Every so often a surprise comes along that knocks you on your ass.The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is such a game.
It starts with a bit of VO nonsense in the form of miss pronunciation and incorrect inflection, but before you can open your browser and post, it has you!
The puzzle presentation is exceptional and the manner in which environmental clues are conveyed is nothing short of.....well exceptional.The puzzles are intelligent, varied and push your average intellect just enough to get that "Hell Yeah!" feeling. (Plus you play as a Basset Hound for a while - a plus in anyone’s book.)
The game keeps you wilfully uninformed about each of the separate puzzle mechanics which in turn makes it a blast to figure out on the fly. No puzzle mechanic is repeated. The detail with which the era is portrayed is phenomenal. References to international conflicts (Anglo Boer War) and the the Opium trade of the 1800's are representative of the care with which the developer approached the story telling.
On the technical side, graphical fidelity might seem dated for the first hour or so, but maybe I'm just stoked for the new generation of consoles. Emergence is well implemented and the lack of side quests and other open world distractions makes for a tight and controlled, yet personal experience. Common Adventure Game pitfalls are present, but handled in a way I can only describe as elegant, and the combination of items never seem obtuse or downright rediculous (See SpaceQuest 4). The third person camera is a bit wonky and more care could have been taken with default key bindings (keyboard).
Occasionally Holmes refers to characters from what I can only assume to be previous games or Sr Doyle's fiction. The story is original, but keeps all the characteristics that makes Holmes such a goddamn cool motherfucker.
In short, Play It!!
(My pc crashed so I'm writing this on my laptop, longing for the game. I am not finished yet but felt like sharing.)