Crimes and Punishments: Sherlock Holmes (Xbox ONE)

I ummed and arred about getting this one. The last Sherlock game was a raging disappointment in terms of characterisation. By the end of the game, having to listen to Sherlock talk was almost insufferable.

Thankfully Frogware seemed to have taken some kind of feedback (I’m sure it wasn’t mine) on board and the Sherlock present in this game is actually likeable. Sherlock and Watson actually have a relationship that could be considered friendship and there is a respect present that was horribly absent from the last game. It makes the characters far more relatable – in terms of Sherlock not being a cunt and Watson not having to absorb an abhorrent level of abuse that makes any relationship unbelievable.

The games itself is a point and click adventure game with several puzzle aspects thrown in. You take Sherlock through six cases that are stand-alone but also linked in some way. I think I managed to get half way through the first case before resorting to a guide though. Some of the connections you have to make are quite obscure.  I did dip in and out of the guide when I needed to but the game makes that cardinal sin of forcing you to follow the route it wants you take even if you figure out the answer anyway.

That said, the most intriguing and different element of the game is that it allows you to reach the wrong conclusion for the investigations. I found this to be an excellent addition to the game play mechanics as it added a non-linear element.

Another feature of the game play is that Sherlock has developed Spider-Sense which can be toggled on to allow him to... be Sherlock and notice stuff that others have missed. I understand it but it seems a bit strange to have to ‘activate’ Sherlock’s ability to be Sherlock.

Visually it offers more than its predecessors but that’s to be expected from the next generation. The music is in keeping with the time period for the game which is great and I also didn’t notice it as a negative in the background.

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 25 Achievements

With 25 achievements on offer and no DLC, it’s a relatively straightforward game. 10 of the achievements are related to the main story or completing the main case sequences. Of the remaining 15, there are 2 that you really have to go out of your way to get - getting all possible conclusions and achieving the maximum personality rating.

Finding all possible conclusions is the difficult one. You have to gather all evidence available to identify all of the wrong conclusions too so rushing to the right answer and accidentally pressing the wrong button can result in you needing to replay a case. It is an easy as pressing x instead of a to do this.

The maximum personality one is difficult in its vagueness. You have to pick the same options for all cases to either condemn or absolve the criminals. This isn’t as straight forward as clicking ‘condemn’ or ‘absolve’ at the end of a case as the possible outcomes aren’t that clearly labelled. Again, it’s another one where one miss-click will ruin your progress.

Downloadable Content – N/A

So to sum up it’s an easy and relatively quick completion with a guide but without a guide it would be quite ridiculous to find everything you need. That’s the glory of the game though – it’s as hard as you want to make it for yourself. I would recommend it over the others if anyone wanted to try out a Sherlock Holmes game.

Game of Throne: A Telltale Games Series

If you ever want to complete a game quickly don’t play a game with your partner. In fact, if you want to complete a game quickly, don’t play a TellTale game is probably better advice!

I love A Game of Thrones so when TellTale announced they were doing a game, I was all over it. That was back in December 2014 when Episode 1 was released. I finished Episode 6 in December 2015. A year. A year to complete a game that could be completed in an afternoon if started once all episodes were released (and not played with a partner). This also shows how far behind I am with my reviews, even more so than when I initially wrote this one.

Anyway, ridiculous release timescales aside, there is a game to play here... sort of. Another point and click adventure game but a game nonetheless.

When I say ‘play’, what I mean is ‘interactively watch.’ There is nothing really that needs doing as the game is basically one long quick time event. As with most TellTale games, there are several dialogue choices you can make which can lead to several different outcomes, however these aren’t really all that different (I did have to read up on endings online to find this out though).

Game of Thrones follows the story of the Northern house of the Forresters after the red wedding and how they are trying to survive in the Game of Thrones world with Ramsey Snow trying to have them destroyed in typical Ramsey Snow fashion. The whole game is story-driven so there is not really much more I will say about it. If you want to find out about the story and moral choices, play the game.

The game itself, to be frank and honest, is an absolute joke. If you are going to spend ages releasing episodes for your episodic game, the least you can do is make them crash free, glitch free and graphically acceptable. The game is none of these of these things which is more than disappointing. It’s unacceptable. I don’t understand what makes a developer think that they can get away with some rushed bollocks after promising the public they will deliver. It’s more the fault of Microsoft and Sony for allowing it but what do they care, they keep getting our money. Maybe it’s our fault? But how are we supposed to know it’s shit without paying for it?

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 48 Achievements

There’s not really a lot to say. Play the game through making any decision you want and don’t die. There is nothing that requires you to go off the beaten track to get anything extra. I didn’t have the patience or will to play through the game again to get a different ending and I doubt many others would either.

So once again, they could have expanded the play time with a more diverse achievement list but they chose not to. It feels more like they couldn’t be bothered to do it more than they thought the story was strong though. Laziness would be in keeping with the glitchtastic gameplay, freezes and graphical defects.

Downloadable Content

You have to pay for each episode but it’s not really DLC in the true sense. People still moaned about it though. You know the score with these games by now – if you don’t like it, don’t play them.

It may seem from the above that I hated the game. This isn’t true. I thought it okay considering all of the above but only okay. It’s no Walking Dead or Wolf Among Us, and I think they realise that seeing as they have released another 2 Walking Dead games. I sincerely doubt fans of this game will see a follow up until December 2018. With the last episode released in 2020.