The Testament of Sherlock Holmes

I bought this game primarily because I was reading the Sherlock Holmes stories at the time. I also greatly enjoyed LA Noire, and looked forward to another game that required you to use your brain. The story within the game is a decent go at a Sherlock Holmes adventure, though I feel as though it lost its way towards the end.

In terms of gameplay, it isn't great. The graphics are dated and the character movement is clunky at best. It also tends to be a tad glitchy. The puzzles and early detective work are well thought out and relatively challenging, though at times it becomes less about connecting everything together and more about diligent searching of the environment.

I felt that one of the stronger elements of the game was the "deduction board", where you have to piece together the clues you discover to advance the case... and this was criminally underused (only 3 times I believe). It is also a rather short affair, lasting at most 15 hours all told... and it has zero replay value. Another issue I had was that there is no chance to go wrong as such. It is impossible to advance the game unless you do everything you need to do. A Heavy Rain type mechanic would have been excellent, where your decisions change how the game plays out... but that isn't the case here.

I'd recommend getting the game if you can find it cheap, enjoy Sherlock Holmes books, want a laugh at how annoying Watson is, and are a bit of a trophy hound. It has to be one of the easiest platinums ever released.

This is a modern take on what used to be called an "Adventure Game" - the idea being that you move your character around and investigate clues, to take the action forward.

This is an analytical game and moves at a measured pace, controlled by your input to the puzzles that are presented - you don't move on until you solve them. So this is not a game where your reactions are tested and you have fast-moving action and shooting things. You can take your time to solve any puzzle and the "Deduction Board" halts any action, while you think about the facts that Holmes and Watson gather from the crime scene.

The game is quite faithful to the Sherlock Holmes books and features quotes from Conan Doyle, rather than being based on any of the recent films or TV series. Holmes and Watson are resolutely British and the voice acting is good, with solid English accents that would sit well in the period. Holmes is cool and aloof, self confident to the point of arrogance, while Watson is more animated and emotional. During the game, you control either character - one at a time.

The graphics are very good for the backgrounds - the interiors,buildings and London itself have been rendered in great detail, giving a real sense of atmosphere and place. The characters are a bit stiff and awkward, which is maybe why it's only a 4 star game - but then they are not rushing about, driving the action.

The game starts with a strange scene of children finding toys in a loft, which is really badly animated and they talk incoherently in strange American accents - it's enough to put you off the game, before you've even started. However, once they find Watson's diary of events, we are straight into the realistic world of Holmes' London and after brief familiarisation, we are into much darker stuff; with a tortured and mutilated body rendered in great detail, which we must explore fully.

The adult nature of the game, makes the "cutesy" opening scene all the more out of place and I would warn people not to get lulled into thinking this is suitable for children. It has full-on gore and adult themes from the off and the puzzles are pretty hard.

If you are looking for a fast-paced thriller with jokey leads like the film with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law - then forget it, this game is more serious and moves slowly. But if you want an intelligent game that takes the original books seriously, then this is for you. It is possible to get stuck for a long time on some of the puzzles and deductions, but there is always an answer and I think they are appropriate for the 'Great Detective'.

`Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper' was not the best game to grace consoles this generation, but in the limited world of 360/PS3 adventure games it had a good story and the puzzles were fun. For this reason I had some hopes for `The Testament of Sherlock Holmes', developers Focus had another year of experience to build on their last game and provide an even better experience, so why is it so much worse? For one thing, the story is nowhere near as compelling as `Ripper'. In most cases a story does not really matter during a game, but as `Testament' is an adventure title that slowly moves along, it is of paramount importance that the gamer is drawn in. You are not and Holmes fans will also be upset by the disregard for some of the character's cannon.

The game is best when playing the puzzles themselves, they are tricky, but in most cases achievable. The game screams its PC routes in the style of puzzle, as they have not evolved much from the days of `The 7th Guest'. It is during some of the puzzles and the majority of the traditional adventure aspects of the game that the PC base damages the console game. Moving around the screen with a control pad is difficult and delicately moving parts of puzzles is at times impossible. Focus appear to have done the bare minimum needed to convert the game onto console, so you are left at times with a glitchy mess that is hard to move around in. Not good enough.

This lack of effort continues in the graphics and cut scenes; both would not look out of place in a 2005 PC game - unacceptable for a full RRP console game. All could have been forgiven had the story interested me a bit more, but as it was, only the puzzles detracted from the tedium of the story and annoyance of the controls. This is a game suitable only for those adventure fans desperate for a game to try.