Playing The Beekeeper’s Picnic – A Sherlockian Adventure (developed and published by Afoot Games) allows adventurers to experience a new era in the life of Sherlock Holmes. Classic point-and-click controls guide an older, more introspective Holmes around “the land of his dreams.” This location, far from Baker Street’s criminal element, is home to many well-drawn, fully voiced, pixel-art characters who present Holmes with puzzles to challenge his famed deductive skills. These trials cause Holmes to discover what friendship means and illuminate the blind spots in his usually one-track mind. Adventurers will enjoy this emotionally and intellectually satisfying journey.
Dr. John Watson’s injury while on a case causes Sherlock Holmes to make a change in his life – he decides to retire. He moves to the quaint seaside village of Fulworth to focus on keeping bees. When Watson shows up at his door one day, Holmes decides to convince him to stay by treating him to a surprise picnic.
However, Holmes’ quest to plan Watson’s perfect picnic is beset by multiple challenges and mysteries. For instance: to claim a prime outdoor luncheon spot, he must first solve a childish prank. Then he unearths the illegal doings of a nefarious scam artist to locate a spectacular view to gaze upon while picnicking. The gently paced conundrums perfectly emulate the sedate attitude of a world-weary retiree, while still honoring the key attributes of Holmes’ character – mystery and deduction.
Holmes inhabits a lovely pixel-art world of sight and sound. He moves with a spring in his step, though a lot of his complicated actions, like harvesting honey, are depicted using well-drawn still images rather than animation. The town of Fulworth and its surroundings contain many locations, and Holmes’ bee farm is the most intriguing because of its many allusions to past Sherlock Holmes stories. It is also alive with birdsong. The Beekeeper’s Picnic’s background soundscape features delicate piano melodies, as well as energetic wind and string instruments. The characters are brought to life by brilliantly written dialogs and exemplary voice acting – Holmes and Watson sound exactly as I think they should.
Adept at investigating and gathering facts, in The Beekeeper’s Picnic Holmes turns these facts into solutions inside his “brain-attic” – a room inside his head where he stores knowledge of people and items, and where he performs deductions on a blackboard. The top-half of the attic interface contains the facts Holmes has gathered. The bottom half reveals a list of Holmes’ tasks. Using the mouse, adventurers click on the task they want to solve, then click on one fact and drag it on top of another. If the two are linked Holmes will explain their relationship.
The “brain-attic” represents a marked evolution in Holmes' character. It is implied that, in the past, Holmes was totally absorbed in his detective work. He collected no facts that were irrelevant to the case upon which he was working. Yet now, the older Holmes’ attic is filled (among other things) with portraits of people from the local town, and when he examines their portraits, Holmes has a lot to say about them. Apparently, he is beginning to realize that people have an importance beyond detective work.
Classic point-and-click controls make directing Holmes elementary. They control his mental and physical functions: moving, interacting with the environment, gathering and using items, and making deductions. Left-clicking on a hotspot activates a command wheel. It contains a magnifying glass, a gramophone, a hand and a gear. Clicking on the wheel's magnifying glass makes Holmes examine the hotspot and remember any relevant facts about it. Using the magnifying glass on a person causes Holmes to make a thorough examination of that character. Clicking on the wheel's gramophone causes Holmes to address the hotspot. Using the wheel’s hand makes Holmes pick up items and add them to his inventory.
Frequent conversations with the various characters can be initiated by simply clicking on a character to activate a list of topics. Using the gear from the command wheel on the telephone makes Holmes call his brother, Mycroft, for helpful hints. The game lacks a hotspot indicator, which would have made it easier to locate screen exits. Even without a hotspot indicator, the interface makes moving around and gathering facts very easy. Since preparing a surprise picnic can eventually become an intricate task, however, Holmes may need to rest. Luckily saving the game is straightforward, and players may type a label to identify their saved games. The lack of an autosave feature doesn’t hamper enjoyment of the game.
Altogether, The Beekeeper’s Picnic is a wonderful piece of interactive art. It calls out Holmes to grow and change in ways that make him uncomfortable without altering the aspects of his personality that fans value. Hey adventurers – one last Sherlock game is afoot, and the final prize is friendship and self-knowledge.
Game information
Our Verdict:
While its sedate pace differs from previous Sherlock Holmes offerings, The Beekeeper’s Picnic – A Sherlockian Adventure is a fitting coda to Holmes’ illustrious career. Its enjoyable dialogs, delicately tinted environs, and manageable puzzles enhance his newly found grasp of life’s ultimate challenges.
The Good:
- Appealingly soft-hued pixel-art graphics
- First-rate writing and voice acting
- Richly harmonic soundtrack
- Effective hint system
- Puzzles and “brain-attic” challenges enhance the narrative
The Bad:
- Lack of a hotspot indicator leads to much searching for screen exits in the outdoor spaces
GAME INFO
The Beekeeper’s Picnic – A Sherlockian Adventure is an adventure game by Afoot Games released in 2025 for Linux, PC. It has a Stylized art style, presented in 2D or 2.5D and is played in a Third-Person perspective.
