Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter is the Slickest Sherlock Adventure Yet

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter is the Slickest Sherlock Adventure Yet

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Lee Bradley

Sherlock is back for his eighth adventure in Frogware’s long-running series and he’s got a new look and a few new tricks up his sleeve. I played Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter at a recent preview event and got some hands-on time. Here’s what I deduced.

The Devil’s Daughter is very much an evolution of Frogware’s previous game, Crimes & Punishments. The set-up is basically the same. Playing as the world’s greatest detective (bollocks to Batman), you must venture out from 221b Baker Street to solve mysteries; visiting important locations, hunting for clues, observing and questioning witnesses and suspects, and engaging in little mini-games to identify the culprit.

Just like Crimes & Punishments, once you’ve amassed all of the evidence you require, you can then attempt to connect the mental dots and come to a conclusion, ultimately deciding whether to exonerate or condemn the person who you believe dunnit. And just like before, you can balls it up. Sherlock may be the greatest detective ever, but when you’re in control he’s not infallible.

The most obvious change in The Devil’s Daughter is to Sherlock himself. He’s younger this time out, a little more muscle-bound and traditionally heroic looking. Gone is the Basil Rathbone-esque fella who starred in Crimes & Punishments and in comes a character that Hairy Rich Walker describes as looking “a bit like Mark Strong”. It’s all part of what appears to be an attempt to appeal to a broader audience.

I’m not convinced by the change to Sherlock’s look. He’s not younger because The Devil’s Daughter is a prequel, it’s just an attempt to sex up the series a little. And I’m not sure if it works for me. His voice actor’s not the best either, with a delivery that isn't as sharp and cutting as I’d like it to be. Sherlock should be able to slice you in half with a snarky sentence. This fella couldn’t. Thankfully, however, everything else I saw of The Devil’s Daughter looks like an improvement on what went before.

There’s more action this time out. As Sherlock hunts his prey, he’ll clamber along rooftops high over the cobbled London streets, balance on precarious gangways, and attempt to defuse bombs against the clock, in addition to the more sedate search-and-sleuth sections. In an early sequence, I took control of one of Sherlock’s street urchins to tail a suspect, ducking behind cover to avoid attention along the way. It worked pretty well, a strong alternative to just sending the little lad scampering from Baker Street only for him to return with news later. I liked it.

None of these more action focused sections are particularly sophisticated or difficult, that’s not the point. Nor do they detract from the core of the experience. Instead they add to it, helping to deliver the story in a more interesting, involving way. The Devil’s Daughter is still very much about gathering clues, deducing culprits and telling a twisty-turny tale of murder and mystery. It just attempts to do it in a slicker fashion.

On that note, Frogwares also says that The Devil’s Daughter’s story will affect Sherlock and his adopted family’s lives a little more this time out. These are not just cases brought together by a thin string, but connected to the fates of Holmes, Watson, Mrs Hudson, Inspector Lestrade and the rest in a way that will hopefully enhance your involvement with the story and how it plays out. I didn’t get to see much of that in action, but it’s a concept with brilliant promise.

There’s some smaller changes too. You can now irrevocably mess up character assessments, those sections where you look a suspect or witness up and down, identifying clues to judge their back story. Investigating environments and objects has become a little easier too, with less room for aggravating confusion (a hangover from the series’ origins on PC). Yet perhaps oddly, the smallest change I encountered in The Devil’s Daughter pleased me most.

In one section, I was exploring a run-down hovel to find clues about a father who had disappeared in mysterious circumstances, when I noticed a ladder. I climbed up it only to discover that I couldn’t see anything because it was too dark, so I clambered back down, grabbed a candle and climbed back up to illuminate the space, where I found a vital clue.

This probably sounds dumb in black and white. Being able to pick up a candle doesn’t sound particularly exciting, does it? But using items in the environment in logical ways to solve problems is exact what the Sherlock games should be about. Despite the improved visuals (the engine has had some upgrades) and the increased focus on action, the game hasn’t forgotten that it is, essentially, a point-and-click adventure. And it’s all the better for it.

The Devil’s Daughter isn’t going to change the world. Don’t be expecting a rash of 9/10s when it launches. But if like me you first tried the series with Crimes & Punishments and are looking forward to playing more, rest assured that Frogwares knows what it’s doing. Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter could be ace. We’ll find out for sure on May 27th, when the game launches for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

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