Among the first wave of FMV games published were a series of Sherlock Holmes titles, branded under the Consulting Detective moniker. This series contained three releases, all containing three different cases for you to solve. The cases in these 3 original editions are The Mummy's Curse, The Mystified Murderess, The Tin Soldier, The Two Lions, The Pilfered Paintings, The Murdered Munitions Magnate, The Solicitous Solicitor, The Banker's Final Debt, and The Thames Murders.
In 2012, Zojoi, consisting of the original developers of the games, released remastered versions of three of the cases. The remastered version, now presented in higher resolution, consists of The Tin Soldier, Mystified Murderess, The Mummy's Curse, and finally in 2023 The Banker's Final Debt. Their intention is to remaster all the cases, but for now these are all we got. An optimist would say, they are almost half way there.
I have not played the original releases, but I can assume the gameplay is largely similar.
The Tin Soldiers revolves around a murder of an old soldier, who is one of the last people alive connected to Tontine Tickets. The last one alive will get the whole pot, over 2 million pounds. Mystified Murderess places Holmes and Watson to look into a murder case that seems open and shut, but it obviously isn't. The Mummy's Curse has London on its knees because of allegedly supernatural murders involving a mummy and Finally, The Banker's Final Debt is a look into a murder of a banker. I feel this is more than enough said of the stories of each case, as saying anything more would really spoil them.
Each of the cases proceeds by interviewing suspects, reading the newspapers, and using Holmes' contacts to find crucial information. After finding all that is pertinent to the case, you can present the findings to a judge, who asks a series of questions you need to answer correctly. If you get the questions right, the case is solved, and you can review how Holmes would have done it and compare your score to the target score. The lower your score is, the better you did, and it's even possible to score lower than Holmes.
If you get stuck during the investigations, it's possible to ask for hints from Watson. This adds to your score tally. Sadly enough, this hint system is rather stupid and doesn't keep taps on what you've done, so in all likelihood, you see a lot of stuff you've already done before you get a hint that is useful. While the cases aren't overly taxing, it is easy to get stuck if you don't take notes alongside the automated note system the games have, as that doesn't always include everything the people say, and it might be easy to miss clues in the newspapers on offer.
In the cases offered in the remasters, the Baker Street Irregulars are a completely unnecessary resource, and using them in any of the cases isn't at all necessary. You get to the bottom of the truth easily enough by reading the newspaper, which doesn't add to your points, and by interviewing the people connected to the cases. It needs to be said, though, that at times you get information before you were logically intended to do so, especially on The Banker's Final Debt. I was looking for my next logical step, and the game by design gave me information I had no idea about before, making closing the case easier than it should have been.
Depending on how many people you end up talking with, each case can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to solve. As I previously stated, these are not long games. Each has only 4 or 5 steps you need to take before you have all you need and are ready to present the case to the judge.
There's no real replay value in these games, unless you happen to like the tone of comedy the developers were going with, with the actors doing their best to add some ham and cheese to their characters and dialogue. Personally, I found it quite charming, and I laughed out loud a couple of times. And I do believe it is all intention; these aren't overly serious crime stories.
But if you've solved the cases once, there's very little incentive to return to them, unless you want the bragging rights of getting all the achievements and beating the minimum score. Other than that, they offer a nice enough distraction for an hour or so, after which you can put them away.
If Zojoi ever gets to releasing the rest to the titles, I would advise them to bundle these into a single package. It would also be nice the original games in their low-resolution glory on the market.
Anyhow, if you feel like taking a step into very early FMV gaming, you can get the four separate Consulting Detective titles from Steam. I'd recommend waiting for a sale, as despite being cheap enough, the full price of each is around 4 euros. Your mileage may vary if you consider 4 euros a lot in terms of what these games are. As far as gaming entertainment goes, these are somewhat disposable. That said, I can see myself returning to them from time to time as they are campy, fun titles.
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