After finishing Patricia Cornwell’s excellent expose’ ‘Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed’, the gritty taste of nineteenth-century London still lingered in my memory. So, needing to cleanse my mental palate of the atrocities of salty Jack, who better to befriend than the legendary Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective is an interactive DVD featuring three cases and over sixty minutes of full-motion-video. Originally released in 1992, Consulting Detective was not only ahead of its time, but was also quite impossible to configure and successfully run on computers of that period. Now, ten years later, the gameplay of Consulting Detective is behind the times, but it runs beautifully on DVD players, Microsoft X-Box and the PS2.

Consulting Detective juggles an impressive mix of full-motion-video, newspaper clippings and graphics to present three different, but similar, cases. Similar in that the methods used to solve them never varies, but different as you, along with your DVD remote, determine the route of exploration.

How to initiate all of this action couldn’t be simpler. Use your remote control arrows (Up, Down, Left, Right) to move around the desktop and then press enter to watch either a video scene or read a page from a book or newspaper.

After watching a full-motion-video introductory sequence – starring Holmes and Watson - that unveils the particulars of the newest mystery, each case then begins at Sherlock’s desktop. The entire game is commandeered from this desktop and you are presented with the option of choosing your Notepad, your directory, a sampling of local newspapers, the Judge’s Gavel or your Casebook.

The Judge’s Gavel will be the least used, but the most important of your implements for when you select the gavel, you then need to correctly answer all of the judge’s questions leading to the identity of the culprit. If your information is insufficient, then the judge will kick you out of court and back to the point you were before selecting the gavel. The Casebook is also invaluable as it allows you to save game, replay the opening scene and so on.

The gist of the game though is sustained through the Notebook and the Directory. The Notepad contains the names of the Baker Street Regulars, your most trusted advisors. You can either select your Horse & Carriage to pay them a visit, have the Baker Street Irregulars do your footwork, or consult Sherlock’s detailed files. The voluminous Directory is similar to the Notebook except that it contains the names of numerous people in and about London, any one of who could be a suspect in your current investigation.

Once you have mastered the gameplay details – and I often found myself playing through a game for a little bit to get a feel for it and then restarting once I felt comfortable with my knowledge of the story – then it is time to choose your case:

‘The Case of the Mummy’s Curse’ concerns a four-thousand year old mummy who seems to have already committed three murders about London. In ‘The Case of the Tin Soldier’ the retired General Armstead has been murdered and now the surviving members of a life-long , last survivor takes-all lottery are all suspects in this whodunit. Finally, ‘The Case of the Mystified Murderess’ pits two well-to-do sisters against each other after their sibling rivalry leads to the death of a suitor. In all three cases, the portrayals of Holmes and Watson are ably handled and though the scenery and sets are often sparse and new rooms often seem to just be old rooms with the furniture and wall hangings rearranged, they still manage to convey the proper atmosphere of London in the late nineteenth century.

Infinite Ventures is to be commended for re-releasing the Sherlock games so that a new generation of gamers can enjoy them. According to Infinite Venture’s Karla Knickerbocker, there are (unfortunately) currently no plans to re-release the extremely rare Consulting Detective Volumes II & III, but the under-appreciated Dracula Unleashed has, as of this writing, just been released fang you very much. As a side note, both Dracula Unleashed and Consulting Detective are both currently available only via mail-order from the Infinite Ventures website. Apparently, the genius who manage the brick-and-mortar stores still can’t get it through their thick noggins that, yes, there is a viable adult market for DVD games like Sherlock, Dracula Unleashed, Tender Loving Care and Point-of-View.

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective is a game for the patient player who likes to chew on clues and slowly build a strong case. It would also make for a great family project over the course of a few evenings. Simply pop the game into the DVD player, sit back in front of your large screen television and take turns controlling the remote as you match wits with the legendary Sherlock Holmes. Donning a cap and pipe are optional, but keep in mind that the 21st century politically-correct Sherlock would have bubbles and not tobacco in that pipe.

Final Grade: B-