Sherlock Holmes Chapter One Review – Master of Deduction (PS5)

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is Frogwares’ most ambitious detective game to date. This time around it features a young Holmes in his early twenties as he explores the fictional island of Cordona and gets to put his sleuthing skills to the test while trying to uncover forgotten details of his childhood.

Sherlock has travelled with his childhood friend Jon (not Watson, a different Jon) to pay his respects at his mother’s grave soon after her passing, but soon realizes that there may be more to his past than he initially remembers. While he’s investigating and reminiscing about his mother he ends up getting roped into solving a frankly ridiculous number of crimes and murders on the island. What more could sleuth-em-up fans ask for?

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One Review – Super Sleuth

While Holmes is a bit younger than in the previous games he’s still just as awesome at investigating as we’ve come to expect. You’ll rock up at crime scenes and need to closely eye up any potential evidence and try to work out the chain of events based on the things you’ve found. Whether you’re zooming in on people to make observations about what type of person they are, or searching through dusty archives, you’ll really be tested on your attention to detail and it’s great fun to try to slowly piece together the truth.

Outside of the first couple of cases, there really isn’t a lot of hand holding going on. You’re left to investigate at your own pace which ends up being a bit of a double-edged sword. There are definitely times when it can be tricky to work out what you should be doing next and you can easily find yourself feeling a bit stumped.

Seeing as you have your childhood friend with you at all times it would have been great if Jon could have offered up little hints about what you should do next. Instead, he just writes little notes in his journal to whine about all the things you’re doing wrong which does end up feeling pretty frustrating. On the other hand, this does also mean that when you do have a sudden moment of insight it can feel pretty euphoric to finally be able to prove who-dun-it. Even without Jon’s help.

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One Review – Crime Island

One of the pretty great things about this game is that when you do hit a bit of a brick wall on a case you can easily step away and spend some time investigating something else or exploring the island. Cordona is a small open-world setting and while it can feel a little empty in places, there are quite a few adventures to be had if you’re willing to search around.

You can take a trip to the local police station and help out with some unsolved crimes, restore your childhood manor house, or even take part in a treasure hunt for tourists. It always feels really awesome when you accidently overhear something while wandering around town which then leads you into a brand new case to investigate.

The open world setting is fun but you can definitely tell that it’s been made with a limited budget. There are lots of repeated NPC models walking around and you can’t really enter many of the buildings unless they’re related to a case. Running around the island can also be pretty headache inducing at times, as the game’s frame rate frequently struggles to keep up, making it feel pretty choppy to play.

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One – Fight Club

Occasionally while investigating you’ll end up annoying the wrong people and have to fight. You’ll have a pistol to hand as well as a snuff box that you can throw at enemies to temporarily disorientate them. As you’re a good guy you’re not supposed to just shoot everyone in the head. Instead, you need to arrest people by first shooting off any armor and then creating some kind of distraction so that you can rush in and grab them.

I’m not quite sure why so many bad guys have flammable bottles strapped to their waists but it does make it pretty easy to stun them. You’ll also find plenty of things dotted around the environment to shoot and cause a disturbance, so it’s not usually too difficult to arrest everyone. It’s a bit of a shame but the combat ends up feeling pretty repetitive and overall a bit clunky. The developer seems to be aware that not everyone who plays these kinds of games will be interested in fighting and has added the option to turn off combat altogether. This is definitely a very nice touch for those that just want to play detective.

You’ll come across some truly bonkers moments during your investigations such as the case where you end up having to create a huge elephant sex doll to try to capture a horny escaped elephant. There are also plenty of times where you’ll get to play dress-up and try to disguise Holmes in a wide variety of different outfits. Chapter One knows it’s being silly but isn’t afraid to lean into its daft sense of humor which does a great job of lifting the mood even though you seem to be surrounded by plenty of grisly murders.

Despite a few missteps in terms of the combat, if you’re a fan of detective games then Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is a pretty easy one to recommend. Getting to do things like interviewing witnesses or performing chemical analysis on suspicious evidence is an absolute blast. The island of Cordona is chock full of cases for you to investigate and while there are a few technical issues with the open world setting it’s easy enough to forgive when sleuthing around is this much fun.

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One PS5 review code provided by publisher. Version 1.001.000 reviewed on a PlayStation 5. For more information, please read our Review Policy.