GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
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Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 05/12/2008
- Released on: 04/14/2008
- Originally published on GameSpot: Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis (PC) Review
Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis almost certainly isn't the game you expect, especially if you're hoping for a battle of wits between Holmes and archenemy Professor Moriarty. Standing in for Moriarty with the master detective is Arsene Lupin, a French thief who starred in a series of popular novels written by Maurice Leblanc in the late 19th century. Lupin remains a hugely popular literary figure in France, but this combo of characters lacks the punch of the Holmes-Moriarty showdown that the title suggests. Where we could have had a titanic battle of wits, we instead get a somewhat going-through-the-motions story where Holmes plays Batman to Lupin's Riddler, as well as puzzles that are too grueling to solve without immense reserves of patience and access to an online walkthrough.
Like every respectable Sherlock Holmes adventure, this one begins with the great detective and Watson ensconced at 221B Baker Street.
If you have any knowledge of how Lupin and Holmes plied their trades, you can probably guess the basics of the tale told here. Lupin is on the prowl in London, having challenged Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. Watson, to prevent him from stealing priceless artifacts. His goal is to humiliate the arrogant British Empire; yours, of course, is to foil the obnoxious Frenchman by stopping these thefts. Everything plays out as a stereotypical cat-and-mouse game, with Lupin leaving behind cryptic clues after looting such famous spots as Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery, and the British Museum. All in all, this is a fairly well-told yarn, even if it's obvious that the writers didn't burn any midnight oil on the fine points of the plot. Fans of Holmes and Lupin will no doubt be interested to see the two facing off for the first time since a couple of crossover novels penned by Leblanc a century ago (which, incidentally, angered Holmes' creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle so much that he sued to force Leblanc to rename his detective Herlock Sholmes). But everyone else will find this story a basic take on the traditional "bad guy taunts police" crime drama.
Style and setting stand out more than the plot, anyhow. As with last year's The Awakened, all of the game's locales are brought to life with a 3D engine that allows you to roam the full depth and breadth of your surroundings. It doesn't exactly provide cutting-edge graphics, but the game is still more attractive than the average adventure. Locales are nicely realized, too, with the investigation taking you to all sorts of London landmarks. Many are quite impressively staged, particularly the National Gallery and British Museum, which feature scanned copies of dozens of famous paintings, as well as numerous historical artifacts. You actually get a fairly thorough lesson in art history and history in general during the game. The only major sore points to the presentation are subpar character art and awkward voice acting. Holmes, Watson, Inspector Lestrade, and the many quirky Londoners with whom you deal during the course of the adventure look more like shadowy, poorly sculpted wax figures than real people. The dialogue is also stilted and loaded with many odd pronunciations (it doesn't even get "Arsene" right). At least the musical side of the audio is just about perfect, thanks to a subtle-yet-tension-building classical score reliant on strings and piano.
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