80

This game is good

Sharptap | Oct. 5, 2012 | See all Sharptap's reviews »

It's true it looks like L.A Noire and fans will see why. But this game game is still a good game. The graphics are good and the facial expressions are pretty good. For those who didnt read the books , do not worry , you can play this game without any sherlock holmes experience. The gameplay is like the other game , there is no big change on it , you look for things , solve puzzles and stuff like that. Just like Sherlock Holmes. The "dark side" of SH is a interesting thing , but i dont want to spoil it here.

89

Well worth its price and Sherlock Holmes franchise in general.

fable2 | Oct. 4, 2012 | See all fable2's reviews »

20 minutes into this game, I felt sudden urge to write an e-mail to developers, with thanks to making so good-looking and exciting game about my most favourite detective. While previous games felt budget-valued and struggling to fit into modern game market, Testament of Sherlock Holmes comes as a winner. Seriously, this tops every other Sherlock Holmes game made so far, for the first 3 hours, it feels like magic. Visuals look wonderful compared to last installment and have much more artistic direction in it. Although it's not built on last-gen engine, it's still visible that it's pushed to the limits.\r\nSound is wonderful also. If anyone has complaints about voice acting, mostly I didn't notice any, aside few strange characters, who have too little lines to be disturbing anyway. Music suits well and enriches atmosphere as it should.Now... difficulty is strange with this one. The puzzle mini-games are insanely difficult (but option to skip then once you messed up few times is nice), the point'n'click-style puzzles are about average, no problem for veteran adventurer... but a bit hard for beginners. And for general detective work, it varies from simple to strange -- Jack the Ripper case felt much more logical and straightforward, while here it's more of a guesswork.rnrnThe kids-finding-book cutscenes felt a bit cheesy, but they are brief and don't disrupt game story itself in any way.rnrnThe game is quite long, and story takes some strange and unexpected twists, but in the end, you feel like you've watched an awesome 10-15 hour movie.rnrn

80

Nothing like LA Noire, but don't let that stop you

Layton | Sept. 27, 2012 | See all Layton's reviews »

If your experience with this game was looking at the screenshots and nothing else, you might assume this to be another game like LA Noire or maybe even Heavy Rain. Sherlock Holmes differs from these mystery-solving games in that in The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, you solve mysteries. While the game features a hint system, it's up to you to find clues and determine what they mean, rather than just clicking on glowing clues and being told what happened.

If you've played any of the previous games in the series (such as The Awakened, SH vs. Jack the Ripper or Nemesis/Arsene Lupin, all three of which are worth playing) you generally know what to expect. There's no large open world, and the voice acting still isn't that great. The only real addition to the formula, aside from the hint system and updated graphics, is the ability to move around in a third person behind-the-character camera instead of just point-and-click and first person. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the previous games were all fantastic adventure games that stand out greatly in the tidal waves of shoddy pixel hunts and obtuse square-peg-in-the-circle-hole solutions that other modern adventure games just can't seem to avoid. For once an adventure game has a hint system that doesn't actually need it, as the puzzles are actually solvable through logic.

However, as with any good adventure game, the story is equally important, if not more important than the gameplay. And for a while, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes features a brilliant storyline showing off the "dark side" of Holmes, in which he begins to be blamed for the very crimes he has solved. In the last hour or so, however, the game slips. It has a noticeable drop in quality in both the storyline to the voice acting, and it seems like they were going for a much better ending before they decided to change it at the last minute. Characters are brought in that really didn't have any place in this story, and then barely used, and seem to have practically been hired in the last week of development to rush through voice work. The game offers very little of an epilogue, and the conclusion is just anticlimactic enough for you to notice it. Considering how great the story before the last hour is, it's a shame to see that they picked what might be the least interesting or powerful ending out of all the ways the story up to that point could have ended.

With that being said, the game is still great fun, and if you're an adventure game fan then you'll most likely love it anyways, as I did. The ending isn't necessarily BAD, it's just not very good compared to the fantastic buildup. As long as you keep that in mind, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is well worth the relatively low cost.

78

A copy of LA Noir ?

leoleelok | Sept. 25, 2012 | See all leoleelok's reviews »

If you really really like LA Noir then you would like this game as well. Given the fact that both of them are detective games, similar style.

Graphics: Are ok. You don't expect Crysis II-alike graphics to feature in this game. but I would say decent graphics here.

Fun: Yes, it's a fun and interesting to play with. The gaming experience is not too long though. maybe 10 for experienced player, like if you always play those i-phone detective game.

90

Superb game

jeyko | Sept. 23, 2012 | See all jeyko's reviews »

Firsly, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is one beautiful game. The facial animations and environments are nicely made. This is complimented by the whole adventure nature of the game with really good controls on M+Keyboard(it's a console port so I expected them to be pretty horrible). The story is really interesting, which I really liked in other Frogware games too. But here's the problem - one of the main elements of the game is just too damn easy - the puzzles. It's more of an interactive adventure (like Dear Esther) than a movie. But you can get around 10-15 hours of singleplayer fun, as most games tend to do nowadays. But it's quality fun and is definitely worth it. I wholeheartedly recommend The Testament of Sherlock Holmes to everybody looking for an adventure and most adventure games looking for something relaxing and not that engaging.

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