Adventure Gamers - Forums

I just wanted to chime in and say that I really enjoyed this game as well. And, while I was surfing for screenshots of it just now I came across this awful review.

I thought the reviewer was joking at first, but… apparently some gamers are this clueless about the adventure genre. Talk about missing the point.

Dienerstrasse - 14 October 2012 01:58 PM

I just wanted to chime in and say that I really enjoyed this game as well. And, while I was surfing for screenshots of it just now I came across this awful review.

I thought the reviewer was joking at first, but… apparently some gamers are this clueless about the adventure genre. Talk about missing the point.

This is hilarious. Well, that’s what you get for trying to sell adventure games to the console monkeys.

It must be a mock review at least partially. I mean that last sentence…he couldn’t have meant it.

Since Frogwares people are reading this thread, I figured I’d post my impressions and hopefully constructive criticisms here:

- The overall impression was that this game fits somewhere between Awakened and JtR in both strong and weak points. Stronger than JtR but weaker than Awakened in atmosphere, pacing, and gameplay; stronger than Awakened but weaker than JtR in fidelity and immersion (that is, feeling like you’re really in Sherlock Holmes’ world). Both were good games that I enjoyed, and that’s true for Testament as well.

- The technical side is, without questions, a vast improvement. The detail and love put in the models and textures is absolutely amazing, and I found myself taking tons of screenshots just for the pleasure of it. The instant-switch camera is also a fantastic idea that a lot more games (not just adventure games) should really adopt. (I played about 90% first-person 10% point-and-click.)

- On the narrative side, I felt that story was well-paced and engaging, but not memorable and very broken. That is, almost every scene and character I investigated felt unique and interesting, but the connections were weak, sometimes nonexistent, and when the overarching plot (such as it is) was explained, it felt like there were about a dozen small stories that Frogwares tried to clumsily tie together, and the result didn’t really make much sense. Spoilers for more: “Moriarty tries to take over the world through poisoned soup and a fake prince, while discrediting Sherlock Holmes at the same time”. That’s pretty silly, isn’t it? But more importantly, there are big narrative points that just come out of nowhere. Woodville has a couple of very short appearances and then bam! he’s suddently (a) crazy and (b) the most important part of Moriarty’s plan. The anarchists and Schliemann were cartoon characters and they didn’t make much sense as Moriarty’s allies.

Most importantly, though, there’s too much ESSENTIAL stuff that happens off-screen. [spoiler]When Holmes reappears after his fake death - and by the way, Watson finding him in some sewers at the right time was really stupid - he should have explained his innocence, and then he and Watson (and the player) should have figured out Moriarty’s plan. Instead, immediately after Watson finds Holmes, you get a cutscene where Holmes just TELLS you everything. Woodville is fake, Baynes was a plant, what the Bishop and his nephew knew, or the fact that Moriarty was involved at all… ALL of this should have been discovered via investigation and deduction. Would have been far more interesting than following the nephew for half an hour then having him die without saying anything.[/spoiler]

Also the ending came out of nowhere and was a completely random revelation. If it’s meant to set up a sequel that’s cool, otherwise… why?

- The puzzles were good. I cannot say whether they hit the right spot for the audience in general, but I found myself having to think a little without ever needing a walkthrough. (The only puzzle that I think was mistaken was the very last one with the lights, where just pushing all the buttons then fiddling a bit solved it before I had even begun analysing the pattern.) I think the next game should probably stay similar in general difficulty, but add two or three really hard puzzles, which most people will just Skip. (Another option would be to make the extra-hard puzzles optional, and have them only give you a Honour and some non-essential information). Definitely keep the Skip button, it’s better than alt-tabbing to a walkthrough; a nice touch would be if there was a menu where you could go back and try again any puzzles you Skipped, but I suppose you could always just save the game.

On the other side, I really did not like that so many puzzles were disconnected and nonsensical. I counted 13 magical locks on random boxes and safes that asked you to play an iPhone puzzle game to open them. That’s not good, it shouts “You’re not really Sherlock Holmes, you’re just playing a silly videogame!”. None of the last three games were so blatant about it, the vast majority of Frogwares’ puzzles were disguised as part of the game world: the jewel slider from JtR and the syringe in Awakened, or the paper plane in Testament for that matter, are good examples. More like those, less “Hmm, that’s a very sophisticated lock for this secretary’s personal box…”. I have Kongregate.com for that sort of things.

- The actual investigation part is improved a little over JtR, but not by much. The deduction board is STILL too open to trial-and-error; there should be five or seven options for each card, so you have to actually choose, and each wrong option should be contradicted by one specific clue. The chemical analysis looked cool but played bad; it was mindless memorisation without choice or guessing, any monkey could do it. The big thing, hidden object search, is MASSIVELY improved by the option of a sixth sense, which removes a ton of frustration. However, I don’t think a time-based cooldown is the best way to manage the ability; it mostly just means pointless waiting. I think a better option would be to have a fixed number of uses, dependent on a difficulty level (example - Very Easy: Infinite, Easy: 100, Normal: 50, Hard: 25, Very Hard: 0. Maybe the optional hard puzzles I mentioned above could give you some more uses as a reward?). Oh, and Sixth Sense really really should NOT highlight objects you’ve already clicked.

Wow, I’m almost at the character limit. Ok, I’ll sum up my ‘review’ as this: big technical and UI improvements, but it felt like the writers and the designers were working in different buildings, at different times. I hope the next game is more organic and tight

Dienerstrasse - 14 October 2012 01:58 PM

I just wanted to chime in and say that I really enjoyed this game as well. And, while I was surfing for screenshots of it just now I came across this awful review.

I thought the reviewer was joking at first, but… apparently some gamers are this clueless about the adventure genre. Talk about missing the point.

“The biggest problem is its hamfisted level design, which literally forces you to track down every clue - however unnecessary - before enabling you to proceed.”

Uhh… you buy a Sherlock Holmes game and complain about having to track down clues? 

Dale - 15 October 2012 08:17 AM

Oscar - 14 October 2012 08:35 PM

“The biggest problem is its hamfisted level design, which literally forces you to track down every clue - however unnecessary - before enabling you to proceed.”

Uhh… you buy a Sherlock Holmes game and complain about having to track down clues? 

Complaining about not being able to proceed because you’ve not found an unnecessary clue is justifiable though.

Haven’t played the game myself yet, but if you’re being held back by a clue that’s not actually going to further the investigation, then it’s a valid point about the game design.

Most of the time you have no idea what is going to further the investigation. Frogwares made a game where you play as someone who knows what he’s doing without telling you what he’s doing or why he’s doing it (except for the times when you play as Watson). It’s only really after Holmes reveals what he’s been doing the whole time that your goal becomes the slightest bit clear. That’s why most of the puzzles are isolated mini-games and there are so few deductions, because they wanted to create suspense by keeping the larger picture from you. The story’s great but for gameplay it’s probably Frogwares’ weakest.

I just finished the game. It was entertaining, with a gripping plot (although the ending was not very surprising) and with a good lenght…but IMHO most of the puzzles were far too easy. There is a lot of mini puzzles in the game (sometimes, it reminded me of Safecracker, which was a little tougher than this one) and, even in hard mode, it is a piece of cake to solve them (the only one that needed more thinking than usual was the chessboard puzzle near the beginning). I remember that Sherlock vs Arsene Lupin was far more challenging. But, despite the overall easiness, I enjoyed the game (even if I think that the score of 4.5/5 is a little too generous). 

I enjoyed it so I’d like to post the negatives I found (since I consider them important since most of the rest were positive).

1. The ‘IQ test’ puzzle was a bit weak (the one in bishop’s nephew’s room). 2 out of 4 of them had only one answer but 2 had alternative answers. As a result, after having found correct answers - and simple answers - that followed a logical pattern, the puzzle would not complete without finding the answers the designers needed. i.e. if a puzzle in a game has more than one - correct - answers, it should complete with those multiple answers.

edit: Ah, also the ‘jungle puzzle’ had a small part of it being vaguely described and as a result being a bit frustrating since it wasn’t very simple to rearrange stuff around for too many experiments (e.g. ‘were only the dead animals ‘lowered’?’ ‘was the monkey dead?’ ‘shouldn’t the lion face at the direction of the elephant somehow?’ etc.

2. A couple of graphics effects should be given more attention but in very few instances, e.g. the explosion at the end. By the way, did you notice the ending credits graphics? Very impressive and professional.

3. Towards the end it had some logical errors, though very minor. Holmes knowing some details Watson would mention slightly later.

4. Who was the ‘ultimate mastermind’? It was left unanswered at an important point.

edit: 5. I have to mention this I guess. I admit the whole atmosphere of the dialogues was too dry. One could say it should be like that in that story, though I’d prefer a bit more humour and warmth of character by both of them, especially Watson.

SamandMax - 12 October 2012 04:24 PM

Thinking back on it, I have a couple of questions about some plot points in the game that I wonder if anyone had some answers to:

What is exactly that mysterious package Holmes leaves at the judge’s house? We know it’s not a bomb, as its Moriarty and the three anarchists who were behind the explosion, yet he still goes out of his way to leave it there in the most suspicious way possible. Is it to trick Watson into thinking he’s a criminal as part of his plan to make Moriarty believe he won and disgraced him?

And near the end of the game, when Watson finds Sherlock after he fakes his death, how does he know to search in the sewers? Was there a clue earlier on in the game that I don’t remember which would’ve led them down there?

These. And I have one other question, related to the first one: How does Holmes know that he has to leave the Judge’s hous quickly because it’s going to explode?