Greetings everyone! Already in October of this year, a new part of “Call of Cthulhu” is coming out, and I wanted to time my review of “Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth” to coincide with this event, however, there are enough blogs on this game and mine is unlikely to be a breath of fresh air. Therefore, I decided to write about “Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of Cthulhu”, which was released in 2007 and was developed by the Ukrainian studio Frogwares, which was just creating the new “Call of Cthulhu”, but something did not work out and its place was taken by Cyanide Studios. But somehow I’m going off topic and it’s time for me to start.
Plot
Events begin with a demonstration of Sherlock Holmes’s boredom, seeing which Dr. Watson advises the detective to go to a bookstore and find something interesting there. Mr. Holmes does just that. After talking with several people and taking two books, he is about to go home, but is stopped by Doctor Watson. Upon arriving at his destination, Sherlock Holmes learns about the escape of a servant of an aristocrat and intends to solve the case. It soon turns out that the servant was kidnapped and this is not the first case of kidnapping in London, but a cult of a creature is involved in this, justifying the name of the game. Ritual murders, mental hospitals, ports and Cthulhu figurines, you will see all this.
And here is the victim of the cultists.
However, in this game, due to the combination of two artistic universes, strange and incomprehensible plot points appear. For example, Sherlock Holmes needs to go to a mental hospital and find out about its activities. Disguised as another person, Sherlock ended up in a cell. Having got out, he gets to the lower level of the mental hospital and behind a secret passage he finds some old man who foreshadows the return of the great. Although, nothing unusual for a house with soft walls.
The language of the Great Ones, in person.
Gameplay
The game is https://filiplaycasino.co.uk/ a quest and therefore our main task will be to explore the world and solve riddles.
It’s not interesting to explore the world, since you can only communicate with the plot characters, there are not many of them, and if you turn to Watson, he will only ask, “What do you say, Sherlock?». You can only interact with a very small number of objects. And these will be notes or key items for passing. However, I can also note that in some places there are strange solutions to the tasks set. For example, Sherlock ends up in a hospital and needs to remove a guard. How to do it? Take a syringe, fill it with a sedative and stick it in the guard’s neck, but no. You also need to find a metal tube of a certain diameter, stuff a syringe into it, get closer to the guard and shoot the syringe out of the tube. It sounds easy now, but then I couldn’t even imagine that the solution would be exactly like this.
Also, when exploring the surrounding area, we are given a close-up view of something, this is necessary to find small objects or obtain information about something. For such an inspection we were given a magnifying glass and a tape measure. We measure the size of shoes with a tape measure, and study every piece of land with a magnifying glass.
Next, riddles. There are few riddles in the game, but they are interesting and rarely repeated. Often, they are either simple to the point of disgrace, or completely incomprehensible. And the point here is not that I’m a cretin, but that sometimes you don’t understand the principle of their operation.
This is what it looks like to pick locks with a spoon. I couldn’t even imagine that you could pick locks with a spoon.
In addition to such typical elements for a quest, the game also contains game moments that are designed to bring variety and they do an excellent job with this.
For example, in the game there is a chase, a chase for a thief, during which we will run through factories and rooftops to country music, to one composition that is repeated over and over again.
They’ll give us a boat ride in the New Orleans swamps. It’s not the most entertaining thing, but it gives you time to take a break from regular walking.
Meet the only creepy place in the entire game.
Oh yes, while splashing in the middle of the swamps, we will play for two characters at the same time, Watson is rowing, and Sherlock is at this moment doesn’t row and will row will look at everything around it, if, of course, the player allows it and clicks on the magnifying glass icon.
At other times, we will have to play for Sherlock, but Watson will not be deprived of attention either. Both characters are no different from each other except for the items in their inventory, and such scenes are needed only to show what each character is doing at the moment.
Beautiful landscapes of Switzerland.
Everything is very bad here. Even at the time of release, the game did not impress with its graphics, but now it does not lend itself to any criticism at all. Although this is the first game in the "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" series in full 3D. By the way, we are given two views for the game, first person and third. But God forbid those who decide to play the game in third person. This is extremely inconvenient, the camera is located in strictly defined and inconvenient places. Sometimes it will be very difficult to know where to go. But the first-person view is very convenient, it feels like the whole game was tailored specifically for it.
Now about the locations. Some locations look tolerable, others look terrible. There are few details on the levels, one texture is stretched on the walls, two colors. Character models are repeated, sometimes during one cut scene you can see an army of identical people. Character animations are clumsy and rough.
However, despite this, the locations in the game differ from each other. To some extent, because during the game we will visit New Orleans, London, Switzerland and one more place.
By the end of the game, it increasingly feels like the developers’ strength was running out. Locations are looking worse and worse. Animations are getting clumsier. And the plot is filled with a huge number of absolutely idiotic moments, let’s say thanks to the screenwriter.
It’s not funny anymore.
Bottom line
In the end I don’t know what to say. The game gives me mixed feelings. Somewhere it awakens not feeble interest, but somewhere laughter. But a game related to the HP Lovecraft universe certainly shouldn’t make you laugh. This is a good quest, but the appearance of the game is intimidating. If you have nothing to do, then play. In any case, it’s up to you. I am unable to give a final rating.