Sherlock Holmes is by far and best known for his powers of observation, analysis and deduction, but his character has many more traits. He would experiment with taking opium, for example, when he wasn’t relaxing by playing the violin, but in the course of trying to solve a crime, Holmes was more than happy to get his hands dirty.
It’s that side of the character which Frogwares is trying to capture with Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter, as they reintroduce us to a younger, fresher faced rendition of the world’s greatest detective. However, while it could be seen as a new beginning within the character’s life, they’re also keen to build upon the work of their recent games, in particular the way in which a case could be investigated and solved, from Crimes & Punishment.
The Devil’s Daughter will feature five new and original cases to solve, alongside new characters like Mrs Alide De’Bouvier, but the fascinating conceit from Crimes & Punishment was that the thoroughness of your investigation and the insights you gained into the crimes you were solving could lead to different outcomes in a case. Holmes might be an incredible detective, but you might not be. Even with a special mode of vision that lets you highlight clues, you could easily miss something important, which means that your impression of how a murder unfolded differs from what actually happened.
On top of this, everything can be interpreted in different ways. Does the young boy that is brought before him have a dirty jacket because he fell on the way over? Or is it a sign of the neglect of his parents? You need to use each point of evidence in order to take apart a character’s testimony and get to the truth, but when it come to determining someone’s guilt at the end of the case, it’s your perspective that informs how you connect up the various clues in Sherlock’s mind – literally represented by neurons in his brain – and come to a conclusion. Naturally, it means that you might be completely wrong and convict an innocent person – after all, the evidence backs up your eventual theory.
Where The Devil’s Daughter really tries to go beyond Crimes & Punishment is in adding more action and a more fluid world to the game, even while investigating and searching for clues remain the focus. Instead of heading to a loading screen, visiting the young boy’s home to investigate his missing parents meant walking out of the front door of 221B Baker Street and heading into the streets of London as an open world, with Unreal Engine 4 and its physically based rendering techniques being used to put an extra spit and polish to the visuals.
Holmes’ penchant for acting a role and dressing up to disguise himself and his purpose come to the fore elsewhere, in the form of letting you head to an extensive wardrobe in Holmes’ flat. The demo had him then tasked with remaining undetected as he followed a suspect through the streets and down alleyways, while another section had him embroiled in a bar fight, hitting the button prompts as they pop up on screen.
Considering how Frogwares’ games have evolved over time, and the shifting attitudes of gamers, these are quite fascinating additions, but they will demand a lot of polish in order to fit the game and also feel contemporary, rather than behind the times. After all, QTEs and trying to sneakily follow someone are gaming tropes which have been done to death, and need to be done to a very high standard in order to be worthwhile. They didn’t seem to be there just yet, as the QTE fights, while bombastic and fun to see, can be failed if you react too slowly, while the stealth section featured many of the classic tropes from the oft maligned mission type, with a mark who would regularly stop and turn to look behind them, in an all too signposted fashion.
This being the ninth entry in the series, getting that freshness is all the more important. It’s always encouraging to see a developer strive to do something new with a series, and The Devil’s Daughter shows that Frogwares have plenty of ideas for where they can take Sherlock Holmes games in the future.