Platforms:
Xbox One, PS4, PC
Released:
June 10, 2016
Publisher:
Bigben Interactive
Developer:
Frogwares
Back onto the streets of London we venture. Sherlock Holmes The Devil’s Daughter, the new sequel to Sherlock Holmes Crime and Punishments, puts us in the shoes of the fabled detective. With new cases, tricky conundrums, interesting people and a brand new overarching plot line; The Devil’s Daughter is everything I want in a sequel. Taking off from the first game The Devil’s Daughter plays very similarly; a series of cases to solve, each with their own mysterious flair. If you haven’t played the series before it’s possibly one of the best detective games I’ve ever played. The game is broken up into a number of case segments, you’ll need to investigate the crime scene, pick up evidence and interview suspects. These are all solid mechanics; highly engaging and have been really well designed and immersive. The Devil’s Daughter however has brought in a bunch of new features to the formula.
Whilst this may not be the best looking game released or have the biggest budget, what these titles do well is engage. The cases are all varied and interesting and nothing is ever as it seems upon first glance. A lot of games make the mistake of over-signposting the correct choice when it comes to finding out a mystery and those that don’t just leave it open and ambiguous. I was never 100% positive on any of my case accusations and got a few wrong on my first choice, but I learnt. I learnt to check over all my notes, re-examine all my conversations with the suspects and make my own links and deductions outside the major ones the game displays.
As well as the major mechanics, the game also features little micro-games for different segments of the story. This is where and certain actions played out by Sherlock are fulfilled by the player with little games and I know this is super inconsequential but I want to bring it up anyway; the lock-picking mechanic is probably the best one I have ever seen in all of gaming. It’s tricky; make sense, visual works really well and very much like everything about Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter is exceedingly well executed.
The Devil’s Daughter adds in a overarching plot line which the first game didn’t have and while I’m always happy with more story and a greater plot I don’t think it affected the game in any meaningful way; it was just a nice framing device for the final case. Actually thinking back on it now, it also made for quite the ramped up conclusion. It could have been better built into the rest of the game however; for the most part it kind of felt like an ad break between the “shows” that are each case. It was just a bit disjointed.
The major strength of both titles is realization and execution, they’ve added player interactions wherever they can, anything that the Sherlock has to do is a micro game for the player to succeed or fail and everything is something you need to pay attention to. This was a development team that knew what they wanted to do and have managed to execute it in an exceedingly engaging way.
Positive:
- More of what I loved in the first game.
- Excellent expansion on the premise.
- Engaging story telling and gameplay.
Negative:
- A bit slow paced at times.
- Graphics still aren't near the cutting edge.
- Engine is a bit rough.
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter isn’t the game for everyone and I’m not going to pretend it is. If you’re a fan of the first, you’ll like The Devil’s Daughter as it’s basically more of that. I have had a great experience with the series and It’s one of the only games in recent memory that I couldn’t put down. So take this for what it’s worth: I had a stellar old time with this game and you might too.
About the Author
Morgan Archer
Having arguments in 140 characters or less since 2010
