Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter

[h3]This is not a detective game. This is torture.[/h3] I have closed one case, out of many, I assume, and I have had enough. Every detail feels wrong. Let me explain what this game did wrong in two words: [b]ABUSIVE HANDHOLDING[/b] You know, a true detective game, or maybe just my weird expectation of one, is a game where you actually do detective work. You investigate things, draw conclusions, and your knowledge moves the story forward. Knowledge. Here, the game moves you forward, explains every little step you have to take, and if you want any freedom of choice, exploration, or investigation, you will find nothing. I found a note about a missing person, and it even had an address! Of course I want to go there, it is literally on the next street. But no, there is a padlock in the way, and you cannot get to house number 5 because the street somehow ends at 9. Your clues are not yours. You have to do what the game tells you to do. Or suffer. You know what I really have to do? Activate Sherlock's spider-sense and pixel-hunt around a location I already spent the last 20 minutes walking through without any luck. I do not remember signing up for a hidden object game. That is why I call it abusive. The game not only forces you to follow its strict plot, it also mocks your detective skills by putting you through tedious exploration. Not careful note-reading, not actual deduction, just clicking on everything and hoping Sherlock finally says out loud what you already figured out. The deduction system is still completely wrong. You click through a bunch of tags like a character from Idiocracy. Connecting the dots only counts when the game wants it to, not when it happens naturally because you actually followed the story and figured things out on your own. You have to build this whole rigid hierarchy as if only two things can be related at a time, otherwise the full picture cannot be restored. You know what game does [b]DEDUCTION[/b] correctly? [b]DUCK DETECTIVE![/b] That game was funny, clumsy, and childish, but you still had to reach conclusions based on your [b]own[/b] analysis. Here, you just turn off your brain and play mini-games. OH YES, MINI-GAMES! I hate them with a pure passion. This is exactly how not to do mini-games in a detective game. They are either annoying or just stupid and boring. Looking through 5+ keyholes, clicking on garbage, and listening to Sherlock say "just garbage" five times in a row. What a meta-commentary. I had the exact same thought while playing this game. Then the game suddenly tries to become some kind of GTA-style chase sequence, or The Witcher 3 with magical detective vision guiding you through swamps. And the most absurd thing of all is [b]PLAYING AS A DOG[/b]. Hilarious. Sherlock stays behind, but I have one question: how does the dog manage to open doors?! It has paws! It cannot open doors like that! I do not understand the tone at all. Sometimes the game tries to be overly realistic. Fine, children, let us take a blood sample and mix it with three different liquids. For each liquid, you have to click three times. Rinse and repeat. And then suddenly the DOG MAGICALLY OPENS DOORS. [i]"Detective" as a genre was butchered. "Adventure" will make you die of boredom. "Mystery" will not be yours to solve. "Puzzle" means hunting for pixels. "Story Rich" is nowhere near enough to justify everything else.[/i]

[h1]Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter — 2 Hour Review[/h1] [b]Playtime at review:[/b] ~2 hours [b]Engine:[/b] Unreal Engine 3 [b]Verdict:[/b] Mixed / leaning negative I went into this knowing it’s an older game, but what surprised me most isn’t just the gameplay — it’s how clearly the [b]engine[/b] influences both performance and design. Out of the last [b]6 games I bought, 4 use Unreal Engine[/b]. I don’t believe in conspiracies, but at some point you can’t help noticing patterns. It almost feels like Unreal became the default answer to everything, and games started inheriting the same problems along with the convenience. This one runs on [b]Unreal Engine 3[/b], and you can absolutely feel it. [hr][/hr] [h2]Performance & Engine Behavior (UE3)[/h2] This game behaves very differently from modern UE4/UE5 titles: [list] [*]Very heavy CPU usage (often up to ~90%) [*]Relatively low GPU usage [*]Feels CPU-bound when new scenes or assets are rendered [/list] That [i]has[/i] to be a UE3 thing. Newer Unreal games usually hammer the GPU instead — sometimes to disastrous results. The important part: [b]Even at high CPU load, the game stayed playable.[/b] For comparison, I’ve had [i]Dead Island 2[/i] (UE4) drop to [b]4 FPS[/b] on my system. This game never did that. So ironically, for [b]older GPUs[/b], this might actually be the better-behaving Unreal game. [b]My setup:[/b] [list] [*]GTX 1080 [*]Older CPU (clearly the bottleneck here) [*]Linux via Proton [/list] No crashes, no insane stutter, no slideshow moments. Not great efficiency — but stable. [hr][/hr] [h2]Gameplay: identity crisis[/h2] The core Sherlock Holmes systems are still here: [list] [*]Crime scene investigation [*]Clue collection [*]Deduction board / mind palace [/list] And when the game focuses on those, it works. The problem is that it [b]constantly interrupts itself[/b] with: [list] [*]Mini-games [*]QTE-style sequences [*]Timing mechanics [*]Action and stealth sections [/list] Some of these are skippable — which honestly feels like the developers admitting they don’t really belong here. This is a detective game, but it keeps trying to be: [list] [*]An action-adventure [*]A stealth game [*]A mini-game collection [/list] It never fully commits to being a proper detective experience. [hr][/hr] [h2]Mini-games: not broken, just misplaced[/h2] Not all mini-games are terrible. I played a lawn-bowling-style mini-game: [list] [*]It worked [*]It wasn’t frustrating [*]I won 2–1 [/list] So credit where it’s due — mechanically, some of them are fine. But they don’t [b]belong[/b] in a Sherlock Holmes game. Less mechanics would honestly make the game feel more believable. At times it even looks like characters (or animals) interact with the world in unnatural ways, breaking immersion completely. [hr][/hr] [h2]Writing & tone (early hours)[/h2] After two hours, Sherlock already feels… off. Instead of a calm, calculating observer, he often comes across as: [list] [*]Too reactive [*]Too action-oriented [*]Less methodical than expected [/list] This lines up with a lot of long-time fan criticism, and I understand it now. [hr][/hr] [h2]Unreal Engine fatigue (a broader observation)[/h2] Playing many Unreal Engine games back-to-back makes certain things impossible to ignore: [list] [*]Similar animation stiffness [*]Familiar camera behavior [*]Shared performance quirks [*]Repeated design shortcuts [/list] Unreal makes it easy to ship games — maybe [i]too[/i] easy. And sometimes it feels like the engine is doing more of the design work than the developers themselves. Again, not a conspiracy — just a pattern. [hr][/hr] [h2]Conclusion (after ~2 hours)[/h2] [b]Pros:[/b] [list] [*]Stable performance, even on older hardware [*]Atmosphere is decent [*]Detective systems still have potential [/list] [b]Cons:[/b] [list] [*]Too many forced mechanics [*]Confused identity [*]Too much action for a detective game [*]UE3 limitations are very visible [/list] This game is [b]not terrible[/b], but it’s also not what it should be. If you want: [list] [*]Pure deduction [*]Minimal hand-holding [*]A proper Sherlock Holmes experience [/list] You’ll likely be disappointed. If you get it cheap and accept it as a [i]flawed experiment[/i], it’s… okay. [b]Score so far:[/b] ~6/10 [b]Recommendation:[/b] Only on sale, and only if you know what you’re getting into. https://www.youtube.com/live/KBKm7JH9rZw

Sherlock Holmes'in önceki oyununu beğendiyseniz, bu oyuna bayılacaksınız. Normalde güzel çıkan oyunlar öbür oyunda kendini bozsa da, Sherlock Holmes oyunları bunun tam tersine kendini daha fazla geliştirmiştir. Hep dedektiflik yapabileceğiniz, hem de aksiyon yaşıyacağınız bir oyundur. Oyun mekanikleri, türüne göre güzel. Genelde sıkıntı olarak yükleme süreleri gösteriliyor. O yükleme sürelerini dava defterime bakarak, ya da beyin fırtınası yaparak geçiriyorum. Hikaye güzel kaliteli hatta kitapta okuduğum bir hikaye oyunda karşıma çıkınca sevindim. Uzun lafın kısası, Sherlock Holmes hayranları kesin alsın bu oyunu, dedektiflik oyunları sevenlerde bu oyuna bir şans versin.

dont ever let the person who made the graveyard section work in game design ever again i'm so serious

First playthrough review time. Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter is a mystery game where you play as Sherlock Holmes. The game takes place in London, and you need to solve five different cases. You will explore places, find clues, and talk to people to solve the mysteries. The game looks nice, with good character designs and detailed places. The London setting feels dark, with fog and street lamps. The voices and movements of the characters are well done, which makes the game feel real. The story has many surprises, so it may keep players interested. I bought Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter on Steam in May 2021 for 1 dollar, which was the lowest price I’d ever seen on a Steam sale. I didn’t start playing it until this year because I wanted to finish the earlier Sherlock Holmes games first before moving on to this one. In the end, this is a game for people who like solving mysteries. It has a good mix of exploring, finding clues, and some action. While some people might not like the action parts, the story and graphics make the game captivating for anyone who likes mysteries.

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter, developed by Frogwares, is a detective adventure game that follows the famous sleuth and his daughter through a series of mysterious cases in Victorian London. Building on the formula from previous entries like Crimes and Punishments, it mixes investigation, puzzles, and action sequences. I tried so hard to finish this game but couldn't due to game breaking bugs that halted progress entirely. If you're patient enough to restart chapters from the beginning, you might push through, but for me, that's a deal breaker. Other than that, the graphics aren't bad for its age, and the voice acting is good, but these positives can't salvage the frustration.

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 495: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆☆☆☆ (5/10) Man, I wanted to love [i]Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter.[/i] Frogwares usually nails the deduction system, the atmosphere, and the immersive Victorian mystery vibes. This time, though, it feels like they tried to turn Sherlock into a mix of action hero and emotional drama protagonist—and it just doesn’t work. There are moments of brilliance, but they’re buried under awkward storytelling choices, over-the-top action, and a plot that constantly undermines the smart, methodical detective we love. [b][h2]Pros:[/h2][/b] ✅ Deduction system remains strong. True to Frogwares’ style, you still have an impressive set of investigative tools. Crime scenes allow you to gather clues, analyze evidence, reconstruct events, and draw conclusions. The freedom to interpret evidence and mislead yourself—or others—with false assumptions is still brilliant as ever. ✅ Character portraits and misdirection. It’s a small detail, but I appreciated how some portraits can be misleading. You'll have to choose between two conclusions. ✅ Production values. Finally, my boy looks handsome. But on a serious level, the models, lighting, and environmental design maintain that moody, atmospheric Victorian feel that Frogwares is known for. Voice acting is professional as usual. [b][h2]Cons:[/h2][/b] 🟥 Overemphasis on action and QTEs. My brother-in-Christ, you are NOT Indiana Jones! Large portions of the game involve running sequences, quick-time events, and over-the-top action that feel completely out of place. Please, no more balancing minigames. No more bar fights minigames. No more temple puzzles. It’s frustrating because the core gameplay is the part that actually works and is what I wanted. I just got ... *waves hands* everything else with it, too. At least you can skip everything. Thank you, devs. 🟥 The biggest thing: the daughter subplot. I don't believe I've seen this interpretation, but I came in with an open mind. Even though I'm not a smart player, however, I could see the big reveal regarding Alice a mile away. Not great. But Sherlock's behavior is quite ... unusual. He [spoiler] hides a "terrible secret" from her to "protect her," forgets her birthday, and fails to communicate in meaningful ways.[/spoiler] We are blinded by love, I get that. But you're telling me the world's smartest detective can't tell his daughter he loves her? It's so strange. 🟥 Forced paranormal/supernatural elements. The game introduces vague supernatural hints that never fully integrate with the investigative narrative. I, personally, wasn't a fan. I like my cases to have an actual answer to them, and I thought the ending was a bit silly. 🟥 Unclear importance of daughter’s parentage. While the game makes a big deal of the daughter’s origins, I, as a new fan, genuinely had zero knowledge of who her biological father is. So the reveal was just ... "damn, that's it?" 🟥 Same issue as last game with constant loading screens. [hr] If you enjoyed this review, please check out my curator page to find more: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45814768-Verdict-Play-or-Pass/]Verdict: Play or Pass. [/url] Also, please leave a like and visit [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Indie_Gems]IndieGems[/url] and our YouTube channel for more reviews like this one. [/hr]

Це вже не перший Sherlock Holmes від Frogwares для мене, але, можливо, останній. Мені здається розробники дещо відійшли від ідеї того, як правильніше вибудувати цікаву детективну історію, і таким чином в гру потрапили деякі ну дуже дивні загадки і квести - особливо піраміда Майя, де одна за одною йдуть різні головоломки. Не всі з них одразу мають логічне розв’язання, і деякі хочеться просто скіпнути. Гра НІБИТО нелінійна, але по суті, не дає можливості пропустити якісь докази - інакше задача буде висіти далі. І це руйнує загадковість. Я завжди у приклад гарного детективу вказую L.A. Noire - там шансів облажатись давали більше (хоч і там я був незадоволений, але на фоні цього проекту вона виглядає референсом). Підозрюваних зазвичай декілька, і гра підкидає все нові докази так, щоб кожен з них мав мотив і можливість для злочину. Можливо, це випадковість, але вже на передостанній главі це наскучило - типу вибери кращого серед гірших. При цьому, половина закадрової історії залишається ігноруємою, половина зібраних доказів взагалі втрачає сенс і рішення в дедуктивному аналізі не може містити сірих тонів. Геймплейних фішок дуже мало. Все ті ж підслуховування в барах - в реальності мені здається це дивно виглядало б, коли людина пересаджується з місця на місце, нічого не замовляє, а потім просто йде, наситившись інфою. Місія зі стеженням благо була тільки одна - інакше задушитись можна було б. Ну і куди ж без QTE. Цікавою була зміна персонажів. Хоч у гри є певні позитивні моменти, назвати її справді гарним детективом я не можу. Втім, за свою ціну зі знижками ознайомитись було не зайвим, і витраченим часом не вважаю. 5/10.

Классное приключение выдалось) Учитывая, что я обожаю Шерлока, читала Артура Конана Дойла и посмотрела почти все сериалы и фильмы по нему, кайфово было увидеть отсылочки в характерах, названиях дел и именах персонажей) QTE в первых главах поджигал мою жепу, но потом я привыкла и стало норм) Вообще не напрягаясь прошла на 100%, кайф)