ign review sherlock holmes crimes punishments

#IGN REVIEW SHERLOCK HOLMES CRIMES PUNISHMENTS PATCH#

In my opinion, as someone who has read the Sherlock Holmes books, Crimes and Punishments portrays the character Sherlock Holmes most faithfully to the Conan Doyle books over any of the other mediums. Without a doubt, Crimes and Punishments is the prettiest Sherlock Holmes game ever made and holds up relatively well to modern standards in regards to graphics.

#IGN REVIEW SHERLOCK HOLMES CRIMES PUNISHMENTS PATCH#

However, if you aren’t so eagle-eyed (or forcibly looking for imperfections like myself), you could very well miss most of the issues and who knows, maybe a patch or two can fix all the visual problems as I played a pre-release version of the actual game. I wonder if the issue is a systemic one within Crimes and Punishments where the visuals in general looks really, really pretty from afar, but when you get in close, such as when you go in to examine a body up close or the camera does a close-up of characters in a cut-scene, things start tearing at the seams. So again, you might ask, why is this a problem worth mentioning (other than the fact that you would expect a cut-scene to be perfected at release)? The thing is, a fairly large portion of Crimes and Punishments is found in cut-scenes (and I’m using the term cut-scene very loosely here because I would personally count interrogations and conversations as interactive cut-scenes along with the traditional cut-scenes) and the visual issues pervade throughout. These issues mainly pertain to cut-scenes and aren’t as evident in normal gameplay. Another common visual mistake I see is the pixelation of things that aren’t in focus (so usually the background) during in-game cut-scenes and the edges of objects flashing when the camera pans in cut-scenes.

Outlines in the sense that there are relatively thick outlines around the face, blurry in the sense that they blur out the background, so unless Sherlock Holmes developed magic and is exhibiting some sort of aura around himself, I’m pretty sure that it’s a graphical bug. For one, I’ve noticed weird blurry outlines around faces (specifically eyes) in the in-game cut-scenes. It could totally be a PC-only issue, although I am running the game on the highest possible settings on a computer that exceeds the meagre minimum requirements by leaps and bounds, but I have run into many different snags with the visuals. What’s even worse is the pixelation doesn’t stop there. Unfortunately, Crimes and Punishments just happens to be a game where zooming up close to the ground happens quite frequently (because you know, that’s where dead bodies usually lie and you sort of have to examine them if you want to be a good Sherlock Holmes) and having a patch of very pixelated ground next to what you’re looking at can potentially ruin the experience. For any other game, this would be fine, one does not normally stare at the ground all that often in video games anyway, especially zoomed in, so why is it a problem massive enough to mention in a review? You will find that quite a few textures, specifically ground textures, don’t really hold up on closer inspection, but for the most part textures are quite good. The textures and details can be quite exquisite. Crimes and Punishments is the first Sherlock Holmes game they’ve made on the Unreal 3 Engine and it does look quite extraordinary indeed. What you see on screen is something Frogwares has been really hitting on a lot in their promotional materials. The concept seems solid and if you’re looking to play a Sherlock Holmes game, this is the type of game you were probably looking for to begin with, but how well did Frogwares do in implementing all this? It’s all about utilizing the skills you gain from being Sherlock Holmes, finding clues and evidence, interrogating suspects, drawing conclusions and exacting your own brand of justice on Victorian London.

What you’ll find is a game that is not too dissimilar to LA Noire in the way it plays, minus the free-roaming of the city. That’s not to say there aren’t exciting parts in Crimes and Punishments, but that’s not what this game is about. Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is, according to Frogwares, an investigation game and if you’re coming in hoping for some sort of parkouring Sherlock Holmes who roams the streets at night and beats up on criminals like he’s some caped avenger in an action-packed game called “Sherlock: London Asylum” (or “Sherlock: London City Origins” even), then you will be greatly disappointed.

Ign review sherlock holmes crimes punishments