PC Gamer - UK (2022-01)

Don’t let the title fool you – this is not
the first in a series of episodic games,
but rather an origin story with a
younger, hotter, weirder Sherlock.
Instead of being stuck in gloomy
London, Sherlock’s
taken a trip to the
sunny Mediterranean
island of Cordona,
where he lived as a
child, to visit his
mother’s grave.
Unshackled from so
many of the
conventions of a
Holmes mystery, Chapter One takes
bold, surprising, and silly turns.
Sherlock’s constant companion,
Jon, is a sort of proto-Watson, and
really exemplifies how Chapter One
adapts Doyle’s ancient character. Like
Watson, Jon is a sounding board and
confidant for Sherlock. But unlike the
good doctor, he’s a bit of a rogue, with
a playful, cheeky streak and a more
fraternal relationship with Sherlock.
He’s also entirely imaginary.
Jon’s also another mystery to
solve. He’s been with Sherlock since
childhood, a period of his life that’s
mostly a blank. Lost memories can be
conjured up, however, filling the gaps
in Sherlock’s past with sketches
superimposed onto the present. And
while you’re unravelling this story, at
the heart of which lies the mystery of
his mother’s death, you’re always a
detective. The tools you use to solve
crimes are the same ones you use to
illuminate the past.
It dawned on me, somewhere
between having visions, bantering
with my sidekick, and putting crooks
behind bars, that Chapter One is a
superhero origin story specifically;
one where he’s still unsure of himself

and not in full control of his abilities.

He’s Batman with fewer muscles.

And like the Dark Knight, he’s

now joined the ranks of open world

protagonists. Cordona is very far

from Arkham’s

Gotham, however.

Instead, it’s evocative

of LA Noire and Mafia,

where the cities are

elaborate stages. For

the most part, the

island just lets you get

on with the good stuff:

solving cases.

Outside of the main story’s five

mysteries, there are more than 30

side cases, ranging from simple things

like ‘which drunk idiot stabbed that

other drunk idiot?’ to chasing down

an elephant who may have killed an

important lead. The best cases, of

course, are the bamboozlers that send

you all over the city to research legal

documents, interview suspects, solve

riddles, and do a spot of chemical

analysis, but there are some great

self-contained mysteries that are just

as fun to solve.

VIOLENT TENDENCIES

Nearly everything in the open world

fits, but there’s a glaring exception:

fights. Inexplicably, you can burst

into bandit lairs and kill (or subdue)

everyone with your gun and

environmental hazards. These are all

repetitive, wave-based fights that lack

any of the qualities that make decent

action sequences, and they simply

don’t fit in at all. The lairs are

optional, but fights crop up in cases

from time to time, ruining the pace.

Thankfully, Sherlock still favours

words over fights, running rings

around everyone with his uncanny

observations and revelations. His

patter benefits from the strongest

writing in the series, and he’s even

allowed to be occasionally funny.

There are some stumbles, though,

like the poor handling of a character’s

trans identity, or the solution to

finding a hiding African refugee

being ‘ask any random Black person’.

For a game with so much smarts, it

can be very dumb.

Chapter One is imperfect and

sometimes awkward, but I still found

myself dangling on its hook, hungry

for more crimes, which it’s more than

happy to offer. For all its welcome

oddities, it still manages to stay

focused on the important stuff. You’re

here to sleuth, and that’s exactly what

you’ll get to do for 40 hours.

80

Sherlock Holmes:

Chapter Oneis full of

riveting mysteries,but

stuck with some truly

awful and jarring combat.

VERDICT

F

rogware’s latest Sherlock game feels like the ultimate
expression of the developer’s ambition for its venerable
sleuthing series – but also its strangest entry yet. It is nearly
everything you could want from a game about the consulting
detective, but also a few things that you could do without. It
veers between greatness and absurdity, but if you’ve got an itch to solve
some Victorian mysteries, there isn’t a better salve.

SUPER SLEUTH

SHERLOCK HOLMES: CHAPTER ONE is an ambitious sandbox with a younger detective

By Fraser Brown

Some great

self-contained

mysteries

that are fun

to solve

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

How the consulting detective solves crimes

CASEBOOK

This contains all the clues,

testimony,and observations

you’ve gathered, and helpfully

directs you towards the next step

in the investigation.

REENACTMENTS

You’ll need to explore crime

scenes for clues, after which you

construct a mental recreation of

the events. Watch out for

multiple red herrings though.

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

An open world detective

mystery with a young

Sherlock

EXPECT TO PAY

£40

DEVELOPER

Frogwares

PUBLISHER

In-house

REVIEWED ON

GTX 1080 Ti, Intel

i7-8086K, 16GB RAM

MULTIPLAYER

No

LINK

sherlockholmes.one

MIND PALACE

Here you’ll try to find

connections between clues so

you can form deductions, of

which you’ll once again be given

multiple interpretations.

ACCUSATIONS

When you’ve settled on a

deduction, you can accuseone of

your suspects. This is where you

get to bask in glory or find out

you got it terribly, terribly wrong.

Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One

REVIEW