Le testament de Sherlock Holmes

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is the sixth game by Frogwares that has the beloved sleuth as the main star. Sadly, some issues make the final product a bit rough around the edges.

As usual, you play as Sherlock Holmes, and, on occasion, as fatty Watson. Since the story is what lives at the core of adventure games, revealing too much of it would be a disservice. The plot basically opens with Holmes being slandered by the press as the mind behind a number of crimes. Simultaneously, Holmes also gets involved in a handful of gruesome cases. Everything seems to have a common denominator and (surprise!) it's your job to unravel the mystery. Keep in mind that it's an original story this time around (as opposite to being based on one of the books), even if there are some winks to previous tales. A few chunks of the narrative are a bit too grandiose, but, for the most part, it's fairly intriguing and entertaining.

Graphics are nothing to get excited about. Things look okay and it's understandable that, for an indie company that's making an adventure game, eye-candy is not on top of the list. Quality aside, animations are pretty clunky and sometimes it even feels like a step backwards from past experiences with the franchise. It's definitely hard to get immersed in what's supposed to be a cinematic experience if every other scene you're giggling (or cursing) at how stiff everyone looks. All of this would've been forgivable if it wasn't for the fact that, even on a powerful rig, the game stutters or slows down quite a lot given how it looks.

One of the major factors in the adventure genre tends to be voice acting. In this case, it's a toss-up. The pretty consistent voicing behind the main characters is frequently spoiled by some of the secondary counterparts and their appalling delivery. Maybe it's a problem with the writing more than the acting but, whatever the case, many folks in virtual London just sound weird. On top of that, a considerable amount of dialogue lines get re-hashed in certain stages of the game and some 'persuasion' sequences are absolutely insane. Paraphrasing an example:

Watson: Hey, lady. Let me in. This is a life or death situation! - Lady: You're rude and I most definitely will not allow you to pass. - Watson: Hello! I'm a biographer working for one of your tenants. Let me in, puh-leese. - Lady: No. Get out of my property, fatso. - Watson: Hi! I'm a painter doing a portrait for one of your tenants. Let me in? - Lady: Okay. - Watson: Cheerio!

Keep in mind that this isn't a "try again" one-shot scene. This is one continuous dialogue. It's a shame because it was easily fixed by adding a few extra lines.

The biggest flaws in The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, however, reside in how the game actually plays. Lately, there seems to be a fad for putting out really bad console ports in terms of movement and cameras and this is just another notch under the belt.

First off, you have three ways of moving about: your standard first-person, WASD layout; your typical click-to-move, multiple fixed cameras style; lastly, a sort of over-the-shoulder third-person view. Three different 'perspectives' feel like overkill, but you'll be switching all the time because all three are pretty terrible. The point-and-click option forces you to constantly hover over every pixel and see if your cursor changes to something you can interact with; the first person view just makes you miss clues that are too low on the floor or too high up in the air; also, the third person view gives you access to clues faster, but it's just awkward to control. It's truly a crime that a game with no combat, no intricate mechanics, no twitch reactions and no micro-managing, doesn't manage to have smooth controls.

To add insult to injury, some of the levels that you'll have to navigate are absolutely frustrating and not in a "oooh this level is so frustrating but I feel so challenged at the same time!" kind of way. It's reasonable that a big part of clue-hunting comes from objects being somewhat hidden or discovering awkward paths that lead to a backroom, but since the camera and the controls are already terrible as is, solely trying to explore some of the scenes for the first time will make you pull your hair out after a few hours.

Unsurprisingly, the pillar on which this title rests is the puzzle-solving. Again, this feels like 50-50. Some of the puzzles are a staple of the series by now, such as the deduction board, where you draw conclusions from what you know about your current case, or dealing with complex lock mechanisms to open a safebox. Those are mostly okay, but the pain takes over when you stumble upon these ridiculously absurd riddles where all you can do is click everything until something works, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of a puzzle. Now, this is such an obvious issue, that instead of redesigning some of the ideas or coming up with a hint system, the developers decided to make a "skip" button appear after a few seconds, which, again, makes you wonder what the point is.

Summarizing, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes feels like a half-baked attempt at continuing a long-running franchise that has worked well in the past. Regrettably, the controls and poor execution make playing this one more of a chore than a pleasurable experience. You would imagine that after six games, it would turn out to be smooth sailing and a streamline-extravaganza, but alas, it wasn't the case. If you are a fan of the British detective, you'll enjoy it, but then again, you would probably enjoy anything that has to do with Holmes in that case.

Too bad. Sherlock vs Jack was g-o-o-d.