Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One

 PC
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 86 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 54 out of 86
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 86
  3. Negative: 16 out of 86

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  1. passionne
    May 11, 2023
    5
    The good :
    - Cordona city : large town and several amospheres
    - not too linear, open world - story The bad : - graphically disappointing : low resolution textures - bad optimization : a few stutters with an overclocked 13900K and RTX 4090 ! - tiring Jon commentaries. The awful : - It looks like a "point and click" game : you have to do things in a specific order to unlock the    The good :
    - Cordona city : large town and several amospheres
    - not too linear, open world
    - story

    The bad :
    - graphically disappointing : low resolution textures
    - bad optimization : a few stutters with an overclocked 13900K and RTX 4090 !
    - tiring Jon commentaries.

    The awful :
    - It looks like a "point and click" game : you have to do things in a specific order to unlock the enigma. I hate this kind of old games. Very frustrating.
    - too limited : in a few investigations, I did not have enough elements to be sure of the guilt and the game did not let you interrogate people who could help you find the real culprit without any doubt (the golden cage for example).

    A promising game which failed to satisy the expectations.    … Expand
  2. Mika1
    Nov 28, 2021
    6
    Was awaiting this game for some time and when it finally came, there was a bit of a disappointment.The game has an interesting investigation system and a good plot.Maybe you can finish this game in 35 hours but minimum half of them is travel. Fast travels are useless too many times.In this game just detective parts and atmosphere good. I enjoyed playing it despite of these big flaws.
  3. AllNewSuperfake
    Nov 18, 2021
    6
    +10 because every game could be a 10

    -1 obviously astroturfed reviews are obvious -0.5 the presentation relies heavily on post processing, leaving everything equally glossy and shiny, which really doesn't do the models any favors. Said models could have done with some facial animations. I feel oddly reminded of their last game, but this one is not supposed to have fish people, is it    +10 because every game could be a 10

    -1 obviously astroturfed reviews are obvious

    -0.5 the presentation relies heavily on post processing, leaving everything equally glossy and shiny, which really doesn't do the models any favors. Said models could have done with some facial animations. I feel oddly reminded of their last game, but this one is not supposed to have fish people, is it now?

    -1 obvious astrofturfed reviews are obvious

    -0.5 The background music does not do what background music does, aka staying in the background

    +1 it certainly offers a lot of mechanics to keep the whole thing fresh. You even go furniture shopping, to jog your memories, to inspire your mind palace, to find clues, that you might have to look up in archives, or show people , or that lead you to other clues, but...

    -2 those mechanics do not work well together. The whole world depends on what clue you have pinned in your journal. There are things you do not see, people you can not talk to, hints that will not show up only because there are several new entries in your journalS that you have to pin instead.

    You have your casebook, but every quest has several entries and chapters and clues and themes, and all the while your "companion" is collecting documents, items, clues and memories in his own journals. It is not impossible to follow all of that, but it kills the flow and leaves you confused too often to stay enjoyable. It makes things difficult for all the wrong reasons. At the same time you cannot access important hints while in certain modes even though you really need to, for example when trying to put witness statements together while staging a crime in your mind.

    -1 What I really did not enjoy was having to put together crime scenes that were obviously wrong, so that I have a reason to continue investigating things until I figure out they were wrong. At the same time I could never really go wrong on my own and figure *that* out.

    -2 It unfortunately never really feels like I am the one doing the thinking here. I just have to go to places and click, and find what to click next. This is quite well hidden under all the aforementioned mechanics, but thinking for yourself can actually get you into trouble since even if you are right, you may not have clicked on enough evidence to activate an item, or line of questioning. And you will stumble around looking for the right things, but at the wrong time.

    +1 It still kept my attention a lot longer than it should have. The characters, scenarios and and writing down to the side quests are borderline great, but you should like it strange and quirky.

    +1 for the whole disguise system, even though it is underused.

    +/- 0 I am not sure the open world is a good idea for the format, but it has been done a lot better than the last one. For every time it fits organically into gameplay and helps world- and character building there are long stretches where I just have to walk long distances to unlock fast travel points.
    +/- 0 The combat can be deactivated or skipped. It is goddamn awful, so that was a good idea.

    I really like the ambition of this studio, and they once again mostly failed because they wanted to do too much. And they failed a lot less than in the "Sinking City". And I was well entertained, as long as I was not looking for the right things with the wrong pinned journal entry.    … Expand
  4. Sepherim
    Jun 28, 2023
    5
    El caso de Sherlock Holmes Chapter One se basa en un cadáver que intenta innovar con su propia fórmula pero no lo hace correctamente. Primera prueba: los casos y la historia en si no son demasiado interesantes, incluida la trama principal, un problema en un juego de investigación. Segunda prueba: puedes ignorar todo y simplemente dedicarte a probar todas las combinaciones y consiguesEl caso de Sherlock Holmes Chapter One se basa en un cadáver que intenta innovar con su propia fórmula pero no lo hace correctamente. Primera prueba: los casos y la historia en si no son demasiado interesantes, incluida la trama principal, un problema en un juego de investigación. Segunda prueba: puedes ignorar todo y simplemente dedicarte a probar todas las combinaciones y consigues resolver todo; no hay que investigar ni entender los casos cuando el protagonista no puede equivocarse y simplemente dice que no a cualquier combinación errada. Tercera prueba: el mundo abierto nuevo la verdad es que es un buen añadido, le da mucha vitalidad y añade puzzles de encontrar sitios y cosas así, aunque muchos de los puzzles relativos al mundo abierto son algo aburridos (como el perseguir rastros). Cuarta prueba: el sistema de combate no funciona, es muy aburrido, al menos se puede saltar casi siempre. Quinta prueba: muchos de los minijuegos son un poco coñazo como el de química, otros son inútiles como el perfilar a la gente, y otros tienen buenas ideas pero mal ejecutada como las búsquedas en los archivos.

    En cuanto al contexto del caso, gráficamente el juego resulta visualmente agradable y recrea bien el periodo y la ambientación ficticia. El sonido también cumple bien su función, con voces bien llevadas y una música que no va a ser recordada pero que crea un ambiente adecuado. Pero el juego tiene bugs, desde los poco importantes a otros graves como colgarse o reiniciar el ordenador, especialmente si lo tienes a pantalla completa.

    Deducción: por todo ello, sin duda no puedo decir que Sherlock Holmes Chapter One sea un mal juego, pero es peor que sus predecesores. Principalmente por la falta de libertad y la trama. Es bueno que las compañías intenten innovar con sus juegos pero, en este caso, mucha de la innovación perjudica o no mejora a la fórmula. Un 4,5.    … Expand
  5. kinsang
    Sep 10, 2022
    7
    เนื้อเรื่องลึกลับ ไขปริศนาอย่างแยบยล เกมเพลย์ทำออกมาได้ดี แต่เป็นเกมที่เน้นภาษาอย่างหนัก

Awards & Rankings

100
#100 Most Discussed PC Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 25
  3. Negative: 1 out of 25
  1. Riot Pixels
    Apr 28, 2022
    67
    It’s a solid detective story, but gameplay-wise, Frogwares made a mistake by using its previous game, The Sinking City, as a basis for Sherlock Holmes.
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  2. PLAY! Zine
    Feb 21, 2022
    80
    If you are a fan of mystery, intrigue and adventure, you are going to have one hell of a time playing Sherlock Holmes Chapter One. With a beautiful setting, amazing character interactions and great puzzles, this is one of the best ‘’detective simulations’’ out there.
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  3. Adventure Gamers
    Feb 14, 2022
    80
    While Chapter One can be a little too cumbersome and lacking in logic at times, young Sherlock’s investigation into the many mysteries on Cordona Island provides more than ample breadth and depth for any armchair detective.
    Read full review
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