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Good game, the Red Army sure were scumbags. Brought Henry and all my Czechoslavs home safely.
Solid mix of RTS and "train management sim". Though the RTS part is rather basic, enemy view cones do not acknowledge actual full size cover, trenches and general obstacles as out-of-sight. But as stealth is broken, I'll take it. You can brute force most missions by just bringing scouts, especially after unlocking their one-shot ability.

It's one of these Early Access titles you buy on the premise of "This is a solid foundation, they just need to polish the experience and add more content." Well - neither of those things happened. What a mess.
Pretty much nothing changed from when we launched into Early Access in April 2023 to this questionable 1.0 release in September 2024. The devs call this content complete, all the stuff they wanted in the game now is in the game.

This is a game you dump 10-20 hours in - most likely at once. Until you realize you've seen everything the game has to offer. The potential of this title is (or was) immense, but if you've seen one of those "Funny Shadows of Doubt" videos on YT last year, you've seen every great moment the game has to offer. Yes, you will find comments how incredibly deep the mechanics are, how the city feels real, how you are dumped into one big crime playground. This is true, for about 2-3 hours, until you realize none of these features actually matter.

No idea why they rushed this into 1.0. after a supposed 8 year development cycle.

It's such a shame. It is hard to explain what a disappointment this is. You can go and browse the Steam discussion board, most of us were shocked when they announced the full release is imminent. Seeing how development went in the past 15 months, I really doubt we'll get any significant content added from here on. What a waste.

Nazi Gold Enjoyer game

What happened here, EQ? I cannot believe the same people who made the superb The Painscreek Killings (TPK) made this. I don't get it. I really don't.

To me, what was advertised on Steam years ago, and earlier this year during the Kickstarter in written and video form seemed like an evolution of TPK. More complex cases, more "game" mechanics and a Crime Scene Investigation vibe. Including a somewhat red line to follow, leading to a satisfying conclusion after spending dozens of hours solving the puzzle.
Remember CSI, Criminal Minds, The Mentalist, House MD, ...? This game could deliver exactly what made those shows so engaging, but then pulls the plug right before we get to enjoy that very moment.
Ever wondered how House exactly figured out it wasn't Lupus this time? Well tough luck, all you get to know is that it wasn't actually Lupus. Sit down and shut up..

The game feels okay and functional on a surface level, but objectively it's a severely undercooked creation (even compared to the barebones Painscreek Killings. Starting from basic things like a proper options menu and ending with the blatant lack of conclusions is whatever we cooked up in our head is actually anywhere near the truth. You still cannot skip the intro voice over, ultrawide resolutions have a severe fisheye effect, actually there aren't any graphical setting besides Texture Quality ("Full" or "half" quality, thanks you Jokers). Also, the game does not seem to restrict the cursor from leaving to my other screen, regardless of windowed or fullscreen setting. Not frustrating at all. Later cases have repeated odd lighting or texture flickering here and there.

Regarding my gripes with this title, I can at least acknowledge this is an ambitious title. And I perfectly understand even IRL no one will ever understand the why's and how's or what happened exactly in a homicide case - except for the killer and the victim. But here, it simply feels like a significantly missed opportunity to build on something simple but fantastic (EQ's previously mentioned title "The Painscreek Killings") and instead go for this weird approach with no story to follow. No one can convince me that adding some actual flesh to the game would have been a detriment. Even if (!) this was supposed to be a pure, hardcore detective experience, just make the damn reveal optional for christ's sake. Since there is no story whatsoever, the replay value is dead on arrival, too.

It's so damn infuriating where I consider my Kickstarter pledge to be a waste of time and money. And this saddens me deeply. I just don't get it.

Where's my Mankind Divided 2? Screw Square Enix and their idiocy

After enjoying pretty much all 7 Sherlock Holmes games before playing this, "Chapter One" was a pain to get through. While oddly enjoyable at times, Sherlock does not belong on some north African Island.

Things I hated:

1) No real conclusion for any of the "cases". There simply is no classic "you were right or wrong" decision after you solve a case. The game might imply Suspect A killed the victim, but what about the cases that are not completely clear cut? Not every single piece of evidence should and does point towards a specific suspect, and that is really good. But even with every single clue investigated, the game mostly just leaves it up to you. You will never 100% know if you made the right decision. The satisfying element of finding out if you solved the case or if you accused the wrong guy is entirely gone. Previous games did this a lot better.
You can essentially just jump onto the first conclusion and get on with the main quest. There are no downsides besides imaginary Jon giving you an earful.
To top it off, the game's ending does not have a set conclusion. You are tricked into believing you face an incredible meaningful decision after you untangle the lies and guilt. Want to know "who did it"? Well screw you, apparently this doesn't matter.

2) You cannot solve many of the crime scene related stuff without entering your magic "concentration" vision. This is so ridiculous to the extent that blood splatters (yes, red blood) is not visible until you hit that button. Please.
Previous games provided most of the visual evidence (like blood, footprints, broken glass, etc) ready for Sherlock to see if you just paid attention. Early titles (Jack the Ripper, Arsene Lupin) actually had you stuck at a crime scene combing it with a toothpick. This was - at least for me - extremely rewarding.
Chapter One highlights every piece of evidence with an audible marking. Go there, look at it, have your character draw conclusions without any work required on behalf of the player. Jesus Christ.

3) Character Portraits are more or less meaningless. Crime and Punishments as well as Devil's Daughter did this well. You looked at a suspect, found cat hair plus red wine stains on his trousers and concluded he could be a fugitive Furry. The game then slapped you on the hand as you missed the lipstick on his handkerchief, which means he's just a Sigma male.
Chapter One let's you chose between 2 different character types and neither one is correct or wrong. A blatant cold blooded thief could also be a caring familyman, but who cares at this point. Picking the correct one may help when concluding the case, but the entire mechanic lacks the substance it held with previous titles.

4) As Sherlock has not actually met Dr. John Watson yet, he cannot be your sidekick. So Frogwares have you bring imaginary Jon Snow along, who happily keeps reminding you how bad you are at researching archives, disguising yourself as a crack cocaine hooker addict or after you clear out a gang hideout with precision headshots instead of handcuffs. There is some form of coming to terms at the end, but I wish we could disable his complaining.

As for the positive parts, the open world setting did sort of work. Although Cordona is an incredible boring place to explore and it's just a tad to large for copy and pasting identical building textures everywhere. Older SH games had isolated sections of Whitechapel, and even in their 2006 visual glory they felt more alive and real than any place you could find in Cordona.

Some side quests managed to capture that old charm you found in the older titles and the "how did it happen" mechanic was used quite well on occasion.

In the end, I believe Chapter One fell victim to Frogwares' efforts to "modernize" the series to bring in a younger audience. There is no need to rack your brain around some mysterious circumstances anymore, you can simply point and click Sherlock to do it for you. The visuals are obviously a big selling point, and the music contributed to the overall enjoyable atmosphere around the island. I'd still rather be in London. But judging on how this title actually gathered some media coverage and financial success, I'm happy for the team, really.

I will never understand why Frogwares did not recognize when they struck gold with Crime and Punishments. The episodical format would even have facilitated an easy way to put out one DLC case after the other. The mechanics were as refined as could be, while you still had to do most of the legwork to actually solve a case.

Regardless, Glory to Ukraine my Gopniks.

Steam needs a neutral rating. Backed this on Kickstarter, but still can't really recommend this if you weren't on board with Chapter One. I cannot say how my perspective is seen from someone unfamiliar with the older SH titles. But as another guy here said, this sits on Very Positive right now - So I can vent my frustrations with this game without hurting Frogwares's sales.
And yes, this was made during wartime in Ukraine, and that's impressive on its own - but I want to judge this purely from a consumer point of view.

The positives can be summed up as:

+ It's another Sherlock Holmes game, woohoo. There isn't anything like them on the market, though the current direction (Chapter One and now this remake) is going against most what made the series great to begin with. Having to use your brain, remember or research things you heard about half an hour ago. Using your imagination how things could have played out.
Here, Sherlock does all the heavy lifting for you
Frogwares seriously need to figure out a working and challenging deduction system and bloody stick to it. But the game feels good, has a decent amount of polish.

+ The voice acting is great, but we already had amazing voice actors for the "classic" Sherlock. So that's not *really* a positive in my book :/

+ The soundtrack is excellent, just as with Chapter One. They even brought over some of the more memorable themes and implemented them into this darker setting.

+ The Baker Street map rework is lovely and catches the darker tone extremely well. This is what drew me in with Jack the Ripper so much. At the same time, the previously wealthy and opulent french quarter now has a desolate and abandoned rework which feels straight out of The Last of Us.

+ Game runs really well and is overall pretty stable. Didn't have a single crash or game breaking bug. Well done.


Now the bad, it hurts me to type this:

- I know the whole "C&P is best, everything else is bad" has gotten quite old, but even coming straight from Chapter One another change to the deduction mechanic felt unnecessary and half baked. Don't get me wrong, it worked and felt appropriate, but it does not feel rewarding whatsoever.

- Based on a very solid classic, this was advertised as a faithful remake staying true to the original. While there are some obvious improvements like the visuals, the things Frogwares cut out are *significant*.

- The Louisiana part suffered the most from this, what a shame. I know there aren't many people who enjoy figuring out how to open a random safe for an hour, but Jesus Christ did they drop a lot. Gone are the puzzles for the secret room, the theft and chase scene across the rooftops, 1-hour safe cracking session and the escape from the Sheriff.
Also, not sure why good old Champagne ended up female this time?

- Switzerland was gutted pretty hard as well. No more pipe diameter memorizing, door-opening-mechanic hacking, no smoke bomb for the kitchen, no how-do-we-release-the-birds puzzle. No daring escape scene.
Also, Frogwares needed another incompetent female on screen, so Gygax became a woman obviously? I just don't get it.

- While they did get rid of so many good parts most of us enjoyed, they added an absurd amount of tedium at the same time: Side quest NPCs feed you piecemeal information only to have you backtrack across half the map, just to return again after one line of dialogue.

- John's lighthouse section was needlessly repetitive and mildly irritating.


Minor gripes which don't apply to most people:

I still don't enjoy the heavy emotional stuff, but I can't say it does not fit this younger Sherlock to some degree.

Playing as Watson made sense where it was used.

This is the n-th "modern" SH title in a row without even basic ultrawide support. Edit: Rose did Frogwares job in under 30 minutes:
https://github.com/RoseTheFlower/UltrawideIndex/releases/tag/sherlockawakened

The archive/research mechanic has been scaled down but kept in line with Chapter One. No need to fast travel to 3 different parts of the City.
Cthulhu isn't actually in the game

To conclude this: Frogwares, if you consider a remake for Jack the Ripper, PLEASE DON'T until that whole invasion thing got sorted out. And for the love of god, decide on a solid deduction mechanic before. Maybe send out a questionnaire or something to find out what players actually prefer.

Ubisoft bad, Division good.

Just going to leave a negative review here because everyone does. Fatshark has always been prone to incompetence, all the way back to VT1. Only back then this merely caused entertaining exploits to get out of bounds and circumvent half the map and farm that sweet sweet loot.
I hope that whoever makes business decisions at Fatshark will regularly step on LEGOs for the rest of his life.