Review of Sherlock Holmes Chapter One – The Beginning of the Famous Detective

If you don’t want to read the review, you can watch it. Above you will find our video review.

The Ukrainian studio Frogwares is not new to the field of game development. They have games like 80 Days, the recent The Sinking City, and most notably the Sherlock Holmes series of games they’ve released over countless years in their 20 years of existence. But since the announcement of the latest Chapter One project, it has become clear that this time the developers are trying something new. Instead of the classic Sherlock, we have here a younger, less experienced version that just looks around the world.

• Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (peer review), Xbox One, Xbox Series
• Publication date: November 16, 2021 (later PS4 and Xbox One)
• Developer: Frogwares
• Publisher: Frogwares
• Genre: Adventure, open world
• Czech location: Yes (subtitles)
• Multiplayer: Not
• Data to download: 25 GB
• Game time: Main story about 10 hours
• Sales version: Digital
• Price: 44.99 € (Steam), 1,189 Kč (PS Store), 1,289 Kč (Microsoft Store)

Sherlock as you don’t know him

But beautiful from the start. First of all, you need to clarify the name. I don’t know which marketer at Frogwares came up with the name for this game because it’s needlessly baffling. No, Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is not an episodic game and there will never be a Chapter Two. It’s just a story about Sherlock’s youth. At the start of the game, he arrives on Cordon’s home island, where he wants to visit his mother’s grave for the first time. However, he gradually discovers that the circumstances of her death were somewhat different than he thought, and begins to look for evidence from that time. In the meantime, he is doing other things, and here is Sherlock from Frogwares embroidered. But not quite…

As I mentioned at the beginning, Sherlock in the first chapter is not exactly what you know from books, TV series or previous games. And now I’m not just talking about age and looks, Sherlock is just different. They are different in nature. In the course of the game, we gradually observe how two different personalities fight in it. On the one hand, he can be very cold, on the other hand, very emotional. At the same time, he tries to find the truth in deeds, but is the truth always the best solution? Moral dilemmas and self-doubt will accompany you every step of the way. And Sherlock’s character development is what I liked the most about the game. In addition, he is accompanied all the time by his friend John, who is not what he seems at first glance. John is just a figment of Sherlock’s imagination, which has accompanied him since childhood, and almost all of them have lived together. During this time they have built a very strong bond and the chemistry between them works very well in the game.

Taste grows with food

But other characters are also very interesting and I must say that you will meet a lot of them. Each is unique and you rarely meet a clearly positive or negative character. Sometimes you are faced with a moral decision where you must choose the lesser evil. This is something Frogwares can do and they have done it in previous Sherlock games. But here they go even further, especially when it comes to the most basic plot. It consists of 5 cases and none of them bored me for sure. The start was a bit slower, but soon after that the story starts to pick up and really starts. Each case gets better and better, and at the end you slowly think that you will play another case. The story at the end is incredibly gradual, the ending itself is then completely brilliant and, most importantly, really amazing. I was a little skeptical at first, but after reading this I must say that for me this is a clear contender for the story of the year.

But the main story doesn’t end there. Frogwares has set itself the goal of creating a more ambitious game than ever before. The first chapter is an open world, so various side events and activities await you on Cordona Island. At first, the open world is a little empty, but gradually it fills up with various shops and more important buildings, such as a temple, a town hall, a police station, and the like. Cordona is a really beautiful island and the whole environment has been created by Frogwares as number one. The city lives its own life, and you will meet a variety of residents who will sometimes help you solve cases. But you will soon slide into using fast travel for a simple reason – there are no vehicles in the game, which I consider a big mistake. The sprint is not fast enough for the person to really want to catch up.

digital hell

But there is another, much more serious reason why I didn’t run around Cordona much, and this is the technical condition. I hate to say it, but I haven’t played such a bad game in a long time, and let me remind you that I played on PS5, which is definitely not a weak machine. It’s still relatively good on the inside, but on the outside you’re in for big FPS dips almost every few seconds. The game was really incredible, which completely spoils the whole impression. And that’s not all, because you will often witness all sorts of glitches in the form of flickering objects, bouncing textures, faulty sound, and the like. Frogwares just didn’t learn from their mistakes because they break their teeth almost every time during maintenance, which is terribly unfortunate.

The cutscenes are better, which the developers took great care of and played a lot with the camera, which they presented in one of the videos. In addition, everything is perfectly complemented by excellent dubbing and atmospheric music. The dialogues are well written and can be funny and emotional when needed.

Worse with lipsync, but in the end it wasn’t as bad as I feared. For an AA game, the quality of the facial animation is relatively acceptable. Plus, given the way the game looks, you can’t get mad at the developers. She already looked good in the trailers, but still exceeded my expectations. Of course, some details aren’t quite perfect, but that’s not to be expected given the size of the studio. In general, I would rate the graphics very positively, shadows and reflections should be praised.

Investigation full of mini-games

But enough on the technical side, I should finally introduce you to the gameplay itself, and there’s definitely nothing unknown about it if you’ve played previous Frogwares games. As part of the investigation, you examine evidence, interrogate witnesses, and use the Thought Palace to piece together Sherlock’s findings. Countless mini-games are also waiting for you in the form of chemical analysis, searching through the archives, eavesdropping or using disguises. Costumes and imitation of various stereotypes is a lot of fun.

So far, I have listed what the game has in common with previous games, but there is one important innovation – duels. From the very beginning, fans were very skeptical about their addition, but I was quite biased towards the system that Frogwares introduced, and I am happy to report that the developers did not disappoint. Of course, you shouldn’t have high expectations. You can be stressed by a little variability of opponents or dizzying control (sprint on R2 and a cauldron on a triangle I have not yet understood), but in the end I had a good time with fights. As the main component of the gameplay, it would definitely not fit, but as a side element, a very nice novelty.

More doesn’t mean better

But there are many more side effects. On Cordona Island, you can also look for treasures, or perhaps remember Sherlock’s childhood in the form of short clips from various events. There are also many side cases waiting for you, but their quality varies greatly. While some are really complex and can slowly catch up with some of the main ones, others are downright sloppy and would be even better if they weren’t in the game at all. I talk cases like, “I’ll read the report, I’ll search the crime scene, I’ll reconstruct the scene, and I’ll be done.” You will be done in a few minutes, but finishing the case will do you no good, because you have not established communication with the participants in the incident.

However, if we consider the gameplay as a whole, I have to praise the developers, because I found it really fun. On PS5, you can also expect absolutely excellent use of haptic feedback, which surprised me quite a bit in a third-party game. However, I have one complaint about the gameplay, and the fact is that sometimes you just don’t know what the game wants from you. You only use the icons to guide you to clues, but they can often confuse you. Sometimes you just do the right thing, you just miss something, and sometimes you completely miss one clue and wander helplessly around the scene for half an hour. I would definitely appreciate a better help system because situations like this can be very frustrating.

But in the end it’s positive. You will definitely be pleased that there are Czech subtitles in the game and I must say that they are of very high quality. You definitely can’t go wrong turning them on and I can recommend them to more experienced English speakers. The vocabulary in this game is quite demanding.

The sacrifice is worth it

But that’s really all I had in mind. So, the most pressing question: how would I rate the title as a whole? The answer is definitely not simple. While playing, my general idea of ​​the game changed a lot. The passion for trailers first gave way to sobriety in the form of a collision with reality (very poor technical condition), but gradually the passion for the plot began to prevail. So if you had asked me about the assessment a few hours after the start, my impressions would be very different. However, once the story is complete, I can in good conscience recommend the first chapter of Sherlock Holmes. You will grind your teeth sometimes, but if you just put up with the technical side, you will get an incredible ride. You will find a story about a young detective who can cheer you up and touch you emotionally. A story full of moral dilemmas and twists and turns. A story that you will definitely not forget.