Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy

Game doesn't run, now I'll never know the mystery of the mummy...

Unless you're the type who enjoys torturing yourself with sadistically difficult old-school puzzle games, skip this one. If you are, you're in luck! I had a great time with this game. It's nowhere near as bad as most of the reviews suggest. It's just a relic from a time when people didn't mind beating their heads against the wall for an hour before figuring something out. Setting the game up to run properly took about five minutes thanks to instructions in the community, and you can get around the crashes between levels by saving often and skipping the cutscene on the second try. There are definitively moments where you'll have to look up an answer online, but 90% of the puzzles in this game are solvable, and 80% are even intuitive to some degree. I suppose it's an upside that this was one of the few times I didn't feel bad for looking things up after I'd put in some effort, so it didn't ruin my experience. The atmosphere also holds up, especially in the first half. The writing is delightfully nonsensical, Sherlock's dry wit is amusing, and it wasn't until the end that I started to lose my patience, partially because it felt silly to spend an hour pixel hunting for a hairpin w…

Game has a ton of crashing, glitching, and soft lock issues. I've spent more time trying to fix such issues than playing the game, and when I do get to play it, essential steps to solving the puzzles are nearly impossible to find and are anti-intuitive. ultimately gave up trying to play the game as soon as I reached level 4 'cause it's just not worth my time.

Doesn't work. Mouse pointer sits and jiggles when trying to use the mouse or the touchpad. Tried it on two different PCs. Couldn't get past the main menu, so couldn't play game. Had to leave the game idling on the main menu for a while just to get enough playtime to write this review. Got it in a Humble Bundle, so likely didn't pay much. As of this writing, the game is listed in Steam as "Free to Play". Which I assume means it's available "as is" and won't get fixed.

It's honestly a miracle I was able to not only get this working but somehow get through this weirdly confusing game. Yes, it is being given away for free and for that, thanks Frogwares. Now, at least, I can move on to perhaps another Sherlock Holmes game, I heard they get better.

THAT ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ LAST PUZZLE Nonetheless, great game, wouldn't mind playing again, but figuring everything out is part of the fun, so a second playthrough is not possible at all. I think I've managed to make it run using DxWnd, which worked great.