The game based on the book can be made in two ways. Lazy developers usually grab the plot “as is” and, slightly adapting, turn into another craft, designed to cause nostalgia in half with drilling, it is clear what substance the original fans have. More advanced authors “borrow” from the novel or the story only the game world and heroes. The script creates their own – along with dialogues, steep turns and unexpected interchanges, of course. And this is the same task. After all, the Horde of the masters of the pen, that is, the ballpoint pen, that is, the text editor should at the exit present the public something just as exciting, okayly tailored and readable, how fascinating the source was, as a rule, a great person. Like Arthur Conan Doyle (Arthur Conan Doyle), for example.
Still companies Frogwarees It was possible to make quite suitable adventure about Sherlock Holmes. And their last creation, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, In general, it was difficult not to put up special hopes. Indeed, this time, the developers in a sense promised to catch up and overtake the “heavyweights” of the gaming industry in the RPG and Action genres.
And on Sherlock Holmes there is a rap
The very beginning of the game, the screensaver lies, confess, does not inspire optimism. Three-dimensional-night kids climb into the attic, find a couple of puppets and an old diary there, which, upon closer examination, turns out to be notes of Watson. The baby begins to read, and we sigh worthy: it didn’t work out, they say, the developers have to bring graphics to the modern level.
Surprisingly, things begin to go significantly better as soon as the narrative is approaching the main section. Instead of ugly children, an elegant Holmes appears on the monitor in the cylinder and habitually mocked Watson, three -dimensionality turns out to be quite non -illusory – you can turn the camera as you like. Yes, and the objective-interior environment looks not so lively and detailed as in some Heavy Rain, but it does not cause rejection. For which the developers disliked specifically human cubs, we do not know. The rest is watching.
It is quite a “tutorial” that in most games is realized as an off -line preamble, and here it is included in the fabric and in some way sets the tone for the main intrigue.
Sherlock and Watson are looking for the missing necklace of a certain Marquis. The great detective clicks this task like a nut, without leaving the room where the abduction was supposedly committed. The loss found is solemnly awarded to the owner, and literally the next morning it is discovered that the marquise safe was not an invaluable work of jewelry, but a fake, moreover, rather rude.
Holmes begin to slowly poison in newspapers. A certain reporter O’Farli regularly publishes exposing articles, while a pair of Watson detective is already investigating another matter – about the brutal murder. The victim is a bishop who was cruelly tortured before his death. Unwinding a thread of terrible events, the span behind the span, Sherlock will gradually go to unpredictable results, and the guys from Scotland Yard, meanwhile, will rush along the trail of the great detective to blame him for the murder of his own.
Ladies in the positions
The plot is probably twisted no worse than from childhood familiar Konandalev stories. In addition to the secrets of the global – the very one that we openly reveal throughout the game – at every step the secrets are waiting for the local. Often – a rather piquant properties. Somewhere, we will learn in the course that the spiritual face has long been twisting an affair with a slightly less spiritual lady and even raises a common child with her. Somewhere we find out that the pretty girl managed to get into an interesting position before marriage. There will be a lot of murders, in the suspects, half of the characters that we met along the way, including Holmes himself will have time to run away in the suspects. The insignificant, seemingly trifles and side events suddenly become fateful from the point of view of our global task, and what seemed essential, on the contrary, is in fact a false move leading to a dead end.
All these scenario ups and downs look so authentic, so “in Kholmsa” that at some point we forget that in front of us is not the creation of Conan Doyle, and his attentive and talented followers.
Totalitarian deduction
At the same time, the investigation process itself is given completely to our mercy. We not only look for evidence and solve puzzles, but we also draw conclusions from the discovered facts.
The book Holmes put forward his unexpected but accurate hypotheses, relying exclusively on his own memory. Developers with a well -known insight suggested that players are unlikely to cope with such a task, so special deductive tables are given to us in the help. As the investigation is investigated, Watson writes out facts in a special notebook, and Holmes then, based on these facts, builds assumptions. At each stage, we are offered a choice of three statements, one of which is correct. From this statement we have chosen, the following, also executed in the form of a test with three answers options, follows.
The idea with deductive tables, of course, brings a certain highlight to the game. However, genuine nonlinearity here, unfortunately, is not. The final conclusions must certainly coincide with the “party policy” – only in this case our deductive chain will change the color to green, which is a sure sign of our mental success.
And the options themselves are not always thought out perfectly. Often we have to choose between assumptions like “dogs were poisoned” and “someone poured poison to dogs”. And only one answer will still be true. There is, however, a significant suspicion that such confusion is partly associated with extremely awkward Russian translation-with localizers in the domestic game industry, everything is still sad. If the phrase, which, in terms of meaning, should be translated as “a person in a frantic attacked his dogs,” translates as “a person treated his dogs poorly” – there is nothing to talk about here. You can only grieve.
The benefits of intuitive insights
In the breaks between the brainstorms, Sherlock, as it should be in high -quality detective adventure, is worn all over London, collects evidence and talks with interesting people. By the way, in the interpretation Frogwarees The great detective appears to be a person, to put it mildly, not too impeccable moral qualities. He uses blackmail, intimidates children, deceives everyone around and shamelessly touching the unrequited Watson – even more tough than Sherlock “Original” did it.
All these worthy things do not at all prevent the detective from finding caskets, caches, caskets and other storage facilities that give the developers a reason to introduce puzzles into the game – quite classic, it should be noted. Then we are offered to bypass the entire chessboard with the course of the horse, then go through a traditional labyrinth with moving obstacles. Not without electric wires that need to be correctly configured. It is possible to miss all this joy for the brains if desired, but not immediately-you have to suffer for some time over the solution so that the game will take pity on us and the cherished rewind button appears in the interface.
Frogwarees In general, it seems that I was looking for and found an acceptable compromise between the “old” brainstream and the modern “casuality” of Adventura. So, the backlight, without which not a single quest does not cost it now, does not look quite usually: from time to time Holmes (and Watson
https://www.gallereo.com/nobody/inc/an-introduction-to-pay-n-play-casino-banking.html
, too, and even the Toby dog, if desired) can include “intuition”. The sixth feeling highlights one of the objects requiring inspection or use. By the way, there are practically no “empty” items in the game – everything that can be interacted with, one way or another is necessary for passing. It will not work to work on intuition alone-firstly, only one item is highlighted for us, and secondly, this valuable skill should “cool down” before reuse. But in situations where we seem to have already examined everything, but we still can’t leave the location, selective backlighting becomes an excellent antidote against the dull “pixel-hinting”.
By the way, this frame can be regarded as drug propaganda. Before us is a typical opium bell.
We ask the faint of heart
From time to time, Holmes and Watson return to Baker Street to analyze the evidence. And it turns out that at the disposal of Sherlock is a whole laboratory, albeit not as modern as in CSI: Deadly Intent, for example, but for the nineteenth century more than progressive.
We add about five different catalysts to the liquid and find out what is a faceless substance found at the crime scene. We water all sorts of bunched fingers with reagents and remove the lumps of the earth with tweezers stuck under the nails, then to compare different soil samples among ourselves.
By the way, to the faint of heart and pregnant women it is better to choose something more calm to pass the evening: mutilated corpses, blood puddles and torn limbs will come across in our path with manic regularity. Like hunger, untidy, half -drunk residents of London slums. A familiar one who is still a “gutting” release of the Whitchepel district has not become either more attractive or less criminalized.
The picture of the London multilayer society in The Testament of Sherlock Holmes It unfolds truly widely. Side characters – mass: starting from an authentic Chinese who owns an opium brothel in the bowels of Whitechepel, and ending with a crazy nephew of the bishop. For the study of characters and interweaving lines creation Frogwarees In book equivalent, it would be quite drawn to a full -fledged novel.
It is difficult to make a good detective adventure. Far from the balance between the plot dynamics and necessary for a full -fledged investigation, far from every team of developers manages. The presence of a widely replicated literary source complicates the task by half.
Studio staff Frogwarees managed to cope with the first difficulty, and with the second. We think sir Arthur Conan Doyle would be pleased if he had the opportunity to get acquainted with The Testament of Sherlock Holmes. So let’s take advantage of the fact that we can join this game.
Pros: dynamically developing plot;careful attitude to the spirit of the original source;live dialogs;elaborated characters NPC;Several notorious finds in the gameplay.
Cons: Sometimes too standard puzzles;ugly models of children.