Crimes & Punishments: Sherlock Holmes (2014)

The player controls Sherlock Holmes in the late 19th century. Instead of one long case, the game presents six smaller, independent cases. Three are original stories, two are based on Arthur Conan Doyle stories, and one takes the basic premise of another Doyle story while the rest is original. All of the cases involve Holmes investigating a murder.

Crime solving is built around investigating environments, interrogating suspects and witnesses, and completing mini games. Holmes can be controlled in first or third person, and point-and-click controls from earlier games are no longer used. Special viewing modes, instinct and imagination, help reveal details and past events, and some clues require them.

During conversations, Holmes chooses topics and may challenge lies with rebuttals based on collected clues or deductions from a person’s appearance. Mini games appear while searching or processing evidence, and some inventory-based puzzles also occur. They can be skipped.

The final stage is deduction on a separate screen, where clues are combined into larger conclusions that lead toward the case’s resolution. Different interpretations of clues can produce different results, and the player chooses the conclusion.