Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter

This is a bit complicated game to talk about. Personally, this game is worse than Crimes and Punishment in a lot of ways. There are things I like about the game, but there are at least equal numbers of things that I dislike about it. I like that the game is basically a sequel story-wise to Testament. At the same time I feel that they are taking quite a radical direction with the game as well.

In general, I like the cases present in the game. I still think they are weaker compared to those in Crimes and Punishment, but it's not bad. The first case was good, the second one is better but then it turns into a weird ending. It goes downhill afterwards unfortunately. I just strongly dislike the paranormal side of it. The hallucinations and visions is just so out of the blue (maybe not in hindsight as they ended up making Lovecraftian game after this).

I have quite a strong reaction to this version of Sherlock Holmes model. I don't know why they are making Holmes and Watson look very young here, and it is quite jarring if you have played Testament and Crimes and Punishment. I really don't vibe with this younger model. The voice is also not bad, but it's just not as great as the last one. I truly prefer the previous version. Although you can get used to it in the long run as it is not bad at all, it's just different.

Last but not least, the gameplay is the bane of this game for me. Somehow I feel like they are obsessed with the gimmick-y minigames and stuff, making the game feel tedious instead of stimulating. I really wished they gave us more puzzle rather than more QTEs. It feels so cheap and lazy for a game design especially when it is supposed to be a Sherlock Holmes game. And yet when we talk about puzzle, the quality is quite a slippery slope yet again if we compared it to Crimes and Punishment. There are good ones, but there are bad ones, and the bad ones can be quite frustrating. Sometimes the puzzles feels lacking of logical thinking and the deductions rely more on ambiguity for the sake of "branching ending" of the case.

Ironically, this game is substantially more popular. Maybe it's because the game is just more modern and newer.

If you have played Testament and you are quite a hardcore Sherlock Holmes fans, you might as well play this game. But judging the game as a standalone game, I am quite disappointed in it.