Review of Sherlock Holmes Chapter One – The beginnings of the famous detective

If you do not want to read the review, you can look at it. Above you will find our video review.

Ukrainian studio Frogwares is no newcomer to the field of game development. They have titles such as 80 Days, the recent The Sinking City and, above all, a series of games by Sherlock Holmes, which they have released in countless years in their 20 years of existence. But since the announcement of the latest Chapter One project, it has been clear that developers are trying something new this time. Instead of the classic Sherlock, we have a younger, less experienced version here, which is just looking around the world.

• Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (peer-reviewed version), Xbox One, Xbox Series
• Date of publication: Nov 16, 2021 (PS4 and Xbox One later)
• Developer: Frogwares
• Publisher: Frogwares
• Genre: Adventura, open world
• Czech location: Yes (subtitles)
• Multiplayer: Born
• Data to download: 25 GB
• Game time: The main story of about 10 hours
• Sales version: Digital
• Price: 44,99 € (Steam), 1 189 CZK (PS Store), 1 289 CZK (Microsoft Store)

Sherlock, as you don’t know him

But nice from the beginning. Above all, it is necessary to clarify the name. I don’t know what marketer from Frogwares came up with the name for this game, because it causes confusion unnecessarily. No, Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is not an episodic game and there will never be a “Chapter Two”. It is simply a story that focuses on Sherlock’s youth. At the beginning of the game, he arrives on the home island of Cordona, where he first wants to visit his mother’s grave. Gradually, however, he discovers that the circumstances of her death were a little different than he thought, and begins to search for evidence from that time. In the meantime, he gets involved in other cases, and right here we have Sherlock from Frogwares as embroidered. But not quite…

As I mentioned at the beginning, Sherlock in Chapter One is not exactly what you know from books, series or previous games. And now I’m not just talking about age and appearance, Sherlock is just different. Different in nature. During the game, we gradually watch as two different personalities fight in it. On the one hand, he can be very cold, on the other hand, he is really emotional. At the same time, he tries to find the truth in cases, but is truth always the best solution? Moral dilemmas and self-doubt will accompany you every step of the way. And the development of the Sherlock character is something I enjoyed by far the most in the game. In addition, he is accompanied all the time by his friend Jon, who is not what he seems at first glance. Jon is just a figment of Sherlock’s imagination, which has accompanied him since he was a child and they have lived practically everything together. During that time, they have built a very strong bond and the chemistry between them works really well in the game.

The taste grows with the food

But the other characters are also very interesting and it must be said that you will meet a lot of them. Each is unique and you rarely come across a clearly positive or negative character. Sometimes you are faced with a moral decision where you have to choose a lesser evil. That’s something the Frogwares can do, and they’ve done in previous games with Sherlock. But here they have taken everything a step further, especially as far as the main story itself is concerned. It consists of 5 cases and I was definitely not bored with any of them. The beginning was a bit slower, but shortly after the story begins to pick up pace and really starts. Each case is getting better and better, and at the end you are slowly saying that you would play another case. The story at the end is incredibly gradual, the finale itself is then absolutely brilliant and, most importantly, really surprising. I was a little skeptical at first, but after finishing it, I have to say that this is a clear aspirant for the story of the year for me.

But it doesn’t end there with the main story. The Frogwares have set themselves the goal of creating a more ambitious title than ever before. Chapter One is an open world, so you will find various side events and activities on the island of Cordona. At first, the open world is a bit empty, but gradually it is filled with various shops and more important buildings such as the temple, town hall, police station and the like. Cordona is a truly beautiful island and the whole environment has been created by Frogwares as the number one. The city lives its life and you will meet diverse residents who will sometimes help you solve cases. But you will soon slip to using fast travel, for a simple reason – there is no means of transport in the game, which I consider a big mistake. Sprinting is not fast enough for a person to really want to catch up.

Digital hell

But then there’s another, much more serious reason why I didn’t run around Cordona too much, and that is the technical condition. I hate to say it, but I haven’t played a game that was so bad for a long time, and I remind you that I played on the PS5, which is definitely not a weak machine. Inside, everything is still relatively fine, but outside, large FPS dips await you practically 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 flashing objects, bouncing textures, malfunctioning sound and the like. Frogwares simply did not learn from their mistakes, because they break their teeth at technical processing almost every time, and it is a terrible pity.

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

It’s worse with lipsync, but in the end it didn’t seem as bad as I feared. For an “AA” game, the quality of the face animations is relatively acceptable. Plus, given the way the game looks, you can’t be angry with developers. She already looked nice in the trailers, but she still exceeded my expectations. Of course, some details are not entirely ideal, but this is not to be expected given the size of the studio. In general, I would evaluate the graphics really positively, I have to praise the shadows and reflections.

Investigation full of minigames

But enough about the technical side, I should finally introduce you to the gameplay itself, and it’s definitely nothing unknown if you’ve played previous Frogwares titles. As part of the investigation, you examine the evidence, question witnesses, and use the Palace of Thoughts to put Sherlock’s deductions together. There are also countless mini-games waiting for you in the form of chemical analysis, archive searching, eavesdropping or the use of disguises. Costumes and imitations of various stereotypes are really fun.

So far, I’ve listed the things that the game has in common with previous titles, but there’s one major innovation, and that is duels. From the beginning, the fans were very skeptical about their addition, but I was quite biased by the system that Frogwares introduced, and I’m glad to say that the developers didn’t disappoint. Of course, you must not have exaggerated expectations. You may be bothered by a small variability of enemies or breakneck control (I haven’t understood the sprint on R2 and the cauldron on the triangle yet), but as a result I had a good time with the fights. As a main component of the gameplay, it would certainly not work, but as a side element it is a very pleasant novelty.

More does not mean better

But there are many more side activities. On the island of Cordona, you can also search for treasures or perhaps remember Sherlock’s childhood in the form of shorter excerpts from various events. There are also a lot of side cases waiting for you, but their quality varies greatly. While some are really sophisticated and can slowly catch up with some of the main ones, others are downright sloppy and it would be better if they weren’t in the game at all. I’m talking about cases in the style: “I’ll read the report, search the crime scene, reconstruct the scene and end.” You’re done in a few minutes, but completing the case doesn’t do you any good, because you haven’t built a bond with the participants in the incident.

However, when I take the gameplay in general, I have to praise the developers, because I found it really fun. On PS5, you can also look forward to an absolutely great use of haptic response, which quite surprised me in the 3rd party title. Even so, 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 orient yourself with the help of icons on the evidence, but they can often confuse you. Sometimes you just do the right thing, you just miss something, other times you completely miss one piece of evidence and walk around the scene helplessly for half an hour. I would definitely appreciate a better help system, because such situations can be very frustrating.

But in the end, something else is positive. You will definitely be pleased that the game contains Czech subtitles and I must say that they are very high quality. You will definitely not make a mistake when turning them on and I can recommend them to more experienced English speakers. The vocabulary in this game is quite demanding.

A sacrifice worth it

But that’s really all I had on my mind. So the most pressing question is, how would I rate the title overall? The answer is definitely not easy. During the game, my overall view of the game changed very drastically. The enthusiasm for the trailers was first replaced by sobriety in the form of a clash with reality (very poor technical condition), but gradually the enthusiasm for the story began to prevail. So if you asked me about the evaluation a few hours after the start, my impressions would be very, really very different. However, once the story is complete, I can recommend Sherlock Holmes Chapter One with a clear conscience. Sometimes you will grit your teeth, but if you simply come to terms with the technical side, you will enjoy an incredible ride. You can look forward to the story of a young detective who can cheer you up and touch you emotionally. A story full of moral dilemmas and twists. A story you just won’t forget.