Sherlock Holmes vs Jack The Ripper

Rating Mature Genre adventure Publisher Focus Home Interactive External Links

1888. The echo of your footsteps fade as you approach the police station. The cobblestone street is damp from the pervading mist that hangs over the Whitechaple District in the East End of London. Passing through the shadows between two buildings you enter the police station. You hand the policeman the bag you have just retrieved for him which contains police records. After noting the bag is locked he asks you to open it.

This is the point in the game where all the fantastic graphics and immersive settings of Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper lose a bit of their appeal, as for the next (in my particular case) fifteen to twenty minutes you try and figure out just what the proper combination of numbers are on this bloody leather bag. In my particular instance, had the key to acquiring the crown jewels been in the case then they would have been perfectly safe. The lack of any hints as to how to solve the puzzle is exceedingly frustrating. Once you manage to get the case open through random spins of the three dials, the screen fades away before you can see whatever logic there may have been behind the puzzle. Sherlock Holmes may have been able to figure it out, but alas, I just play him in a game. However if one can manage to open the bag and proceed with the game (my wife pulled it off, but she admits to having no idea how), the rest of the demo is quite enjoyable.

The only other puzzle in the demo is Holmes and Watson piecing together how exactly Jack, eh… ripped his victim. Again here you lack both hints as to how to proceed and how close you are to figuring it out. Fortunately at the beginning of the game you were able to watch the murder through Jack’s eyes, so it is a bit easier to deduce.

Despite the slight frustration it causes, once the demo is over you are left with a desire to keep going.  The game pulls you into 19th century London with its settings as well as the newspaper articles you collect. The sounds of the surroundings are excellent, especially the scene with Jack the Ripper killing his victim. Just that part was enough to give me chills. The missions that send you randomly from one part of the district to the other are well balanced by the ability to fast-travel via your map screen. The ability to switch from first to third person also allows you to enjoy the game from different aspects, either as an outside observer, or in the shoes of the man himself. Over all this game would be an excellent choice for those who love delving into and solving mysteries. After all, before there was Grissom and the CSI team, there was Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.