SUPER SLEUTH

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

- Fraser Brown

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

Frogware’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.

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.