Sherlock Holmes - Nemesis

More trim than the previous entry in the series; Sherlock Holmes: the Awakened, Nemesis brings the player back to the more traditional detective mystery associated with Sherlock Holmes. Fans may appreciate the writters ability to craft a more long-established mystery formula (with a side jaunt into a story line that was a little frivolous), and enjoy Sherlock's crime solving skills. Rated 7 out of 10.

There are two things to appreciate: 1. this game really tries a different approach compared to other ones from the series, mostly utilising a gameplay around riddles rather than "deduction" or just go-and-fetch tasks 2. all subsequent Frogware's games are better, meaning they constantly evolve There are some examples of a ridiculousness of this one: 1. you need to attract a certain bird and you already know how, but you cannot collect needed objects until you find a quite obscure interactive point which gives you zero new information 2. you need to look at 4 paintings in a gallery and you know exactly which ones are they, but you cannot progress until you speak with a character who actually tells you nothing of importance 3. there is a hammer you cannot take until you are tasked to find a specific key. hammer, key, really clear connection, right? so the game tries to be clever but at the same time often looks so stupid that it is nauseating. and I like the fact that the next game about Jack the Ripper borrows characters' models from this one in abundance, just replacing textures. yeah, that were the times when Frogware was really cheap.

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Sherlock Holmes - Nemesis! This new Sherlock Holmes game sends us to 19th Century London where Arséne Lupin, a young French burglar with an impressive track record, has just challenged Scotland Yard and the most famous of detectives - Sherlock Holmes.

The game will not load in Steam. I have done all of the gallery, and now cannot access my game. It is SO infuriating. I have saved, and solved some infuriating puzzles. The puzzles would be worth it if I was able to continue the game. But due to some glitch, it is impossible to load up the game. I don't know whether to blame steam or Frogwares. Not only does it not load, but it takes over my whole computer... my cursor disappears and I have no control, even when opening task manager. Be warned, it is very frustrating if you have put several hours into the story line.

PROS: I am a fan of Frogwares and I adore everything they do. I love the soundtrack and the recreation of these London landmarks. The Galleries and the British museum collections were revived to convincing detail. CONS: Sherlock would know the correct pronunciation of "Lupin" and "Velasquez" and "Murillo" makes me think that the voice was made by a text-to-speech ?. But they have improved that too ever since.