Sherlock and Watson are back in their latest adventure, Sherlock Holmes Vs. Jack The Ripper, but not everything is great this time around. The game features amazing graphics, fluid controls, mysterious environments, and a great story but misses out on perhaps one of the most important elements; the puzzles. Unfortunately, for more than half the game I felt as if I was playing "Sherlock Holmes: Handyman". Instead of carefully crafted inventory-puzzles, Frogwares decided to plague the game with these shortcut abominations I'll refer to as "logic" based puzzles. For example, there is one puzzle in which you must sort through objects underneath a hidden floorboard compartment and arrange them so it is possible to pull the last object through the exit point; why you can't just easily pull the object out I don't know. There is another instance where you can't solve a safe puzzle without information that is not provided in the game. It really shows a sense of carelessness the developers put into the puzzle aspect of the game. To get the information you need, you'll be doing all sorts of random odd jobs making you feel more like an underpaid repairman than the world's greatest detective. It's just sad to see inventory-based puzzles taking the backseat to these logic puzzles. Logic puzzles are great in moderation, but when they take up more than half the game it gets quite annoying. Other than that, the rest of the game is pretty good. The new investigation system is quite handy, where you'll investigate victims and list information you obtain that you can branch out to make observations about the killer and whom it could be. Some moments in cinematics can be a bit awkward with unusual pauses and lines in character dialogue, but nothing is so bad that it takes away from the experience. Even though Sherlock isn't real,the game contains great historical accuracy about the real thing. In the end, its easy to say that the game is good, just keep in mind that it is geared more towards the logic puzzle enthusiasts.
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