071THE SINKING CITY
“AS WE REACH A PADLOCKED
COLD STORAGE AREA IN THE
BASEMENT WE GET NERVOUS.”
Hello handsome. Reed will have a series of different
outfits to unlock from clearing cases (and via DLC).TheTestamentof
Sherlock Holmes
(PS3), 2012
A leap forward for the Sherlock
Holmes series, Testament felt
truly designed for consoles. An
original story, Holmes has to wrangle his toughest
case yet, one where he is the main suspect, and
has serious issues trying to prove his innocence.
SherlockHolmes:
The Devil’s Daughter
(PS4), 2016
Again a larger plot takes place
over a few cases, this time
centring around Holmes’
daughter in some areas. A bit more action-
packed, it focuses on somewhat younger
incarnations of Holmes and Watson.SherlockHolmes:
Crimes & Punishments
(PS3, PS4), 2014
Sherlock Holmes and John
Watson take on six cases, one
after another, that end up all
tying into a larger plot. Often the cases feature
moral dilemmas, and as Holmes you have to weigh
up how to end each morally grey case.Criminal Record
Frogwares has been making detective games since 2002. Here are its more recent PlayStation offerings...Dead and board
Down and out at a boarding house
M
any workers live crammed together in
this rickety house. Upstairs a man
named Will Hammond tells us what he
knows. He says he was a railworker before
the flood, and has become a fisherman, like
many others, to make ends meet. Next to
him is a body of another boarder, face
bashed in. Seeing this, our Sanity gauge
plummets – we see a man hanging lifeless
before our eyes, and a humanoid creature
stumbling towards us, before we manage to
shake off the visions. Not only do we have to
make sure Reed’s Health is maintained, we
have to check he doesn’t become too
disturbed too quickly, as shocks, monsters,
and using supernatural detective powers
drain Sanity, and it’s slow to recharge.
We continue to search for clues.
Concentrating on a pocket watch we found (at
the cost of more Sanity), we use our Mind’s
Eye ability to glimpse the past. This place was
indeed where Throgmorton’s son, Albert, lay
- in our vision we see him floating above the
bed, shocking another lodger. At a further cost
to Sanity we use Retrocognition to piece
together an altercation between the two. We
have to find all the ghostly recreations of the
past in the area, then pin down the order in
which they took place. We see Albert’s fight
with the lodger spill out of the building,
crashing through the wall and into the harbour.
Body of evidence
Cold storage – never a good signB
y continuing to use Mind’s Eye we follow
echoes of the men’s shapes through the
harbour, and track them to a warehouse. As
we reach a padlocked cold storage area in the
basement we get a little nervous. With no time
for subtlety, we bash the lock open with the
shovel from our rucksack using u. Hanging
there is Albert’s dead body, a gunshot wound
through the head. Before we can examine it
properly a strange, small, multi-handed
creature leaps at us from around the corner.
With our Sanity dropping perilously, we panic.
With bullets a limited resource, we go back to
hitting u to whack it until it lies still. We’re
told a little later that these things, Wylebeasts,
have begun to infest parts of town since the
flood, feeding on blood. Some areas of the city
will be more dangerous than others, though
they may hide secrets we’ll want to discover
when we’re more kitted up. Going back to the
body, it seems like the other lodger, Lewis,
might have executed Albert as their fight
escalated, as we find identifying letters near
the body tying him to a speakeasy. Prohibition
doesn’t seem to affect Oakmont. Wanting to be
sure, we set out for the nearby bar.Barfor the course
Every good ’tec loves a speakeasyG
ot a spare bullet, fella? I ain’t eaten in
days,” a beggar asks us outside the bar.
Our confusion is put to rest inside when a
fortune teller informs us the dollar is
meaningless in this city. “Oakmonters deal in
the practical,” she says. Fair enough. If we end
up unsure where to go, she might be able to
point us in the right direction – for a price.
We lay it on thick with the bartender, who
seems to be covering for Lewis. We’re taking
no nonsense after finding that body and that
beast. We need to be careful with our words,
as what we choose to say will affect how
helpful people are to our investigation.
Convinced, he leads us to Lewis. Lewis is an
Innsmouther, a member of a migrant fish-like
population from the ruins of the nearby city of
Innsmouth. Throgmorton called them refugees
when he told us about them, claimed they
were stealing jobs. Lewis is skittish, and
admits what happened but says he can’t
remember any of it, that something came over
him when he found Albert’s body floating.
Given what we saw using Mind’s Eye, we can’t
help believing him. We have to choose whether
to turn him into Throgmorton, well aware of
his hate towards the Innsmouthers, or to let
him off and cover up for him. Believing Lewis,
and feeling like he might be of help to us later,
we go for the latter. Throgmorton thanks me,
believing his son’s killer to be dead, and tasks
us with our second case: to find out what
happened to his son’s doomed expedition to
investigate the nearby seabed, where a deep
crack seems to have appeared.2
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