A young actress has been brutally murdered right behind the theatre. It looks like Jack the Ripper has found his first victim outside Whitechapel: the poor woman's throat has been cut and there are more wounds which could only have been inflicted with a scalpel all over the body. Inspector Lestrade from Scotland Yard is leading the investigation - and he asks the world's first, most famous and only consulting detective for help: Sherlock Holmes.

The game starts out very promising. Mixing the probably most famous 'villain' of the Victorian era with one of its most famous 'heros' works in spite of the glitch (which the game mentions) that Sherlock Holmes actually never deals with maniacs. The intro even shows Holmes without a pipe in his mouth any without that coat everyone seems to relate to him.
The latter unfortunately disappears as soon as the actual game starts. For the rest of the time, you have to stand the protagonist wearing this dreaded thing which according to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle he would only do when travelling outside the city. The TV virus has struck again (at least Holmes isn't constantly puffing his pipe...)!
Fortunately, there are other nice details which more than make up for this. The huge "VR" on the wall of 221b Baker Street as mentioned in The Musgrave Ritual just being one of them. Fans will also meet known characters and discover more little things they might have read about before.

To get back to the actual game, the first scene (the scene of crime) is actually very promising concerning the gameplay, too. In very 'Holmesian' style, you have to search for little clues like a cigar stump - and have pleasant conversations with Watson and Lestrade about your deductions.

Even though most scenes are really good seen for themselves, the game can't live up to that beginning on the whole in the end. In a very untypical fashion, Holmes (and thus the player) just seems to stumble from one scene into the next passively. He never actually seems to be coming to conclusions first and then to take appropriate action. The puzzles match this quality: ask everyone about everything - lying or simply refusing to tell everything you know (even if it's something bad for yourself) seems to be a very rare characteristic in this game.

Sherlock Holmes' big ego would certainly have liked to be involved in the story of a crime of such big impact. I doubt his would intellect really be tingled though. If you enjoy classic detective stories or if you're just a sucker for Victorian era style like me, you'll certainly enjoy this game with its pretty graphics of old London. On the other hand, it still could have been a lot better of course...


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