Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective

This game was one of the first games I played as a youngster around the time computers were coming into people's homes for personal use. This game helped commence my passion of playing games.

Basically, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are assigned to solve bizarre cases and it's up to you as to how to go about solving the case. You have two backup sources - the Baker Street Regulars, a 'civilised collection of gentlemen and institutions' to help you with official documents, reports, etc, to guide you in your case. The other sources are the Baker Street IRregulars, a group of streetwise but well meaning orphans who you can use to visit suspects for you or to note anything that may be important to your search.

Peter Farley's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes is extremely watchable and Warren Green's portrayal of Dr. Watson is amusing and rather naive. The supporting cast, while not perfect, manage to keep up convincing performances and make you feel you actually are in good ole London.

What strikes me is how well this game looks - and feels - even 15 years after its' release. The feel of this game feels so new. You can play the mysteries over and over and know who killed who and why. Yet it has that funny feeling of originality. You just gotta come back playing more.

The only complaint I have about this game is the graphics. Even on my old pore-Windows computer (Apple, i think) the video scenes were blocky and the image was not clear. Squinting your eyes sorta helped though. This has not changed for Windows XP computers, sadly, although the DVD version of this game can act a very reliable substitute.

So the graphics is the only thing that has prevented me from giving this game full marks. Aside graphics, it's a brilliant mystery game with engaging characters, intriguing cases, an eerie music score and one of the best point-and-click games ever.

I had this frisbee back when I was a teenager and I didn't quite know why I hated it back then. I do now.

This isn't a game. This is nothing.

Crippled by long loads, poor interface, and the Mega CD's mind-blowing lack of colors and compression issues that make animated GIFs on Twitter look like a grand 70mm cinema projection, the "novelty" (there will be a lot of air quotes in this review) of FMV was this coaster's only selling point. Take that away, as it barely exists in any workable form here, and you will quickly realize there is absolutely nothing else to this.

From a production value perspective, the sets are cheap (it seems that they just redressed one room over and over), the soap opera acting is atrocious, and there is zero atmosphere. For a Sherlock Holmes adventure that is simply unforgivable. Seriously, the accents of the "actors" is all over the place, ranging from American, English, Canadian, Scottish, Australian, Neptunian...all within one sentence. It's like these people have never spoken words before and are having trouble forming sounds with their lips. It beggars belief. Holmes and Watson are played by Peter Farley and Warren Green...who have NEVER acted in anything since. Farley himself looks like a cross between Jonathan Hyde and David Schneider, hardly the aquiline Holmes we are used to. He even looks right into the camera at one point!

There are three cases featured on this first volume: The Case of the Mummy's Curse, The Case of the Tin Soldier, and The Case of the Mystified Murderess. What you basically have to "do" is watch the video scenes, identify a circle of characters, visit said characters from the lists in your index, and then establish who did what based on their stories when you go to see the judge, which wouldn't actually happen as Holmes was a "CONSULTING" detective. It's in the title for heaven's sake! The information would be passed onto Lestrade or another representitive of Scotland Yard and it would be them going to court.

There is a Steam version features better interface and improved video (which only enhances the cheapness of it all) over the Mega CD, but there are no trophies/achievements or trading cards, which really would have added some much needed dimension to the "gameplay" and it's just as worthless. There were three volumes in this dreadful series but only Volume 2 made it to the Mega CD as they probably realized that their system was tanking due to wretched software.

Never ever purchase this "game". It's a total waste of money and not even worth it from a nostalgia point-of-view. It's because of FMV trash with no real substance like this that the Mega CD got such a bad name and underperformed. Sega really did put their eggs in the wrong basket with this concept.