Grand Theft Auto V

On February 28, 1998, Grand Theft Auto hit the North American market, giving gamers a bird’s-eye view of a gangster’s world overrun with violence, drugs, and an alarming number of civilians crushed by runaway cars. Although the characters looked like ants from the game’s top-down perspective, players became immersed in the open-world chaos, praising its unique gameplay and freedom of choice. The diminutive violence from that first Grand Theft Auto title created a rock-solid foundation for a series that was about to revolutionize gaming – all through the switch of a camera.

Shifting to the third-person perspective in 2001’s Grand Theft Auto III reinvigorated this series, serving as the ideal viewpoint for developer Rockstar North’s biting commentary. In a year filled with companies re-releasing games on new-gen hardware, the return of Grand Theft Auto V on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One may not sound like big news, but this new version contains another significant breakthrough for the series – one that once again involves the position of the camera.

Players now have the option to trek across Los Santos and Blaine County in first-person. Zooming into the eyes of Trevor, Michael, and Franklin delivers a remarkable sense of intimacy for all of the actions in the game, be it driving, skydiving, swimming with sharks, or running down a darkened alley with a pistol drawn as the police give chase.


The first-person view is more than a simple camera switch; it’s a fully realized component that delivers a new experience for GTA players. Rockstar created thousands of new animations to deliver a sense of realism from this viewpoint. When hotwiring a car, the camera pans down to show the character working the wires under the steering wheel. When Franklin lights up at his mom’s house, his hand and his weed touch the screen for each long drag. All phone usage shows the character’s hands moving across the touchscreen. When Trevor’s temper flares, his middle finger is flipped in the center of the screen. All of the actions from this perspective look fantastic, and deliver that same high level of quality seen throughout the remainder of the game.

When the action heats up, the first-person view ups the intensity and difficulty. Given that this perspective limits awareness of the character’s surroundings, I found I had to be more cautious in firefights. I also wasn’t as skilled while driving, since the vehicle’s frame obscures the view, and it’s far more challenging to thread the needle between cars when the camera positioning can’t be altered on the fly. That said, I enjoyed both avenues of play more from the first-person perspective. Aiming down the iron sights of a gun is easier than lining up the tiny white dot for a headshot. The sense of speed tied to driving is far greater, making uncontrolled descents down the mountain on a motorbike a terrifying affair.


The new viewpoint is optional, activated with the press of a button. It offers a host of settings to tweak, including aim sensitivity, control schematics, head bob, and the ability to zoom out to third-person while using cover (a recommended switch, since using cover properly is difficult in first-person).

This version of the game also boasts a bevy of graphical improvements, including a 1080p resolution, greater draw distance, better textures, and an array of new lighting and atmospheric touches. The streets are loaded with more vehicles and pedestrians, and the wilds are denser in fauna and home to a handful of new animal types.

Players continue to uncover new content and secrets. Racing now consists of fun stock car events, which reward the player well with new muscle cars decked out in the decals of Los Santos’ biggest brands. Franklin can now veer away from his life of crime to take on a wildlife-photography side activity, and Michael is intertwined in a new murder mystery, which, as of this writing, no one has solved. A hatchet and rail gun up the number of armaments, and the clunky Dodo seaplane returns. Long story short, there's plenty of new content here.
 I spent hours of my life tracking down peyote plants, a new collectible that makes the character hallucinate and transform into an animal for a limited amount of time. During one trip, I played as a coyote that mauled two people to death, made another frightened citizen run directly in front of a trolley, and at the end of his reign of terror, was sent to coyote heaven by a police officer.

I can’t stress just how much fun it is to experience Grand Theft Auto V again from a new perspective. The impact it has on the series is huge, but is somewhat muted from it debuting in a re-release and not a new entry in the series. I went into this review expecting to play the same game again, and I did, but Rockstar made it feel new.


Grand Theft Auto Online
The enhancements for the single-player campaign transfer over to Grand Theft Auto Online. The multiplayer component has expanded to include 30 players, and the first-person perspective breathes new life into the action. In my time online, I experienced minimal lag or issues in the expanded firefights and races. If you played the last-gen versions, your online persona (and everything you’ve earned) can transfer to the new iteration, so you can upgrade without losing progress.

Broken Age Act 2 Arriving Early Next Year

Double Fine shared an update recently regarding the launch of the second act of Broken Age and the finish line is visible, even it is a little further out than expected.
In a post on its website, Double Fine's Greg Rice offered a status update for the game. Broken Age's second act recently entered alpha for both the protagonist characters, leaving only a final finale section left to enter alpha. Playtesting is going smoothly with no apparent necessary retooling of puzzles or story, etc., and players are apparently spending about 8-12 hours on the follow-up act, making it considerably longer than the game's first act.
Final recording sessions are happening next week, which means the game should be entering full beta soon. Rice writes a new release schedule will be easier to formulate with all of this work complete and will share it soon, but the second act, and in turn the full Broken Age experience, should release early next year.
For our review of Broken Age's first act, head here. The decision to split Broken Age into two parts happened last summer. Recently, Double Fine experiences layoffs after an unannounced project fell through.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2015

When teams gain promotion to the top division they enter into a brand-new world. They become minnows in an ocean dominated by world-class teams who spend big money and expect to go deep into the Champions League every year. Even though Konami started its upgrade last year on the PS3 and Xbox 360 by using the Fox engine for the franchise, the series' debut on the PS4 and Xbox One is a promotion into a higher tier that demands Pro Evo rise to the occasion.

After years in the wilderness, Pro Evolution's feature set finally has a destination mode. The intricately structured online myClub mode replaces the online Master League, and building your dream team is a rewarding mix of good fortune and hard work. Managers (including some licensed ones) determine your tactical options, wage cap, and the chemistry template which players fit in to raise your overall team spirit. Agents are used to sign players, and multiple agents can be used to get better players or ones that fit more specific criteria. The fun thing is, apart from the parameters you've set by which agents you've selected to use (like a player's position), you don't know exactly what player you're going to get.

The game has microtransactions, which can provide high-level agents or re-up your players' contracts and fatigue levels, but you can earn enough of the regular currency (GP) that the mode's fun squad-building spirit is not disturbed. Players' stamina recharges if they're on the bench, you can earn GP for in-game actions and in other modes, and you can play matches against the computer (which uses A.I. approximations of real-players' teams) or try and climb the divisions structure against others online. The flexibility and interaction of myClub's moving parts make it challenging, delivering a go-to online mode (there are other online modes as well) for the first time in the series' history.

The offline Master League has undergone changes, but they aren't impressively deep and the mode is not as interesting as my Club. The ability to scout players is nominal, and the mode's one contribution is its expanded negotiation options. You can go back and forth over clubs' transfer fees and players' salaries – including the option to pay players an appearance fee that affects your team's bottom line. Perhaps more importantly, the expanded roster of licenses includes those for the French and Italian second divisions and real players (on fictional teams) for the English second division, adding some heft to the Master League.

PES 2015's modes are starting to turn the corner, and the game play has also made progress, but it's in fits and starts. Player acceleration and dribbling feel good compared to last year, but players can take some unnecessary extra touches, shots can be slow to get off, and winning possession of the ball can be pre-determined at times. You can still keep possession while enduring the increased physicality, but on some occasions the collision doesn't register or your challenges have no effect.

A.I. keepers can let in some howlers (particularly down low) and defenses can be suspect, but this is a game where playing against the computer can be challenging (I recommend playing on the higher difficulty levels) because its ball movement and incisive attacks create a game-within-the-game. Disciplined play saves your hide, and exploring the game's more complex controls and tactical options are rewarding and help you break down defenses and become a better player. That's what PES is all about.

In that sense, this is a great PES with which to kick off the new systems – it retains its heart while staking out vital new directions. It's not the largest of milestones and it has its stumbles, but it already puts the franchise on more firm footing than last generation.

The Top 25 Horror Games Of All Time

The drive to win and the tension of impending failure is enduring across all genres, but horror games push that formula further, punishing foolish mistakes with gruesome death sequences and fraying players’ nerves with unforgiving scares.
Iron-willed gamers have survived decades of horror games, from dread-inducing adventure games to gory shooters where you confront your fears while aiming down a shotgun barrel. The full catalog of horror games is staggering, but we’ve taken on the gut-wrenching task of refining this massive history to the top 25 in their class.
Similar to how certain things scare some people and don’t faze others, deciding what constitutes a horror game is subjective. These are the top 25 games that we consider brutally frightening, a blast to play, innovators in horror storytelling, or some mixture therein.

25. Blood
Platform PC
Publisher GT Interactive
Developer Monolith Productions
Release 1997
Monolith Productions’ long lineage of superb horror titles (F.E.A.R., Condemned) begins with what might have been dismissively labeled a “Doom clone” in the ‘90s. Unlike id’s demon-blasting FPS phenomenon, Blood doubles down on carefully crafted settings and tongue-in-cheek nods to classic horror films. Caleb is a resurrected gunslinger who uses a pitchfork, hairspray/lighter flamethrower, and even a voodoo doll to take down enemies like zombies and Tommy Gun-wielding cultists. His adventure takes him to a twisted carnival where dismembered hands lunge at his neck while (somehow) screaming “I’ll swallow your soul” (Evil Dead 2), and another level takes place in a massive hotel’s snowy hedge maze, complete with a frozen Jack Nicholson lookalike (The Shining).

24. Splatterhouse
Platform Arcade
Publisher Namco
Developer Namco
Release 1989
With its geysers of blood and over-the-top-of-the-top violence, Splatterhouse is pretty goofy by today’s standards. At the time of its release, however, Namco’s homage to slasher films was fairly controversial. The TurboGrafx-16 port tamed things down a bit for American audiences (overt references to religious iconography and mild profanity got the axe), but Rick’s rampage through West Mansion was still gory enough to make it unwelcome in many households. Sequels would add further carnage (and put the hockey-masked hero in a pair of jorts) but it’s tough to beat the original – even with a 2x4.

23. Shadows of the Damned
Platform PlayStation 3 • Xbox 360
Publisher Electronic Arts
Developer Grasshopper Manufacture
Release 2011
Heavily Inspired by campy horror like Evil Dead, Shadows of the Damned is as funny as it is full of horror tropes. A collaboration between Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami and Suda 51, the game plays like Resident Evil 4, which is always a favorable comparison. This bizarre adventure is full of gore and sexual innuendo. With a well-established demon world, charismatic characters, and an unsettling “What’s real and what isn’t?” tone, Shadows of the Damned sticks with you well after completion.

22. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Platform PC
Publisher Cyberdreams
Developer The Dreamers Guild
Release 1995
Harlan Ellison’s classic 1967 short story inspired this point-and-click adventure, which remains one of the most disturbing games created. You control the fates of five people, the only scraps of humanity left on Earth after a sadistic A.I. named AM has taken over. Each survivor has to endure their own hellish nightmare based on the whims of the machine. The game deals with heady subjects including suicide, rape, and genocide, pushing the limits of what’s often considered an escapist art form. As it stands, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream was an early beacon of mature storytelling for players who could stomach the content.

21. DayZ
Platform PC
Publisher Bohemia Interactive
Developer Dean Hall
Release 2013
From its modest beginnings as an Arma 2 mod to its rise to becoming a monolithic multiplayer experience, one thing has never changed – DayZ carves a unique niche in the survival horror landscape. This unrelenting game throws dark nights, dangerous weather conditions, and surprise zombie assaults at players, but nothing is scarier than unknown encounters with your fellow men and women who are also trying to make do on scraps of food, limited ammunition, and shelter.  Sony recently announced a PlayStation 4 port is coming in the near future, so console owners can finally see what the craze is about.


20. Slender
Platform PC • Mac
Publisher Parsec Productions
Developer Parsec Productions
Release 2012
This free-to-download game came out of nowhere to scare the crap out of gamers in 2012. Slender forgoes ornamentation and deep narrative in favor of a slimmed-down frightfest that challenges gamers to collect eight pages of paper strewn around a forest in the middle of the night while evading the omnipresent horror of the Slender Man. Armed with only a flashlight with horrible battery life, this task isn’t easy. When the static appears across your screen, that’s a good indicator your life expectancy just took a nosedive.

19. Dead Rising
Platform Xbox 360
Publisher Capcom
Developer Capcom
Release 2006
You like zombies? Have a whole mall full of ‘em! That’s what Capcom shouted at horror fans with Dead Rising, its campy take on the undead. Unlike the company’s own too-cool-for-school Resident Evil series, which maintains a deadly serious façade even during battles with plants and silly giant robots, Keiji Inafune’s take on zombies is gleefully self-aware. Photojournalist Frank West seems to be having as great a time as the player, cracking wise while snapping photos (and necks). In addition to being a blast, Dead Rising was a technical marvel for its day, showing off the power of the Xbox 360 by rendering hundreds of undead in detailed mall environments.

18. Sanitarium
Platform PC
Publisher ASC Games
Developer DreamForge Intertainment
Release 1998
Don’t you hate it when you wake up in a strange place with no idea what happened? This scenario is doubly bad for Max, who finds himself confined in a mental institution with no idea of who he is or why he’s there. In this isometric adventure game you explore his unsettling dreamscapes populated with disfigured children, carnival horrors, and tormented ghosts to piece together the sequence of events that led to his commitment.

17. Alan Wake
Platform Xbox 360 • PC
Publisher Microsoft Game Studios
Developer Remedy Entertainment
Release 2010
Following in the storytelling tradition of Stephen King, Alan Wake offers a mix of frightening visuals, psychological tricks, and unusual personalities, all of which add up to one of the most eerie and captivating games on Xbox 360. The story follows the titular novelist as he investigates a small town in search of his missing wife. Like a thoughtfully paced thriller TV series, the game is split up into distinct episodes that each end with cliffhangers. Beyond taut storytelling, Alan Wake’s exploration of light and shadow is both visually arresting and terrifying, since light is often a limited resource. Even without constant jump scares, Alan Wake’s pervading sense of an unknowable evil is deeply memorable.

16. F.E.A.R.
Platform PlayStation 3 • Xbox 360 • PC
Publisher Vivendi Universal
Developer Monolith Productions
Release 2005
Given the awe-inspiring arsenals players wield in first-person shooters, the genre doesn’t seem ripe for a horror experience. Monolith Productions proved that presupposition wrong with this creepy 2005 release. Heavily inspired by Japanese horror films like The Ring, F.E.A.R. features the most terrifying child to haunt video games, Alma. This apparition, born out of dastardly military experiments, can bend soldiers to her will and cause the protagonist Point Man to experience hallucinations, making her a formidable foe even for a Delta Force squad armed to the teeth with advanced weaponry and superhuman reflexes.


15. The Suffering
Platform PlayStation 2 • Xbox • PC
Publisher Midway

Developer Surreal Software
Release 2004
The Suffering is the rare horror game that combines psychological twists with gore-packed action. The night that a man named Torque is scheduled to be executead for the death of his family, an earthquake hits the isolated prison and unleashes a horde of gruesome demons, each of which personifies a different form of execution. Torque battles his way off the island while staring face to face with the horrors of institutionalization, channeling his own inner demons to transform into an equally horrifying monster.

14. Clock Tower
Platform PlayStation
Publisher ASCII Entertainment

Developer Human Entertainment
Release 1997
The SNES version of Clock Tower never reached American shores, but ASCII introduced U.S. gamers to the terrifying Scissorman on PlayStation. The point-and-click survival horror game places you in terrifying situations with him in pursuit. The sound of his scissors viciously slicing the air alerted you that he is closing in, adding to the intensity. However, the real terror comes from having only your wits to survive. Running away and finding hiding places are your only defenses against him. Clock Tower has multiple endings and perspectives to experience, but it truly stands out for how helpless it makes you feel.

13. The Walking Dead

Platform PlayStation 3 • Xbox 360 • PC • Vita • iOS
Publisher Telltale Games
Developer Telltale Games

Release 2012
Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead has always been unapologetically brutal and violent. Telltale Games took things to a new level when it made an adventure game set in the universe, showing gamers firsthand the true nightmares of a zombie apocalypse. Not knowing when a zombie attack would happen is one thing, but having the life of a charismatic child named Clementine in your hands is absolutely terrifying. You never know when someone in your fragile alliance will crack, who you can trust, or what dangers are ahead. Most importantly, the game lets you make choices, forcing you to face the consequences. With plenty of distressing situations, Telltale proves that horror can come in many different forms.

12. System Shock 2
Platform PC • Mac
Publisher Electronic Arts
Developer Irrational Games / Looking Glass Studios
Release 1999
The cold interior of a spaceship has become a tomb for many a player in System Shock 2, the precursor to Irrational Games’ BioShock. The immersive first-person shooter is hailed for combining elements of action and role-playing games, but it’s equally notable for its rich, atmospheric environment that ramps up tension and terror thanks to a rogue A.I. System Shock 2 paved the way for shooters being associated with much more than just blasting away with both barrels.

11. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
Platform GameCube
Publisher Nintendo
Developer Silicon Knights
Release 2002
The most mature-themed game Nintendo has ever published, Eternal Darkness takes players on a haunting journey through history to confront an ancient supernatural power. The Lovecraftian plot is filled with mystery, but was ultimately overshadowed by its infamous sanity meter. This devious design toyed with players’ minds in bold new ways. We recommend experiencing these fourth-wall breaking scares firsthand to truly appreciate this game’s legacy.


10. Condemned: Criminal Origins
Platform Xbox 360 • PC
Publisher Sega
Developer Monolith Productions
Release 2005
Upon its release in 2005, few games that had come before offered the immersive sense of disquiet and anxiety as the investigations of agent Ethan Thomas. Whether moving through dilapidated apartments and confronting its enraged and insane inhabitants, or entering an abandoned shopping complex to be stalked by mannequins, Condemned keeps players on their toes. Brutal first-person combat feels raw and dangerous, and players never know what to expect, right up to the surprising and abrupt conclusion.

9. Manhunt
Platform PlayStation 2 • Xbox • PC
Publisher Rockstar Games
Developer Rockstar North
Release 2003
Horror games often revolve around the supernatural – the apparitions and grotesque monsters of legend. Rockstar North’s Manhunt is perhaps the most disturbing game on this list because the monster isn’t a zombie or some other fictional creature – it’s you. As convicted death-row killer James Earl Cash, the player must commit dozens of grisly murders in a real-life snuff film, spurred on by the voice of a mysterious man known as “The Director.” Though most of your victims are themselves sociopathic killers, Manhunt’s violence turns the mirror back on the player and video games’ fascination with violence. Perhaps true horror lurks in the hearts of men.

8. Left 4 Dead
Platform Xbox 360 • PC
Publisher Valve
Developer Turtle Rock Studios / Certain Affinity/Valve
Release 2007

Everybody loves a great zombie survival story, and Turtle Rock figured out how to distill the experience into a cooperative, episodic structure with enormous potential for emergent gameplay moments and replay. You and three friends are survivors of a plague of mutation and aggression, drawn together in the name of living just a few days longer. With guns in hand, each episode finds the survivors fighting back to back as they seek safety. An innovative A.I. system ensures that each playthrough results in new scares, as zombies attack from different locations. Whether it’s the tension of trying to pass by a witch without startling her into a terrifying rage, or screaming for help as a smoker drags you away from the group, Left 4 Dead keeps the whole group on the edge of their seats.

7. The Last of Us
Platform PlayStation 4 • PlayStation 3
Publisher Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer Naughty Dog
Release 2013
The Last of Us is primarily remembered for its emotional, complex storytelling – and rightly so. The relationship between protagonists Joel and Ellie is one of the best in the history of the art form. However, at its core, The Last of Us is a survival horror game – although one set in a more grimly realistic world than most. Enhanced by immersive sound design, we’ll never forget the chilling sensation of hiding in a dark, dank basement, our pulse racing as we hear the skin-crawling sounds of the mutated “clickers” shuffling toward us. The Last of Us isn’t only one of the past generation’s most affecting games; it is also one of the most horrifying.

6. Resident Evil 4
Platform PlayStation 3 • Xbox 360 • Wii • PlayStation 2 • GameCube • PC • iOS
Publisher Capcom
Developer Capcom
Release 2005
The stiff tank controls of the original Resident Evil are still criticized to this day, but by contrast the over-the-shoulder gunplay of Resident Evil 4 redefined what a third-person shooter could be when it debuted on the GameCube. Series creator Shinji Mikami finally allowed players to dial in headshots on shambling ghouls with a huge, fully upgradeable arsenal. Leon S. Kennedy’s solo mission into an infected Spanish cult village changes up the formula, trading out jump scares for trigger-squeezing action. Backtracking and puzzle solving takes a backseat to harrowing battles against towering giants and chainsaw-wielding maniacs. Resident Evil 4’s influence infects game design to this day, but at its core it still gets pulses pounding.


5. Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly


Platform PlayStation 2 •Xbox
Publisher Tecmo

Developer Tecmo

Release 2003
The Fatal Frame games are not for the faint of heart. In fact, after creating the first game, the developers feared that they had scared people so much they never played it to completion. For the second iteration, Tecmo focused more on the narrative, so people would be so engrossed they’d want to finish. They succeeded. In Crimson Butterfly, twin sisters are drawn to a village, soon becoming trapped inside with tortured souls. How the twins play into the larger plot is frightening, but Crimson Butterfly’s biggest achievement is how it forces you to look fear in the face.  With a camera as your weapon, you must stare at the spirits to ensure you hit the shutter at the right moment, constantly throwing yourself into danger.

4. Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Platform PC
Publisher Frictional Games
Developer Frictional Games
Release 2010
The indie scene became a bastion for horror during the lull of scary triple-A titles last generation. Amnesia: The Dark Descent is one of the main games to thank (or blame) for the resurgence in creepy, atmospheric games. Players awake in a castle in the 1800s, their memory wiped due to the titular malady. Amnesia begins a slow, steady burn toward the first frightening monster reveal – a tortured beast that cannot be killed directly. The focus on flight over fight only amplifies the omnipresent sense of dread. Not being able to battle the abominations stalking you might be infuriating in other games, but Frictional handles it with unsettling elegance.

3. Dead Space
Platform PlayStation3 • Xbox 360 • PC
Publisher Electronic Arts
Developer EA Redwood Shores
Release 2008
Movies like Alien and Event Horizon established just how scary outer space can be, and Dead Space followed suit with an interactive variation on the theme. Isaac Clarke is no space marine or superhero. Instead, he has to make do with his skills as a ship engineer with a simple cutting laser when the starship he boards turns out to be infested with reanimated horrors called necromorphs. Immaculate pacing and a sense that you’re never truly safe help Dead Space establish an atmosphere of dread. Make a mistake, and Isaac’s often gruesome death scenes are enough to fuel nightmares. Lonely, dark corridors and scary sound design carry players the rest of the way through this trip into terror, and make Dead Space the definitive outer space-horror experience.

2. Silent Hill 2
Platform PlayStation 2
Publisher Konami
Developer Konami
Release 2001
Silent Hill set a new bar for horror when the first entry released in 1999, but the game that remains the most memorable and terrifying for the Game Informer staff is the second iteration. James Sunderland is lured to Silent Hill when he receives a letter from his deceased wife. The tension is suffocating as you explore the eerily silent, fog-filled town, which is so whisper quiet you can hear your own footsteps. Never knowing what’s around each corner is part of the suspense. Pyramid Head, the series’ iconic adversary, makes his series debut in Silent Hill 2, and he’s only a slice of how twisted things turn. However, the most compelling element of the game is how it explores Sunderland’s psyche, leading to one hell of a memorable finale.

1. Resident Evil
Platform PlayStation
Publisher Capcom
Developer Capcom
Release 1996
Other horror games came before it, but the traumatic events of the original Resident Evil put the genre on the map for years to come. The brave S.T.A.R.S. team survivors are forced to scrounge for resources like ammo and health while battling or evading lethal monstrosities like zombies and weaponized, reptilian assassins. The 2004 GameCube edition refines the PlayStation original’s terrifying premise while enhancing the visuals and adding terrifying surprises like resurrected zombies that come back as fast and hard as something out of 28 Days Later. Unforgettable scares like bloodthirsty canines smashing through windows spawned a legion of masochistic fans and dozens of copycat developers. The franchise’s quality has fluctuated over the years, but its legacy lingers like a deep scar.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Ed. Note: Review was done by D’yani Wood. Due to some technical issues on the back end, this needed to be published under my byline for the time being. As soon as we get things fixed, we will update the byline accordingly. – Chandler Wood

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A classic work of literature can translate poorly into a video game simply because of the many nuances and tones of the story. Characters have to be multi-faceted and memorable, and situations cannot feel unnatural or shallow. Players have to be entertained like they were when reading the book, and the environment has to be familiar and complex. The classics have to be done very well and done with respect, or else they will be judged harshly. Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments breezes through the hurdles of a classic work transformed into a video game with unexpected charm and intelligence.
The game greets you with a cinematic opening worthy of a high-budget film, and then follows with an adrenaline-powered interactive scene which turns out to be a hilarious Watson/Holmes confrontation in which Holmes thinks he’s doing nothing out of the ordinary, and Watson thinks Holmes is insane. Nothing unusual about that. This sets up the relationship between the two friends perfectly. Holmes’ curious eccentricity and genius are the most crucial factors of the Sherlock Holmes canon, and Crimes & Punishments achieves this in a very appropriately subtle, yet spot-on way. Watson, too, is perfectly portrayed as the trusty, wary, and helpful companion to Holmes no matter what odd situations the detective insists on getting into.
Through all your adventures together, there is always witty banter between them in places you would least expect it. You go along thinking this is a serious game with serious investigations and then Holmes will say some tactful underhanded comment that makes you laugh out loud. The other characters you meet in your investigations are portrayed just as well, with superior voice acting and personalities that make it feel like the world is very real. You have to observe and judge everyone’s character carefully to solve the cases, as was important in that time period. Your best tools back then were your judge of character and your wits, and this game lets you use those tools in a natural way.

In investigating a scene, you gather clues by looking around for items, documents, and any other evidence Holmes’ keen eye can spot. Some clues are only seen using Holmes’ “sixth sense” ability, like the faint floral smell from a cadaver’s lungs, or a small piece of paper barely sticking up from a floorboard. Sherlock Holmes imagination and deductive prowess also give him the “modus operandi” skill which can show actions of suspects at the crime scene, enabling you to further unravel the mystery. Sometimes it seems as if Holmes has super powers because he is such a genius, but the game does a great job at showing the realistic train of thought behind each “power” he has. Characters comment on his seemingly supernatural capabilities, but you get to smile and appreciate just how smart he really is because you’ve seen behind the curtain.
Once you gather a few clues, you can get inside Holmes’ brain to build the synaptic connections between his grey cells, lighting them up once you decide on certain possibilities based on the situation. I absolutely loved and appreciated this innovative new way to play an investigative mystery game. It felt so much more natural than other games I’ve played in which there are distinct “find the clues” portions and separate “decide what happened” parts, and the decision is more based on what clues you found (or even how many you found). The two aspects of finding and deducting play hand in hand. Keep in mind, that is the great thing about Sherlock Holmes. He is so esteemed by his community and by the police at Scotland Yard, he can basically decide whatever outcome he wants based on his moral views and deductions of the situation, and he has the ability to smartly mislead the police or a converse with a suspect he chooses to make a deal with. His, or rather your, interpretation of the events goes.

The most consistently impressive element of Crimes & Punishments is the graphics. When you talk to or interrogate each character, you get a close up and highly realistic view of them. Interrogation is an important aspect of investigation for Holmes because he uses his keen eye to quickly notice key details about a person that can build a solid background about them. Time slows down as you get to observe a character in detail, to show you just how sharp the detective actually is. Noticing these details about a person brings up more questions to ask them, furthering the investigation.
The only negative I have regarding character graphics is the animation feels stiff, while the detail of the graphic model itself is great. It’s as if they spent most resources designing the model, and struggled with or skimmed over polishing the facial animation and body language. At times, I would catch a hint of striking realistic movement, but then that quickly faded away and was replaced by the person’s awkwardly stretching, undulating lips or stiff limb flailing. It was an odd, furtive mix of almost-good animation and beautiful graphics. I ended up just overlooking the animation to enjoy the impressive graphical fidelity coming out of a game without a AAA budget.

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Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes And Punishments

The environments struck me as being just as smart and polished as Holmes himself. I saw hardly any evidence of repeated assets being used. Every object and room was carefully planned out and full of personality. Everything felt real. In one case where I had to visit multiple train stations — all equipped with mailrooms — each mailroom was different, down to the color of wood used for the mail slots. I never had to worry about getting used to seeing any objects or types of rooms. It was a breath of fresh air compared to many other video games’ redundancy.
Another thing I realized while comparing the game to the great L.A. Noire, was that this game smartly avoids the pointless open world while still having large enough areas to explore. I don’t need to traverse all around London when my case happened in one contained area. I did notice a lot of loading time between locations, but this is remedied by the ability to review your case notes and clues while Holmes and Watson ride in the carriage. Holmes even carries the exact same journal you use as the case notes menu system, and you can see your notes on the page if he is reading it. You really become Holmes in this game.

One aspect of becoming Sherlock is the realistic mini-games. They are almost not even mini-games — they are necessary to analyze evidence and follow the scent of truth. You use Holmes’ scientific intellect at his analysis table to perform simple dissections and experiments. For example, you use salt, ice, and a mold you previously discovered and constructed to make an ice object. Another time, you have to gather the materials to make a rope bridge and then carefully balance while you inch across it. Some were very frustrating and had me feeling like I was not worthy enough to play as Holmes, and some made me feel like the smartest person ever. Oddly enough, the game gives you the ability to skip every single “minigame” if you wish, after a time trying your hand at it. This and the ability to check if you came to the right conclusion for each case made the game feel a little cheaty, but I didn’t really mind because they are only options; you don’t have to choose to use them.
I absolutely loved diving into the mind of Sherlock Holmes while playing this title. People who have read, watched, or played anything else from his world will no doubt find something familiar and enjoyable in Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments. My time as Holmes was extremely exciting, fun, and immersive, and I was impressed with how long it lasted. Every case had some new gameplay element introduced, like getting to play as Holmes’ hound Toby to follow a scent trail. Each character was beautiful in detail, but not in animation, and each case elegantly came to an end while Holmes’ life went on to the next one, and I was happy to be a part of each and every moment.