Logically, if you’re creating a gameplay teaser for a mystery game, it seems like it would make sense to show off some dead body investigating. Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments heads down a different route, however, and I can’t say that I wasn’t intrigued by what I saw.
Opening up the brief two-minute gameplay demo is a shot of the player walking through Sherlock’s abode, and eventually stopping at a closet for a change of wardrobe. Apparently, Sherlock is trying to obtain some information by approaching someone with a specific set of clothing, but one thing that really stuck out was that there were quite a few different options for dress up. So, if you’ve ever wanted to dictate the fashion of Sherlock Holmes, maybe go place your pre-order now?
Moving on, Sherlock comes into contact with the suspect and gets thrust into an awkward-looking arm wrestling mini-game. I’m sure it’s fairly simple in action, but hell if I knew what was going on. What’s important, though, is that all of the sleuthing around looked pretty fun.
What really needs to be taken away from this short gameplay demo is just how updated the graphics are and how much smoother the framerate is from past Sherlock Holmes games. I suppose it’s to be expected, considering that Crimes and Punishments will be the first iteration to take advantage of the Unreal 3 engine, but having witnessed the improvements first-hand is a liberating feeling. Seriously, these games ran like garbage last generation.
All that really remains to be seen is if the story can reach a satisfying level of sophistication with a good amount of twists and turns. Usually the developers do get that right, so I have my hopes up.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments will be released on September 30th for PC, last generation consoles, and current generation consoles.
