The Holmes Legacy Continues
Buy Now...
While Conan Doyle took great pains not to saddle his Sherlock Holmes character with various family members, apart from his brother Mycroft, the computer gaming industry has not felt restricted by this lack of family members. Recently I have come across two titles, developed by different companies, dealing with the activities of two different members of the Holmes family who were involved in the investigation of criminal activity.
One title featured Ms Sharon Holmes who sets about solving a case of poisoning in a Nonogram environment. The second title, preferring Hidden Object Adventure mode of action, deals with the work of Ms Sharlotte Holmes who tackles the case that became known as the Letter M. It is the second title which forms the subject matter of this review.
Developed by Elephant Games, Ms Holmes - Letter M allows the player to make the necessary adjustments to volume and screen size aspects plus select the difficulty level to suit their preferred playing environment and skill level. As you set about working on this case, known as Letter M, you will be provided with a fairly usual standard arrangement of tools. The mouse pointer will change shape to indicate when different actions are possible. Positioned across many scenes will be tools featuring a Map, Task, Inventory, Strategy Guide, and rechargeable Hint feature in the form of an Owl. The Inventory can be locked in place or left to disappear when not immediately required and will decorate items that require work with a plus sign.
The game is based on task based progress with a variety of processes being needed to be carried out in the usual manner. This case develops following the arrival of a mysterious box at Sharlotte's office and the appearance of several references to the Letter M. As part of the process you will hear about the story of an engineer who has been hired to repair a submarine. Due to the way he was hired and what he discovered during his work and the fact that he had his thumb cut off after discovering a secret compartment, filled with explosives, is enough to arouse Ms Holmes' interest, and hopefully yours, thus bringing about the case of the Letter M.
At various points during investigation, you will encounter characters such as Adler, Lestrade and somebody claiming to be Moriarty's grandson. You will also encounter mini game puzzles and Hidden Object type scenes that make use of overlaid windows, a book format and content stored in containers for its source repository. The required list of items to find could be presented in text format, as silhouettes or parts of the accompanying scène as your reference.
Overall this game left me with a slight feeling of disappointment as you are led to the ending of the main game which occurs at the Reichenbach Falls. However the game does have a number of bonus items making up its Collector's Edition section. You can replay the game's 13 mini game puzzles and a similar number of Hidden Object scenes, You also get a bonus chapter with the lead being taken by Oscar Watson as the case of Letter M continues.
To solve the case of the Letter M, you can download this title from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99 or from Big Fish Games priced at £14.88. The game requires a 1.2 GHz processor with1024MB of RAM and 755MB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.
| add to del.icio.us | Digg this review |
| StumbleUpon | |
!!
