Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper: Review

The sweet couple, invented in the nineteenth century by Arthur Conan Doyle, excites the minds of fans to this day. The flow of letters to 21b Baker Street does not dry up, and creators of all stripes are sure to come up with another variation on the masterpiece about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Developers are no exception; every now and then someone takes up the gameization of this or that story. The studio did the most original thing Frogwares Game: they decided not to retell Conan Doyle’s novels, but regularly and with pleasure bring the legendary detective together with the most unusual sparring partners. What is the value of the sea miracle Cthulhu, which Mr. Holmes fought not so long ago?! Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper – the fifth part of the detective line from the above-mentioned developers. The long-awaited one, by the way: the previous series have proven themselves very well in the eyes of gamers.

This time the detective genius is confronted by a real historical figure who at one time terrified the prostitutes of London – Jack the Ripper. Naturally, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, as fictional characters, could not have anything to do with the investigation of those terrible crimes. But, after reading in the newspaper about the brutal murder of Polly Nichols, the famous detective immediately begins his own investigation. No one doubts that it will end in success, however, to achieve the desired result, you and I will have to seriously rack our brains.

Since this is a project that borrows characters from a series of detective stories, its type is beyond doubt – a classic quest. No alien arcade inclusions: there is an unlimited amount of time to think, and the result depends only on our mental abilities. And, despite the cyclical nature of the gameplay (all murders, in fact, are investigated according to the same scheme), the gameplay is seriously addictive and does not get boring until the very end. Moreover, when the user understands that the Jack the Ripper case is coming to its logical conclusion, he experiences not so much satisfaction from the solved crime, but disappointment: “What, it’s already over?!»

We receive news of https://betterwincasino.co.uk/login/ the first murder while on Baker Street. The fate of unfortunate Polly Nichols is reported to us not by grief-stricken relatives (after all, the victim was an ordinary street girl, who would worry about such a relative) and not by the police, discouraged by the lack of evidence, but by London journalists. Getting acquainted with official information about the case is not so easy: the local law enforcement officer refuses to show us the report of his subordinates without a return favor. As you probably already guessed, he is not the first and not the last self-interested person we will meet on the way to the main bastard. All the characters we meet share important details only after satisfying their own needs. Drive away a raging drunkard, find a missing item, deliver this or that thing from point A to point B – Mr. Holmes can only come to terms with the fact that he is now a detective, a peacemaker, and a courier at the same time. The auxiliary investigations, with which the detective is constantly puzzled, are prudently diluted by the developers with dialogues important for the capture of Jack the Ripper, but, nevertheless, sometimes they are very annoying. However, without them the game would have come to the end too quickly, which is also not good.

The culmination of each of the five mini-investigations is a detailed examination of the corpse of the next victim and the place where this same corpse was found. We won’t really be able to admire the expertly dissected body: instead, we will only be shown white outlines on the surface and a close-up of the face with the tongue hanging out. If the evidence found is not enough, we proceed to role-playing games of the victim and the maniac. Instead of a murdered prostitute, there is a reluctant Dr. Watson; instead of Jack the Ripper, there is Holmes. The entertainment is strange, but useful: the details of what happened (for example, in which hand the adversary was holding a knife and how exactly he tortured the unfortunate woman) are revealed instantly.

Having collected the necessary evidence, we begin to practice deduction. A sign is displayed on the screen on which currently useless details are randomly located. We have to streamline this whole mess and draw useful conclusions for the investigation. The further we go, the more we learn about the personality of the maniac, his habits, profession and social status. The name remains a mystery – but it’s only a matter of time. The final touch is determining the motives of the criminal. Among the latter, even black magic and the sale of organs removed from the body are proposed: the pedantic detective takes into account any nonsense if it is not refuted by facts.

We will conduct the investigation on behalf of Sherlock Holmes: he, as in the stories of Conan Doyle, takes the lead, Watson gets the role of observer and – sometimes – assistant. But from time to time the detective does not have enough time for routine work, and then he burdens the doctor, who is bloated with awareness of his own importance, with it. It’s interesting to manage both: Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper although it has a fictional plot, it does not deviate even a millimeter from the data known to historians about the crimes of Jack the Ripper. The names of the victims, the sequence of their deaths, the names of the streets where the bodies were found – such game details correspond to those that served as the original source.

For fun, the developers offer us two game modes: first-person and third-person. But you will probably give up the latter almost immediately: awkward, twitching figures, sometimes passing through walls and each other, sometimes getting stuck in an empty place, spoil the entire impression of the project. Although, oddly enough, there is still a benefit: sometimes a panoramic view of what is happening will help you notice some missed details.

But even in first-person mode the graphics are not particularly pleasing. Streets and buildings are drawn more or less tolerably, which cannot be said about the character models – both main and episodic. Idiot facial expressions that hardly change during a conversation, as if clothes were glued to virtual bodies, mechanical movements – London in Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper resembles a huge storehouse of animated corpses rather than a normal, living city. Add dirty textures to all of the above – and you will have a complete picture of the game you are reviewing. The voice acting is completely limited to dialogues (mediocrely played, by the way), a couple of melodies and a few audio effects.

Along with traditional quest tasks (crack a combination lock, put together a puzzle…) Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper offers us non-standard puzzles that clearly demonstrate the operation of Holmes’ deductive method. It is thanks to them that the gameplay so accurately imitates a detective investigation and acquires amazing integrity. As a result, it is impossible to tear yourself away from the virtual story about Jack the Ripper without knowing the details of the final outcome. Undoubtedly, this project is the best in the series. Which makes us look forward to the next episode even more.

Pros: historical accuracy of the plot; the unique atmosphere of a classic detective story; moderately complex and unusual tasks.
Cons: graphics; voice acting.