Developed and published by Frogwares,Sherlock Holmes Chapter Onegives players an inside look at the scarcely explored mind of a young Sherlock Holmes. Described as an open-world detective adventure,Sherlock Holmes Chapter Oneallows players to solve mysteries and choose how they’re resolved. Players can decide to be more cunning or brute about their detective tactics, but they need to be careful because it will affect how others perceive Sherlock. Set on the Mediterranean island of Cordona, players will have a ton of places to explore as they solve various mysteries on the island.
There’s no official release date forSherlock Holmes Chapter Oneyet, but Game Rant got early access to a preview version of the game. Not every aspect of the game has been fully realized yet, sothis preview focused on showcasingthe detective mechanics like pinning evidence, concentration, and eavesdropping. WhileSherlock Holmes Chapter Onemay not be completely finished yet, what we experienced was an interesting take on the character of Sherlock Holmes.
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Gameplay Mechanics Showcased in Sherlock Holmes Chapter One
Sherlock Holmes Chapter Onestarts with Sherlock feeling seasick as he comes into port at Cordona. He converses with his friend Jon (a different person from the well-known John Watson) as they make their way to the hotel they’ll be staying in. The game moves rather quickly from there, thrusting players into a mini-mystery of trying to find the owner of a cane.
Locating the cane’s owner requires playersto utilize the “Concentration” mechanic where Sherlock essentially zooms in on key details of the cane that help him narrow down who it could belong to. While this mechanic is introduced with the cane, it quickly, and unsurprisingly, becomes an important part of gameplay overall and a valuable detection tool. It’s not only useful but also fun to use in-game, especially when building profiles of people.
The “Pinned Evidence” mechanic is both useful and a bit annoying. Evidence gets pinned to the corner of the screen so players can not only keep track of what they’re supposed to be doing,but Sherlock can question people about the evidencethat’s been pinned. If players don’t pin the right evidence, NPCs will not react the way players need them to. Jon will also get frustrated and tell Sherlock he’s attracting too much attention. Pinned evidence is great to keep players on track, but it’s frustrating to have to cycle through it all to make sure the proper people are being questioned.
“Eavesdropping” and “Disguise” didn’t make large appearances in theSherlock Holmes Chapter Onepreview, but what was shown is enough to see how it’ll impact the full game later on. Disguiseseems to have a lot of different options, going much further than just changing clothes to blend in. Sherlock can acquire things like bruises and wrinkles to help him further his investigation, as some NPCs will refuse to talk to him if he stands out too much. Eavesdropping was okay as a mechanic, but the other detective mechanics are much more exciting and fun.
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Sherlock Holmes Chapter One Story and Visuals
Frogwares adopts a “no hand-holding” approach to the game, so players are pretty much on their own when investigating and solving the mysteries at hand. Help can be toggled on and off in the settings, but eventhose are just for highlighted itemsduring things like the Concentration mechanic. If players get stuck, they just have to backtrack or try a new approach to the investigation. It’s an interesting concept, but some players may get frustrated with the lack of assistance.
Jon’s presence in the story is intriguing but a bit lackluster. There’s a “Jon’s Diary” section of the game that gets updated as Sherlock continues his investigations, and Jon’s attitude toward Sherlock will change as a direct result of his detective work. Besides providing a bit of comic relief at times, itdoesn’t seem Jon does muchat all. He’s just sort of there, but hopefully, he’ll be meaningfully integrated into the story further down the line.
Visually, the game isn’t finished yet, as there were many stand-ins and different glitches during theSherlock Holmes Chapter Onepreview. However, these instances bear no positive or negative effect on the gameplay experience, as these things can be polished at a later date. The hotel players explore is beautifully rendered and the textures that were present in things like clothing or furniture were rich and vibrant. From what’s been seen,Sherlock Holmes Chapter Onehas the capacityto be a stunningly rendered game.
According to Frogwares, the finished product ofSherlock Holmes Chapter Onewill be on par with other open-world games, requiring about 40 hours total to complete. It seems like there will be plenty of content to fill this time, especially with the different investigations and other side quests like finding collectibles or participating in treasure hunts. It will also be intriguing to see how the combat mechanics and the “Family Mansion” hub will come into play and affect the story overall.
It’s easy to see that there will be a lot of gameplay in the final product ofSherlock Holmes Chapter One. There’s Jon and Sherlock’s relationship, the Pinned Evidence mechanic, the Disguise mechanic, the Concentration mechanic, the Eavesdropping mechanic, and the other mechanics the preview didn’t even showcase. These ideas are all good in theory, but there’s no way to see how they all coexist and cooperate with each other yet.
Sherlock Holmes Chapter Oneseems ambitious, and these ambitions will either work well together or unfortunately end up overshadowing other aspects of the game. It’s too soon to pass judgment on the game yet, but the previewshowed that it’s got a lot of potentialand a lot of content that it promises to deliver. Overall, it was an interesting preview, but the full version will probably be something to behold.
Sherlock Holmes Chapter Oneis slated for release in 2021 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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