Adventure Gamers - Forums

I just finished my first Sherlock Holmes game, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes and loved it. I also noticed that those Sherlock Holmeses that are on Steam are all in massive discounts for a few days more, and was wondering which ones I should get. Judging by the reviews, I started with the best one, but which ones would also compare, in terms of gameplay and story? And which games are just worth playing in general…

The ones that are on sale are:
Nemesis
Jack the Ripper
Silver Earring
The Awakened (remastered)
and then Mystery of the Mummy and Mystery of the Persian Carpet, but I assumed from the reviews that they aren’t quite the same. (Also, there was some casual Hound of the Baskervilles).

(and the Testament is on sale, too, of course)

diego - 30 December 2013 06:30 AM

You should play Silver Earring, Awakened and Nemesis. The order doesn’t matter.

No love for Jack the Ripper?

I was wondering about Awakened, though, how horror-y is it? Usually I’m not so into the horror genre.

UPtimist - 30 December 2013 01:28 PM

diego - 30 December 2013 06:30 AM

You should play Silver Earring, Awakened and Nemesis. The order doesn’t matter.

No love for Jack the Ripper?

I liked it. It wasn’t as difficult as the others (I think Nemesis was the most difficult).
But I still got stuck in a couple of places.

If you like Sherlock, play all of them. They’ve each got their good points, and they are different enough that none of them is like a poorer version of any of the others. I think Jack and Silver Earring were my favorites. I liked how well the story in Jack was researched to come up with a plausible culprit. But Silver Earring was the most like a Sherlock Holmes story.

The only reason to play them in order would be that in at least one of the later ones (I can’t remember which), there was a cut scene showing Watson having a nightmare that related back to events in The Awakened. But since the nightmare had little to do with the rest of the game, it seemed to be more of an advertisement for playing The Awakened than anything else.

UPtimist - 30 December 2013 01:28 PM

No love for Jack the Ripper?

YES HERE!!!! Jack the Ripper is imo without a doubt the best title in the series. Not only is it a really good SH story but it’s also the best piece of Ripperfiction I;ve come across. One that actually has a very plausible Ripper. I hate From Hell with a passion because it has a complete bollocks plot that has already been proven to be false but yet Moore makes it look like historical fact. SH vs Jack the Ripper does the exact opposite. It’s quite clearly a work of fiction but paints a very realistic portrait of the Whitachapel killer and has a very believable plot and ending.

Also if you’re a Sherlockian like me you can’t go wrong with The Silver Earring. It’s got a story very much in the vein of classic Conan Doyle stories.

If you’re a fan of other literature as well you’ll undoubtedly like The Awakened and Nemesis. The Awakend is quite a dark tale with some supernatural overtones. However it is all very much in the style of Conan Doyle’s work and isn’t overly gory either. It’s not really a horror game. More of a detective game with supernatural themes. Nemesis or as my cpy is called SH vs Arsene Lupin is a much more lighthearted tale but quite good fun as well with some pretty clever puzzles. It never really thrills like The Awakened and Jack the Ripper do but it’s always fun and the plot is actually quite clever. If there is one thing you can say about Frogwares is that they’re good at plotting and this is no exception.

If I had to put them in order I’d say:

SH vs jack the Ripper
SH - The Awakened
SH - The Silver Earring
SH vs Arsene Lupin

I haven’t played any of the other SH’s yet. I’ve played about a third of Testament of SH and I really liked it but it’s too early too really say anything about it for me.

Holmes vs. Ripper was great, very atmospheric and gritty. I’ve played the entire series except the casual games, and this was my favourite as a Victorian era buff.

Holmes vs. Lupin was one of the toughest AGs I’ve ever played but very well made with some really challenging puzzles.

Thanks everybody for the help! In the end, I decided to play it safe and get all four They were really cheap, after all. I’ll probably play them in chronological order…