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Text File | 1992-11-28 | 8KB | 132 lines

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 === THE ELECTRONIC GAMER ===
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 THE LOST FILES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

 In the latter part of the 19th century, London was a rather dirty city, just
coming into its industrial age. This also was the approximate period in which
the murders attributed to "Jack the Ripper" occurred (a relatively mild crime
spree when compared to today's atrocities). These savage attacks must have
been all the more frightening when one considers that the majority of the
police force was armed only with nightsticks, and that investigative methods
were fairly primitive.

 In THE LOST FILES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, you assume the role of fiction's most
famous and well-known detective as he seeks to trap the Ripper. (This review
is based on the IBM-PC version.)

 HOLMES' animated opening sequence allows you to witness a murder as an
actress leaves the Regency theatre. A cloaked figure is lying in wait near
the backstage entrance, and you see the crime occur. Is this actually the
work of the unknown Jack the Ripper, a "copycat" killer, or is it completely
unrelated?

 Holmes is asked to investigate by Scotland Yard's Inspector Lestrade. Those
familiar with the fictional relationship between the two detectives know that
Holmes and Lestrade have a mutual disdain for one another's investigative
techniques. Lestrade turns to Holmes only when he has no other choice; the
world-famous consulting detective agrees to help only if the case seems
unique or when he feels like "showing up" the sometimes incompetent official.

 Typical of one of Holmes' cases, the murder not only isn't what it first
appears, but is just the cover page to a more complex story. The game leads
you to a couple of dead-ends before you discover the killer. Then the case
takes an unexpected twist when the first victim's sister is abducted. With
the confessed killer locked up in Bailey Court, who's behind this crime? The
story culminates with a last minute rescue, and the escape of the true
villain. Does this mean a sequel? Possibly, as the original story was written
by a couple of real Holmes mystery fans.

 Each location in the game is depicted by handsome VGA graphics in a style
that gives an overall Victorian look to the story. A hand icon is used to
manipulate objects on the screen, in Holmes' inventory, or to choose commands
from a menu beneath the picture using an interface that is most similiar to a
LucasArts game (e.g., MONKEY ISLAND, ZAK MCKRACKEN). As you move the pointer
over objects and persons, verbs that apply are highlighted on the menu. This
doesn't always make it obvious what needs to be done, and the scene must be
carefully examined so nothing is missed.

 As in LucasArts' games, dialogue proceeds with numbered choices highlighted
when appropriate and darkened when used. This limits the things you can try,
and unfortunately can make the game too easy at points. There is one arcade-
type sequence where you play darts to gain information, but the observant
detective can find an alternate way to get the truth.

 You move through London via hansom carriage, and can visit a location only
when your investigation reveals a reason to do so. When an address is found,
it appears on the overhead map of the city and you may click on it to travel
there.

 An auto-note-taking feature is embodied in Dr. Watson, who writes down every
conversation between Holmes and other characters. This notebook amounts to
over 300 small pages when the game is complete, and actually reads like a
story. The contents may be read during the game or searched for a key word or
phrase. The contents may also be printed for viewing offline (although I
didn't find this a useful feature). What isn't recorded -- and should have
been -- are Holmes' actions, what he picks up, and what he observes. However,
due to the way the game paths open up, it isn't actually neccessary to look
at an item twice. If it provides a new location or new line of inquiry to
pursue, the sleuth will see it on the map or in the converstion options.

 There are varied music themes and a number of good sound effects, but these
don't quite keep up with the quality of the graphics. The game also uses very
clear digitized speech, but not throughout the game as I was expecting. The
dialogue is spoken only during the introduction and endgame; it would have
been nice to see some mixed in with the story. Considering the large amount
of disk space used for graphics, a few more megabytes for speech files would
have been a relatively small amount.

 HOLMES makes a good interactive story, and that's what it claims to be. It
isn't a particularly difficult mystery, and the fixed choices of dialogue
make it fairly easy to stumble along. The difficult parts require you to look
at everything, as this triggers new dialogue and places to visit. A couple of
clues must be gained by using Holmes' laboratory to analyze objects, but no
knowledge of science is required to perform the tests.

 I was rather disappointed in the way the game handled Dr. Watson. While he
never actually solved any mysteries in the Conan Doyle stories, Watson wasn't
merely an ornament or sidekick. In the game, he helps Holmes in a couple of
spots by providing a distraction or performing a medical service, but he's
mostly just a note-taking machine. In several fictive instances, Sir Arthur
did have the doctor stimulate a Holmesian insight by making an observation or
two. Watson occasionally nudged Sherlock in the right direction, and the
detective often used him as a sounding board for his theories. Were I Watson
in this story, I would probably have walked away as the great detective
generally ignored me. It also would have been nice to see some of Watson's
running narrative comments, which always added flavor to the sleuth's
exploits.

 My copy of HOLMES came on ten 1.2Mb 5.25" floppy disks, with an exchange
form for nine 3.5" disks. The game has an absolutely painless install program
that detects everything on the computer system and suggests which choices to
make. It must be installed to a hard disk with 15Mb minimum free space, and
29Mb free disk space is required if the files are expanded to save time
during play. A 386-based computer system with 16MHz speed and DOS 3.0 or
higher with at least 571K free conventional memory are required to run the
game.

 Sound boards supported are the AdLib, Sound Blaster, Roland, and Tandy MPC.
Mouse, joystick, and keyboard are supported, and expanded memory is required
if using a mouse. Expanded memory is also used if specified to speed loading
of the graphics files. Up to 30 separate games may be saved, and there's no
copy protection.

 I recommend HOLMES for entertainment value, and would like to see another in
this series. However, the next game should be more challenging, with more
personality for the characters.

 A final note: Electronic Arts should be commended for their responsibility
to the consumer. While they provide a 24-hour 900 number for hints, they
obviously don't wish people to waste time and money on the line. I say this
because they offer a printed "menu" to be used when calling the hint line,
allowing you to quickly get to the needed hint. This menu is available for no
charge; just write to the address in the manual.

 THE LOST FILES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is published by Mythos Software and
distributed by Electronic Arts.

 This review is copyright (c) 1992 by Venger. All rights reserved. Not to be
distributed without permission.