Like The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, released in 2012, Crimes & Punishment multiplies the ways to control his character. Thus, the first and third person views are always in order, as is the possibility of choosing between the keyboard / mouse combo or the joystick. There is therefore something for everyone and switching from one view to another can be useful to fully observe the details that abound in the game. A step that may take you time when you discover the beauty of the scenery, whether it's a crime scene or just a street in London. Indeed, thanks to the Unreal Engine 3, Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishment benefits from graphics far superior to its elders. If everything is not perfect, especially because of a few annoying bugs forcing us to restart our game, the game offers magnificent London settings where we take real pleasure in watching all the smallest details, which give a unique atmosphere to the game. and which fits perfectly with the original voices. Add to that better lighting effects as well as better character modeling and we get the most beautiful Sherlock Holmes game we have ever seen since the beginning of the series. Despite some optimization issues, the game remains fluid as a whole, which bodes well for the next episode. As usual, we won't reveal too much of the plots of the investigations, in order to keep the suspense as much as possible for the players, but we must emphasize their effectiveness. If in previous episodes the players carried out only one and the same investigation, Crimes & Punishment offers for the first time to solve six mysteries independent of each other. Six surveys for the price of one is always nice, especially when it takes between 3 and 4 hours to complete each of them. So unless you are the great detective Conan, you will need at least 18 hours to complete the game. suspicious, an important point that we will detail later. Of course, play time isn't everything, and the story should stay strong, especially in an adventure game. Fortunately Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishment fulfills its contract perfectly and offers six stories that are in no way similar. Each crime takes place in a totally different place and conditions from the previous one and the logical reasoning is also not the same, which pushes the player to always get involved as much as possible.
LONDON CALLING
On the investigation side, if a word were to define the investigations of our dear Sherlock Holmes, it would be "freedom". Here the player is totally free in his movements and the way to go to find clues is no longer marked out. So in addition to admiring the beauty of the scenery, you will have to pay attention to the smallest detail that could give you new leads. To help you in your task, Sherlock Holmes has a power of analysis which allows you to highlight the objects or areas likely to help you advance in your investigation. While that's a good way to picture the detective skills of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character, the clues are a little too easy to find and all you have to do is quickly look around the room to see them appear in yellow. As you will have understood, the investigations are played on details like a damaged lock or a trace of dust left on the furniture. An attention to detail that is found even in the interrogations where the player is free to ask several questions to the suspect, in the order he wishes. Again, the effectiveness of interrogations will largely depend on your ability to analyze the situation to ask the right questions. Be careful, however, since an intelligent discussion can help you discover other valuable clues about the investigation. It's up to you then to put the suspect up against the wall by forcing him to answer a question to which you already know the answer (thanks to the clues collected previously).
GUILTY OR NOT, IT'S ALL IN THE DETAILS
Always present, players will be happy to find the mini-games allowing them to verify the validity of a theory or even to speak to a character. So we find ourselves doing an arm wrestle with one of the suspects or even throwing a harpoon at a pig to determine the strength of the killer. Always so diverse, these little games will give players a hard time, even to the point of driving them crazy. Fortunately for the most impatient, it is possible to skip the mini-game by pressing the "Space" key and thus unlock the next scene. Be careful, however, not to abuse it too much or the life of the title may drop sharply. Freedom is also the possibility of making bad choices. So when you enter deduction mode, the goal is to link together several clues in order to create theories and find a conclusion to your investigation. But with multiple leads at your disposal, multiple deductions are possible and it's not uncommon to pick the wrong culprit. Unfortunately, if you confirm your accusation you won't get a second chance and you will automatically have to move on to the next story. While completing an investigation into an error can be terribly frustrating, this choice helps to empower us and make us think twice before accusing someone. Especially since by committing too many errors this could have repercussions on the following investigations as well as on your power of persuasion. It is therefore up to you to meticulously analyze all the clues that present themselves to you.
