Bonus Blog! The Testament of Sherlock Holmes

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is surprisingly pretty and well presented for what most would consider to be a budget title.  It is truly a visual representation of a Holmes story.

I have to admit that I have been on something of a Sherlock Holmes binge.  The BBC hit "Sherlock" left me wanting more as soon as I finished watching the recently aired Season 3.  

So off I went to Steam where I downloaded and played The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, another traditional style adventure game.

While Broken Age can appeal to casual adventure fans, Testament takes a much more serious and difficult approach.  You really do have to solve these mysteries.  It also is more than just a point and click experience.  Combining items together, interpreting chemical test results, solving complex puzzles without an obvious solution (most of the time), using those clues to solve a deduction board, etc. make this game far more difficult.  This game will not have the broad appeal that Broken Age has.  You need some patience for this game and I imagine the pacing may be too slow for some.

I believe this game retails for $19.99, but at the time of my purchase I paid $4.99 for it on sale and for that price I was more than satisfied.  Visually, the game looks brilliant.  It has its presentation flaws, but nothing that makes it feel cheap.  The voice actors for Holmes, Watson, and the rest of the cast is great.  Certainly nobody in a video game is going to be like Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, but the actors here do a great job.  And the game has some length.  It took me about 10 hours to get through the game and given the difficulty I'm not too proud to admit that there were a couple times I had to look up where to find the next clue.

In my opinion, the game has a few too many moments where I felt like I was doing the right thing and perhaps I wasn't clicking on the exact right place.  It's a little annoying.  The game also sometimes forces you to use the ASDF keys to select between different options to click on, and I found it kind of clunky.  Some of the items to click on were also located in just strange places.  But these are obstacles that can be overcome.

If you like Holmes style mysteries, it's worth checking out.  But if you aren't into more difficult adventure games or the Holmes universe, it's probably one you should skip.  There are other games in the series as well that at some point I hope to try because despite its flaws, Testament was a very enjoyable experience for me.