When the greatest thief ever to embrace the world, Arsene Lupin, takes an interest in the London soil, the atmosphere of Frogware's Sherlock Holmes series takes somewhat of a 180 degree turn into another direction in comparison to the Awakened, where Holmes went toe to toe with Lovecraftian horrors. Here, the style is more whimsical, playful even. Gone are the grotesque visages of blood and entrails, giving way to a battle of wits between two figures known of their brains.
Like always, the tale begins at the famous address 221B, where Watson is enjoying the uneventful everyday existence, whereas Holmes is fretting there are no challenges left for him in the world. The only interesting thing around seems to be the string of crimes in France, conducted by Arsene Lupin. As it happens, the daily mail brings a letter addressed to Holmes, taunting him of a crime that is soon to happen. The clues point towards Lupin, the location of the crime, the National Gallery.
Holmes and Watson arrive to witness a small kerfuffle between the director and a pompous French artist. They get the permission of the director to check out the place in order to figure out what painting is the intended target, after which they alert the Scotland Yard. Now here's the interesting thing. Just like in the previous game, you get to play as both, Holmes and Watson. This time around, you get to play a small segment as inspector Lestrade as well. It's not a big part, but it is an interesting choice to let you play as Lestrade gives the museum a once over before the closing time.
Lupin successfully pulls off his heist, leaving behind a string of clues for his next caper. This time, he seems to be keen on stealing the crows from the London Tower, so there the duo goes, only to find out, that the birds have been taken and replaced with a flock of miscellaneous birds. This is where the game starts to ravel a bit, as the gameplay turns into running back and forth between different locations of the Tower area, trying to locate the birds and the ways of capturing them. It's not necessarily a hard task, more as it is a bit tedious. This same continues from here on to the last part of the game, being alleviated only by some smaller locations.
The clues left on the birds lead to the National Museum, where the target is none other than the Rosetta Stone. All the security checks go, again, in vain, when Lupin manages to escape with the stone. A convoluted string of clues leads the duo to Buckingham Palace, where the Queen herself is in danger. Alas, the monarch is not willing to see anyone, as she is annoyed by other matters. Holmes has to find a way to calm her, but Lupin is already ahead of them, managing to steal a kiss from quite a willing Queen Victoria.
This time around, Watson deduces, that all the signs point towards Big Ben. The prime minister and Lestrade see the signs as well and head there with the police force to put an end to Lupin's shenanigans. Holmes knows otherwise and heads to London Tower, where Lupin is just about to steal the crown jewels. And this is where the battle of the wits finally ends.
In comparison to the Awakened, even on the remastered version, Sherlock Holmes versus Arsene Lupin feels smoother as a game. While many of the criticisms to the previous entry are present, like the hotspot hunting and running back and forth between places, the overall feel is a bit more agreeable. But then again, Holmes' match again Lupin does feel more like a puzzle game instead of an adventure. This is even more underlined by the clues Lupin leaves, as they put you on a clue hunt, during which you need to construct, at times convoluted, solutions to the dilemmas at hand. This is eased somewhat by the hint system remastered edition has, which does provide answers to the hardest of puzzles. The puzzle game nature is even further emphasized by the many mathematical and logic problems thrown in Holmes' way. These are merely puzzles for the sake of making puzzles.
If you prefer playing the game in a 3rd person mode instead of 1st person, you can do that as well. In the Awakened the 3rd person mode was a bit clunky, but in Lupin, it seems and feels more functional. Again, how you want to play this boils down to preference, but personally I find the 1st person mode more agreeable to me. The game and the locations were designed 1st person in mind, after all.
Sherlock Holmes versus Arsene Lupin is a step up from the Awakened. Despite some design issues and the games leaning towards being more of a puzzle game, it is worth playing, especially if you are among those, who were put off by the graphic violence of the Awakened. There's none of that here, just plain, old whimsical caper. Lupin is a thief and a lover, not a murderer. The tone is more humorous and it should provide some intrigue especially for those, who prefer logical puzzles. It's not as much of a genuine crime investigation game, there's actually very little of that here, so if that's what you are looking for, then you might be disappointed.
I can't really say how well Frogwares has managed to capture the spirit of Arsene Lupin stories, as I must admit, he is pretty unfamiliar to me as a character. I have not read any of the stories written of him nor have I, at least to my recollection, seen any adaptations of them. Still, it does say something of the man, that even I, a complete novice in his ways, knows of him. He is, after all, to thievery the same as Holmes is to solving crimes.
As with other Frogwares Holmes games, you can get this from various digital outlets. So, GOG and Steam at least.
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