The game begins with Sherlock Holmes receiving a letter then abruptly leaving his home to what is presumably the London Science Museum. A mysterious snowstorm that has struck London has been discovered to have 
originated from a sabotaged weather machine. You must now track down the crystal sets that control the machine in order to turn it off.
The game is based around completing puzzles, going between puzzles and finding the occasional “hidden” object. There isn’t much in exploring the environment like some other similar puzzle games, all the puzzles directly affect the main story and must be completed correctly in order to continue.
The interface is perhaps one of the more interesting ideas that the game uses. It emulates a cursor on the top screen based on the position of the stylus on the touch screen. It does take a little getting used to as the screen sizes don’t match up and actions are performed by removing the stylus over an object rather than tapping them. You can also change the camera angle slightly by dragging the cursor to the sides of the screen or by using the D-Pad and you can zoom in and out via the A and B buttons.
The interface works on the most part but it does occasionally become a nuisance; during conversations it isn’t hidden and can be a little annoying as it will draw attention to itself as it flicks about on the screen as you progress through the dialogue. There are also a few occasions where the boundaries on certain buttons are too close together. One puzzle had an increment too close to the close button and due to the boundaries I did end up losing my progress in the puzzle.
Puzzles come in all shapes and forms: numeracy, matching pairs, fitting shapes into a box and a whole host of others. They do tread ground that many other puzzlers have before; such as the afore mentioned types but there are still a few unique puzzles that can be liked or disliked. The unique puzzles tend to be ones 
that take a little more trial and error with their mechanics; rather than being based off of a definitive solution or answer.
The map is what makes the game a little disappointing for people that don’t want their hand held throughout the game. It will always show up which areas have something that can currently be done in them; no matter how small. It helps you locate the next puzzle or where an item that you’re missing is but it does mean that any exploration is severely limited as you will always know if an area is devoid of anything useful.
Inventory management is a little awkward; as after collecting something either through a puzzle or tapping (more or less) to pick it up, you have to equip it and then tap what you want to use it on. But then if said item doesn’t get used there then you can’t easily unequip it, you have to go into your inventory and tap it again.
One of the better but underused features is the F.R.O.G. a set of spectacles that has a variety of lens that can do some interesting things. Considering some of the things the lenses allow; there isn’t enough uses of them or they aren’t used creatively enough. They also use a similar mechanic to the inventory for equipping, making it a little awkward when you want to check what you can use them on.
Story
For a puzzle adventure it’s rather short or narrative outside of moving the story along. There’s very little in terms of dialogue or even descriptions of any of the objects, other than the initial introduction to an area or person. As you can’t really talk to characters outside of the story it makes what would be a list of wacky inventors seem less interesting than they could have been.
Presentation and Audio
The visual style is pretty interesting and works surprisingly well with the 3D, unfortunately it doesn’t really play to that advantage in any shape or form. The environments have a 3D effect on them but aside from being able to pan around and zoom, it does very little to enhance or change gameplay. The sound effects are mostly cartoony to try and match the quirky humour and the music follows with a similar tone.
Gameplay
The puzzles are pretty reasonable and offer a very varied collection, with little repetition. There aren’t really many interesting, “hard” puzzles and those that are hard tend to be more trial and error, rather than you making good deductions. Unless you save right before the end you won’t get access to all the puzzles after completion which is annoying if you want to replay specific ones.
Overall
The game has a lot of really good ideas but it doesn’t do as much as it should do with them. The User Interface is interesting but could do with more work, the puzzles are a little too easy at times, the 3D environments are pretty but not used in the gameplay, the different lenses are rarely used after their initial uses and the exploration is shredded by the fact that the game hold your hand telling you where to go and the lack of” lore”.
Comments:
The game has a nice set of puzzles but doesn’t flaunt the Sherlock Holmes element as much as it should. The lenses are really interesting though never really developed on, which is a shame as it could have led to some really distinct and fun puzzles.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
You must be logged in to post a comment.