Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments is an action adventure game by Focus Home Interactive set to be released in Q2 2014 for the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. It is based off of the Sherlock Holmes character.
Development:[]
Crimes and Punishments is developed on Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 allowing the series to jump far ahead of previous installments in graphical quality. Environments will be more realistic and finely detailed with dynamic lighting and shadows. Choosing this engine also lets the game benefit from many technologies like a powerful animation engine for smooth movement and animation transitions, real-time shaders and a particle system, and advanced post-processing effects. Frogwares have scrapped its old method (employing one huge texture) instead opting to use Tiled Textures.
Gameplay:[]
Sherlock Holmes Crimes & Punishments - Launch Trailer
Launch Trailer
The majority of the game involves exploring crime scenes and examining clues. Once discovered, clues are added to a "deduction board", a gameplay mechanic which involves linking pieces of information together. It will lead to possible different deductions. Once deductions are connected together, player will have a full tree of deduction. Depending on how player interprets the clues, they will have different conclusions. Therefore player can fail in the game, or succeed into finding the right criminal. He should also decide whether he wants to absolve or to conduct the criminal. The moral choice player makes will influence the further gameplay. Each case will have 3-5 possible solutions; in total there will be 6-10 different endings for each case. In total, the game offers 14 investigation mechanics, including Sherlock Holmes' skill to guess many details about someone's life simply by glancing at them or to imagine and reconstruct the course of event by carefully observing all the key details of a crime scene.
There are two camera views to be available – a first person point of view and a static third person camera. The player is able to change between them at any time. Sherlock can also draw evidence from autopsies and scanning the people he meets. For the latter, players will enter a first-person view for an up-close inspection of a character's face and emotions, clothing and belongings, where he'll find everything from scars and bruises to the quality of an outfit.
Frogwares is tweaking its Sherlock Holmes series to be more modern with the introduction of "Sherlock Vision," a mechanic that will help in highlighting evidence that would otherwise be missed. For example, through Sherlock Vision players can look at a dusty bookcase shelves and notice that a chest has been taken from the shelf, or that an item may have a hidden inscription on it, and was also inspired by the BBC's Sherlock series that allows player to see through the detective's eyes. According to Frogwares' business developer Olga Ryzhko, Sherlock vision will help take the series to the "next level" for Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments, the upcoming installment in the franchise set to launch early next year. Ryzhko calls the game the "most challenging, most sophisticated" Sherlock game yet, and said the development team has built on previous games' mechanics while tweaking them slightly for a more modern feel. In the television show, text appears on screen listing what Sherlock is thinking — what he notices on other people, what he's thinking of and even what he's searching for on his smartphone. In Crimes and Punishments, the same happens with this Sherlock; text will appear detailing what he is thinking, such as how approaching footsteps sound and who might be at the door.
Besides appearing on a new console and using a new engine, Crimes & Punishments is also reinventing the series by redesigning the look of the world's greatest detective*. He now sports a younger, fresher appearance without a deer-stalker cap - or any hat, for that matter - in sight. This latest iteration of the series will be the first to contain moral choices and branching narrative paths.