Sherlock Holmes and The Mystery of Osborne House (DS) Review

Full Disclosure: I do not like puzzle type games and was not able to finish Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Osborne House due to a tough puzzle I could not get past.

Story:  It was rather boring, and I found no source of entertainment due to the lackluster story. I skipped through most of the script because it was so dull and wearisome that I wanted to get to a puzzle so that my mind would be stimulated with problem solving clues and evidence rather than withering away into a void of boredom.  The game did not have interesting plot twists or anything that would make me rethink the entire plotline, it was very straightforward and predictable.

Gameplay: Gameplay ranged from easy and quick brain teasers to difficult and headache inducing challenges. Only involving the Stylus DS pen, it would appear the challenges would be easy, shifting blocks to adjust like pieces to a puzzle. However, I was stuck on so many levels that left me no clues on how to advance to the next puzzle.  Each puzzle did offer hints for you to use, but you had to forfeit the points earned at the end of the puzzle.  The two options for hints were partial and full.  For the more difficult puzzles, I chose the full hints thinking that it would practically give me the answer to the puzzle.  Instead, it further explained the partial hint along the lines of “move the blocks in a pattern to release the green block from the map”. I already knew that I had to move the blocks; how does that help me when I already understand the point of the puzzle?

As far as I got in the game, the variety of puzzles was decent.  At the beginning, the puzzles were simple and easy to solve only requiring the shifting of blocks and tapping on certain pieces to have them all connect together and create this piece of evidence to be used. But the further you advanced in the game, the more difficult the puzzles became.  There is a rating system that lets you know how hard they will be and I remembered having a few three star level puzzles all in a row to complete. The three starred puzzles are far too difficult and caused me to get stuck in the game.

    

Graphics:  Sherlock Holmes’ graphics are screenshots with cutouts of the characters in the game. Given that there was no animation, the game had good shading, color, and 3D modeling of the character cutouts.  It was a job well done since you can see the intricate detail put into the wood panels, clothing and other aspects of the game.     

Audio: There is only one word for the audio in this game: annoying.  Anytime I had the music enabled, I heard only one song throughout my entire gameplay. I muted the DS so I never had to hear the music again because of it being so repetitious.  The sound effects were on the dot especially when shifting puzzle pieces and going through dialogue.

Replayability:  There is no replayability in this game since there are no multiplayer or online capabilities in Sherlock Holmes. When completing puzzles there are options to go back and replay them to receive a higher score in case you used the full hint that takes more than half the points you could have been awarded without using the hints.

Pros:

• Great ranges of difficulty
• Decent graphical coloring

Cons:

• Audio is annoying
• Puzzles can be too difficult
• Straightforward story
• No replayability

Editor: Alyssa Bogie

3/10 Poor
Value: $2

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