trophy/achievement purposed, stay clear of the bandit lairs! As for the "open world" part of it all, I'd refrain from calling it open world, and I think a lot of the backlash against the game comes from creating the expectancy of some sort of GTA/RDD world with endless side hustles. What this game provides is a looser transition between missions, where the "open world" just serves as a way to choose in what order you want to tackle the story.
The game as a whole is actually beautiful, but the scenery has very obviously come at the expense of hiring an animations team. I'm fully aware that this is far from a triple-A title, but at times its resemblance to N64 Donkey Kong is almost frightening. The cutscenes are (thank god) given a bit more love animation-wise, but the fish-mouth speaking animations are a tad immersion-breaking in my opinion. But the pure amount of content is awesome for a game of this genre, and almost all of the side missions are worth playing (some of them are almost the length of a main mission). The main story itself is excellent and will keep you guessing until the very end. All in all it's a very entertaining game, which in many ways sets a new standard for the genre, but unfortunately in some other ways fall flat.
PS. Not incorporated in my review score is the horrific day 1 DLC, which both in principle and in execution shouldn't exist DS.
I appreciate the effort put, but come on, Frogwares... Episodic game? Really? You guys were better than this... I defended you guys with the Sinking City incident, please don't sink yourselves with this kind of business...
It has a nice history but an awful gameplay too. You always waste your time because you can’t understand what you have to do, it’s not clear, the instructions aren’t helpful. The positive is the possibility of choice, like every Sherlock game, and interesting endings.
Конченая параша а не игра, очень расстроен своими минус деньгами(от хайпа что люблю две ласт части купил сразу дэлюкс), что от прошлых двух частей практически ничего не осталось. Написал бы подробнее насколько это ужасная игра по сравнению с двумя прошлыми частями, да ограничение здесь в 5к символов :(
Summary In this story-driven detective thriller, a young Sherlock Holmes struggles to prove himself as he navigates an exotic, dangerous island in the Mediterranean to investigate the mystery of his mother’s death.