Sherlock Holmes Inbound for Consoles
Consolization, Dear Watson
Developer Frogwares, who have made several Sherlock Holmes adventure games for the PC, have announced a new game in the works – this time coming to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as well. Entitled The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, this new game will be more than merely a port of a PC game; it’s being designed from the ground up with consoles in mind.
In his newest case, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s sleuth extraordinaire finds himself at the center – and as the prime suspect – of a major fraud and theft case. With all of turn-of-the-century London losing faith in the famed detective, it’s up to the player to help Sherlock prove his innocence. More importantly, Sherlock has fallen so far from grace that he’s lost the trust of his faithful fellow-in-arms, Dr. Watson. In order for Holmes to clear his name, he’ll need to win the help -and trust- of his trusted associate once more.
More than a mere point-and-click adventure game, the game touts an “open investigation” system. This means that players will have the ability, as Holmes, to greatly interact with the world around them and make decisions for themselves, leading to a very open-ended gameplay experience. Reenacting crimes, collecting evidence, and questioning witnesses and suspects are standard tools of the trade for Holmes, and players will be able to try their hand at all of them.
It’s hard not to draw parallels between this system and the recent sleuth story, L.A. Noire, particularly the way the gameplay seems to be shaping up. That may not be a bad thing, considering traditional adventure games have generally fared far better on PCs than on consoles; L.A. Noire was one of the few adventure games that was able to strike the right balance between classic adventure gameplay and console controls.
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is set to release late 2011. To find out more, and check out official screenshots, visit the game’s official site. If the images offered are anything to go by, Testament will be as beautiful to look at as it sounds fun to play.
Source: GamePro
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