#Sherlock Holmes Video Games

[holmesoldfellow]

"Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One" concept art by Ihor Tovstohan

[probablygayattorneys]

-Tina Tran, Even If We Did Things Differently, I Still Would Have Chosen You

[star-trekster]

MSPaint Geordi + Data Engineering Screen shenanigans

[wistfulpoltergeist]

Just making this post to say that I'm alive and kicking. After the recent russian mass missile attack, though, I have real problems with electricity and not able to work on my Sims Story project. Among other things... I bought a lot of Sherlock Holmes games by Frogwares - Ukrainian video game development studio. Believe it or not, but their "Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened" was created during the beginning of the war and I can't even imagine all the struggles they've been through. So if you care for Ukraine and love detective video games - please, do consider to sopport Frogwares by buying their products.

Of course, the first thing I did in "Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One" was... trying every and each available costume on Sherlock! :D And look! They made matching outfits for Sherlock and John! How sweet!^^

Vyshyvanka for Sherlock melted my heart. Specially this little note from the creators: "Vyshyvanka: Traditional Ukrainian clothes, from Frogwares with love". Awww... I love the humor and the twist they put into this game. I would recommend it to everyone who... um.... loves Sherlock? Also platonic love between two men, haha!

P.S. I want these costumes in Sims >__<

[hedonisticcat]

ok I have to be done with this otherwise I will work on it for years. take it off my hands

[ritzy-biscuit]

I love when games have stuff like this.

These are either from the developers or from people who entered a contest or something, I'm not sure. (Found an old reddit thread from the team about picking people to put on the tombstones)

[dandylion-virtual-adventurer]

The Muse From Abroad

[twistedtummies2]

We Meet Again, Mr. Holmes...

At long last, I have added Sherlock Holmes to my roster of Servants. And with both Archer and Ruler Moriarty in my deck for a while now, I can officially declare to have the entire Conan Doyle Trio for the game. I probably won't use Mr. Holmes in battle very often, mind you, but it's just nice to have him and be able to form a Bond with him. :) On that note, I love how Holmes has officially become a major character of the game in the Main Story, as of where I'm at. It pleases me to no end. Perhaps when I next update my list of my favorite takes on the character, this one will be able to place much higher than in the past. ;)

[aestheticallypleasinganimeboys]

Sherlock Holmes - The Great Ace Attorney

[quietwingsinthesky]

the entire nes library is 287mb. think about that. that’s not even a single gigabyte. in a just world, you could have this on your phone for free, it would just be on there.

[holmesoldfellow]

Sherlock Holmes backstory unlocked

[nemo-me-impune]

A Sherlock Holmes RPG could be pretty fun.

Different skill trees based on deductive ability, acting ability, fighting ability and criminal ability

Choices for love interests including Watson, Adler, Mary Morstan and Lestrade or no-one depending on your decisions, with the option to also hook Watson and Mary up if you want

Different endings depending on how Holmes' choices leading to Reichenbach and whether he actually dies there or not depending on your success in the rest of the game

Different notoriety and public opinion, whether people think he's an odd eccentric or a respectable man or barely above a criminal himself

Have the classic puzzles and stuff but also a bit of combat

Have power bars for eating and sleeping that Watson nags you about that can be buffered with drugs lol

Play through the different cases like missions with the Moriarty stuff as a main questline

Do the unreliable narrator thing like in DA2 where there's always the possibility Watson is just telling the police what they want to hear about the events of the game rather than being 100% truthful and how you treat Watson colours that as well and how your Holmes acts - more empathetic and manic or cold and clinical.

[thetevinterspy]

Just a regular 42 year old executive director up at 2 am on Monday thinking about how much Emmrich reminds me of Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes.

[formicarum-rex]

Some answers are combined for space, and there are two catch-alls for other adaptations. Please go ahead and specify in the tags for these! (and if you chose other, of course)

This poll is focused on canon-era 221bs, so the Rathbone movies, Elementary, and Sherlock don't get separate answers. Feel free to still put them in the tags though if one is your preferred version.

[kyndaris]

A Great Detective's Beginning

I think I've said before that Sherlock Holmes is a character I greatly admire. Ever since reading about his adventures in a huge omnibus collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work, I wanted to emulate the great detective in all things with a doctor companion by my side. The art of observation was something I attempted to train my younger self in by studying the fingers of a stranger or the scuffs on their shoes for just a hint of what it might tell me about their life.

Unfortunately, it's not every day one stumbles on a murder. Second, it's not like many a policeman would allow a random civilian to take part in their investigations. Life, it seems, is unlike the world of my many stories. A shame, really. I feel like I would have been an excellent sidekick to the great Sherlock Holmes.

Since my childhood dream is but an impossibility, playing as Sherlock Holmes in a series of video games has become the next best thing for someone like me.

Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One released in 2021 and was developed by Frogwares, a video game developer headquartered in Ukraine. Over the years, I've played many a game that they've churned out. While the quality is middling at best - given the studio straddles the line of indie developer and triple-A studio - there is something endearing about their games that keep me coming back for more. Jankiness be damned!

Chapter One is set in Sherlock's younger years before he meets his erstwhile companion, Dr John Watson. While the game demonstrates that Sherlock has always had a special talent for deduction, there is an uncertainty to the character that we meet as he ponders the best way to utilise the truth. For example, one of the latter cases involved handing over incriminating evidence of a leading political leader of Cordona to better the lives of all African refugees. True, Sherlock could publish the information and see another corrupt politician fall, but doing so would not serve to benefit many an individual. Nor would it see restitution to the victim.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Chapter One centres on Sherlock visitng the island of Cordona, a fictional island that feels like it borrows elements from Cyprus and Malta's history. Our not-quite-great detective arrives to visit his mother's, Violet Holmes, grave. Upon immediately disembarking, he is embroiled in one mystery of another sparked by a challenge from his companion, Jon.

The Jon that stars in Chapter One is no doctor, however. Rather, he is Sherlock's imaginary friend. Because of this, Frogwares is able to incorporate their janky gameplay for narrative purposes, such as the teleporting John Watson from the good old days, the vanishing and clipping of Jon as he fades in and out of existence, or the fact that he is able to walk up walls.

He's not real to the people of Cordona and is a figment of Sherlock's imagination.

This plays into the story of the game as well, culminating in a showdown as Sherlock reckons with a traumatic event from the past. While I didn't like the choices that eventuated - agreeing with many people on Reddit that the logic Sherlock incorporated in his assessment of what had happened to his mother when he was ten was a little harsh - I did very much being given the opportunity to take a peek at a Sherlock before the one many of us fans see in his first novel appearance: A Study in Scarlet.

From a gameplay perspective, Chapter One incorporated many elements from the previous games including the mind palace and the connecting of clues to make deductions. Though 221b Baker Street didn't exist, Sherlock was able to make use of the archives in the city of Cordona and seemingly carried a box of chemicals with him to deduce whatever strange fluid he stumbled upon. This streamlined a lot of the gameplay from older games and also made sense from a story narrative.

My main issue, of course, was failing to take into consideration elements of the environment or character writing/ behaviour when making my deductions to certain cases and allowing my own biases to shine through. For example, the very first case. I very much wanted it to be the prone-to-anger partner, who acted like a rich entitled arsehole.

Alas, it was the poor spirit medium.

The other cases didn't have such clear cut culprits, with many open to interpretation. Fortunately, there were three major side quests that were able to fill the void left open by the need to have a very obvious antagonist - leading up to Sherlock wowing them with his deductive prowess before breaking down.

This added additional flavour to the island of Cordona, even as it worried me that so many murders or accidental manslaughter could be happening in and around the island.

Still, as a mystery nut, I very much appreciated how much of these cases Frogwares scattered throughout the game and probably would have preferred some more if I'm being perfectly honest.

Then, of course, there were the combat elements Frogwares included in their game. While previous titles didn't have as much action sequences beyond a few quick-time action button presses, here, Sherlock was facing off against various thugs. Most of these involved stunning them by shooting at weakpoints (such as their hat or a molotov cocktail strapped to their back) before rushing forward to knock them out.

While these encounters added a little spice to the usual 'go here' and 'search for clues' aspect of the game, these elements did also become quite repetitive due to how little these elements changed from encounter to encounter.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Chapter One much more than I did Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong solely because of how open the game world was and how much it tickled the itch I had to deduct the events of what happened. While I appreciated Jon's commentary of my greatness, I was also aggrieved when certain things I did, which felt logical at the time, were gated by how the game wished for Sherlock to proceed with a certain clue or piece of information.

In the end, though Chapter One still made me feel like I knew what I was doing. And honestly, that's probably the only real way to make a consulting detective of a modern-day 30 year-old woman who grew up reading tales of Victorian England and obsessing over the BBC version of Sherlock in the year of 2010, starring the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.

[skeith-platinumprincess]

Hey all! To celebrate all the amazing video game releases of 2023 I decided to throw together a big AMV showcasing 60 different titles that released this year! The song is Herald of Darkness by Poets of the Fall