![]() ![]() After you solve the case, you can hear Sherlock going through his own reasoning and you are then issued a score based on how many characters you have interacted within the game. The judge asks you questions on the motives, the suspects, and the methods. The challenge in this game is that you never know how much evidence is enough until the judge hears your case. When you believe that you have gathered enough evidence to solve the case, you need to go to the judge and plead your case. These additions give an added depth to the game. I am pleased to see that the game has made a mentioning of Mycroft, Sherlock's smarter but lazier brother. These files are filled with short pieces of information about the suspects as well as information on other notable Sherlock Holmes characters. Both hard and soft copies are included with the game. It is your job to discern what is and is not useful for your case. You can even access the Times, with which no good sleuth should leave home without! The Times is filled with stories of the day but also includes a lot of irrelevant material. With Sherlock's address book, you have access to a number of socialites, establishments, and thugs from the dark side of London. Apart from the ever present Dr Watson, you also meet Inspector Lestrade, who is Sherlock's favorite Scotland Yard Detective, and the infamous Baker street irregulars and regulars. To help you along the way, there are a number of characters with whom you can consult. The goal of this game is to solve the case by listening to the conversations and sifting through the evidence, with as little footwork as possible. There are no illogical puzzles, no computational puzzles, and no puzzles involving abstract configurations. Imagine, if you can, a game that is the antitheses of Myst, a game which relies entirely on character interaction and deductive reasoning. On the whole, the characters are engaging and all are well acted to convey the sometimes convoluted storylines. The dialogs, in general, are well written and sound a little more modern than what Doyle may have written himself. The cases are moderately challenging and some can be difficult to finish. Since the stories in these cases are written in the literal style of Doyle, they also unfortunately inherit his overuse of stereotypes and his signature perspicacious deductive reasoning. The 3 cases featured in the game are unrelated to each other. Running the game using modern hardware can be problematic, particularly with sound support and memory conflict under Windows. The use of Full Motion Video in a game is truly ahead of its time, since such technology becomes popular only years later in fueling the boom of so-called interactive games that also use Full Motion Video. The game contains over 90 minutes of Full Motion Videos that feature both Sherlock and other characters from Baker Street. This is a rarity now but is a common practice back then when it is nearly unimaginable that a game can be so big to fill up an entire disc. ![]() The game disc includes both the DOS and MAC versions. The game is produced in 1991, a time when CD-ROM technology has not yet been widely adopted. It is arguably among the earliest CD-ROM titles ever published for the PC and console to take full advantage of both the multimedia capability and the massive storage space available in this new medium. This game is the first of 3 volumes in the Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective series. In each scenario, you must gather the evidence, interview the suspects, interrogate the sources, and finally present your reasoning in front of a judge to solve the case. In the case of The Mystified Murderess, sibling rivalry between two sisters has led to the death of a suitor. In the case of The Tin Soldier, a retired general who has fought in the war of 1815 at Waterloo has died and a king's ransom waits to be claimed. In the case of The Mummy's Case, 4 men have died and the murderer appears to be a 4000-year old mummy. ![]() The game features a trio of cases to be solved. Not only does the game remain true to the spirit of the original work, for the most part this game is unique in its approach in delivering the Holmesian experience to the player. Many other games based on past fictional works rarely live up to deliver an immersing experience, but such is not the case here. Among these is Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective - Volume I, a game initially developed by ICOM Simulations to take advantage of the multimedia CD-ROM in the early years of this technology. ![]() It is therefore of little surprise that there have been many computer and console games loosely based on the legendary detective figure. Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the character has earned a place in popular culture that is rarely bestowed. No other fictional detective is more infamous, beloved, and parodied. ![]()
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