Frogwares is no stranger when it comes to detective games as they have plenty of Sherlock Holmes titles under their belt. However, their latest title Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One which is currently under development is making a change for the normal pace of the previous titles and is going more along the lines of their previous release The Sinking City. We recently got a chance to experience an early access build of the game which allowed us to experience a short demo of what we can expect from the full game. This is our early access preview of Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One in which we roll up our sleeves (or sleeve) and try to find a diamond stolen by a ghost.
Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is set on the beautiful island of Cordona where Sherlock Holmes arrives with his friend Jon to visit his mother’s grave however specific events lead him to believe that there is much more to the case than he knew and thus he begins a full-scale investigation into the death of his mother. His friend Jon is a loyal friend however his reality is a strange one as well and goes beyond the normal friendship that you would normally expect. Upon his arrival on the isle of Cordona, Sherlock is immediately sucked into the world of investigations and begins his time with a theft and murder case right at the hotel where he checks in for staying.
The Early Access version of Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One provided to us by Frogwares came with one main case and one side case although the side case felt really short. Starting right from the start of the preview build, I was thrown into a stolen diamond case which eventually became a murder case, and we were tasked with solving the case. The investigations were thorough and satisfying in the end. Naturally, there is no handholding in the cases which means that you will be scratching your own head in order to find clues and finding out what to do next in the cases. However, there are various other helpful mechanics in the game that allow you to combine clues and make deductions that help you throughout the case.
One such place is called the Mind Palace, which was present in The Sinking City as well, Frogwares’ previous title, and has found its way to Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One as well. Other handy mechanics such as access to Police Archives, City Archives, and other records are present in the game as well however their access was limited in the demo that I received although I did visit the Police Station in order to find some records in their archives. I was glad to see that apart from these trusty old mechanics, some new mechanics that help us in our investigations have found their way to the game as well such as eavesdropping, using disguises, and pinning evidence on your screen to ask around about that particular topic from the general public.
The handiest feature I found was eavesdropping as it actually helped me in solving the very first murder case that I received in the game. Sadly, in this build, I could not fully explore the disguises mechanic as well as the other new investigation mechanics implemented in the game however they all feel really promising and I cannot wait to give them a spin as well in a future build or the full game when it comes out. The game did introduce me to the disguises mechanic however I could not actually use them in any of the cases I took in the games as no disguises were required for them.
Sherlock also comes with a focused mode where pressing the key allows you to hyper-focus and it tells you different details about the world around you and for specific items as well. For example, using this mechanic, I was able to find out that a lock on the door was extremely weak and can be picked easily as well as a makeup kit with a hidden compartment under it. The symbol for such item resembles the second-dimension cloud from The Sinking City where you could enter to form crime scenes. You will also form crime scenes in Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One and the process is pretty much the same where you must find all clues in a location first and then form a crime scene.
For what limited access I had to the open world of the game, I fully availed it and explored a good deal of it. The world surely feels alive around you with people going around on their daily routines and working their jobs. There are various vendors as well that might be accessible in the full game however I could not get to them in the demo which included a clothing vendor and a furniture vendor. There was also a newspaper boy from whom I purchased the previous day’s newspaper, and I was happy to see it covering my previously solved murder case. This showed that the world responds to different events that happen in it and it a major difference from any of Frogwares’ previous releases. I am greatly interested to see what more will the full open-world of the game has to offer.
With a game like Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, audio and dialogue delivery plays a vital role and the developers have given special thought to that as well. Your investigations are full of dialogue and each character has dialogue based on their own personalities. The voice actors fairly match the appearance of the characters they voiced over for and barely at any time I thought that this character’s voice does not match their appearance or personality. This also brings me to the character design which is realistic as well. Throughout your investigations, you will also need to observe various actions and outer appearance to form their persona, and here you can see the realistic character design featured in the game.
I do not think that speaking too much about the technical aspect of the game would be fair at this point because this was still a pretty early build of the game. Nearly all of the aspects of Sherlock Holmes Chapter One are currently under development including the graphics, gameplay mechanics as well overall optimization of the game however I will detail how my experience went so far with the game. There were a few notable dips in frames, especially while I was out exploring the city. It appeared like the city was complete as I did not find any closed areas however the dropping frames discouraged me from going too far out into the city. I was told to expect some visual hiccups in the game however apart from the dropping frames occasionally, I do not remember any other graphical issues with the build.
In addition to this, there were no crashes throughout my playthrough. I have a fairly decent Ryzen 7 build with a Radeon RX 6800 and the game ran perfectly fine on it. I also tried on an older R9 290, and it seemed to work just fine on it as well however the frame drops were more severe. That was expected since the game is still in development and unoptimized at this point. The visuals will also improve in the final build of the game however the game looked fairly decent at this point as well however nothing like the modern titles like we currently have so I am looking forward to the visuals of the full release as well since the Isle of Cordona is really scenic and would look amazing with improved visuals overall.
After spending around 5 hours in the early access build of Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, I can easily say that Frogwares picked all of the good aspects of its previous titles and has improved upon them. If you have played The Sinking City, you will find a lot of familiar mechanics here as well however all of them have been improved and are now in their best forms. It certainly feels fresh however we still have to see how Frogwares mixes combat with the otherwise investigation-heavy franchise. At this point, we merely got a small taste of the title and still have to see and experience a lot more from the Sherlock Holmes Chapter One but my initial expressions about the game are extremely positive even from an under-development build.
Frogwares is certainly taking a fresh approach with the new title, and it is worth mentioning here that it is nothing like their old Sherlock Holmes titles at all. It feels a lot more like The Sinking City and I am sure that Frogwares will be taking The Sinking City as their base from now onwards while making the mechanics better and better. Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is a perfect example of this as it can easily be said as a better version of The Sinking City with a fresh new look and setting. I am certainly looking forward to the full release of Sherlock Holmes Chapter One and cannot wait to check out the combat aspect of the title as well.
