The Testament Of Sherlock Holmes

This detective game is very much afoot

Holmes mania was in full swing in 2012, with two huge shows on TV (the BenedictCumberbatch-led BBC one and the Johnny Lee Miller one across the pond) and the Guy-Ritchie-directed film duology having just wrapped up. Frogwares, however, had the jump on all of them, having become the de facto gaming custodian of the great detective with an ongoing – if often reinvented – series since 2002 on PC. But in 2012 the studio capitalised on the fever with one of its most ambitious mysteries to date, and its first on PS3.

The tale’s framed with some (rather creepy-looking) children going through Dr Watson’s case notes, which they find hidden in an attic. They immediately stumble upon the doctor’s fears that someone close to him may be hiding the truth of who they are. Naturally, the kids decide to begin reading from the start, the twisting threads of uncertainty left dangling from the very beginning.

Bait-and-switches and red herrings make a good mystery, after all, and this take on Victorian London has you smelling those herrings. It’s not always pretty, but it’s wonderfully imagined. This is the darker side of the Victorian-set pulps, not only in how the capital’s depicted, but also in how a little of the shine is taken off the detective himself for both the player and his loyal companion, Dr Watson. It’s a grittier adventure, which was the style of the adaptions of the 2010s.