Opium dens. Dilapidated amusement parks. Hospital morgues. The top-hatted Sherlock and his loyal BFF Watson have seen it all — usually under grim circumstances involving murders and assorted detached body parts. And for gamers who live to poke, prod, deduce, and puzzle-solve in old-timey London locales of varying seediness, Testament doesn’t disappoint.
As Holmes, Watson, and even their trail-sniffing pet hound in one bit, you’ll travel from upscale estates to dark sewers, collecting clues and tackling brain-teasers of varying difficulty to solve a mystery surrounding an anarchist plot. That the culprit looks more and more like Holmes himself is Testament’s clever hook: could literature’s most cunning detective really be at the heart of a murderous scheme?
Wanna make a guy puke by feeding him a mixture of opium ash and water? You can, you insensitive troll!The six- to eight-hour journey takes you down some intriguing paths, putting Watson in the forefront as you start to poke holes in your friend’s credibility. Along the way you’ll encounter some engrossing puzzles — some wicked enough that you’re given an optional “skip puzzle” button prompt if you linger too long — and the return of the series’ “deduction board,” a multiple-choice–style menu that connects different facts and works as a type of puzzle in its own right. While you can crack most of the riddles with a little mental elbow grease, we could’ve done with more insightful clues, instead of the game simply giving us the option to solve a puzzle or skip it.
As a story that up-ends an icon, Testament certainly delivers for the bulk of your adventure, stumbling only in its weaker, latter third. What hurts the game more, unfortunately, are its dicey production values. Playing in the default third-person view makes for a torturously slow, awkward-controlling affair, which made us relieved you can also play in first-person, although it's a bit jittery. And some off-putting character models (especially the freaky-looking children in the story-within-the-story cutscenes) make Testament better suited for hardcore point-and-click adventurers. There’s definitely an interesting tale being told here, wrapped in plenty of logic-twisters that’ll make you feel smart for solving them, but like its hero, Testament harbors its share of flaws — enough that non-diehards should proceed with both curiosity and caution.
Watson goes it alone in the depths of some insufferably dark sewers.PUBLISHER: Atlus/Focus Home Entertainment • DEVELOPER: Frogwares Games • ESRB: Mature • MULTIPLAYER: None • ACHIEVEMENTS: Thorough • COST: $40 • RELEASE DATE: September 25, 2012
+ An interesting twist on Holmes’ fiction and universe; plenty of clever puzzles.
+ The “skip puzzle” option keeps the pace faster than that in most puzzle-oriented adventures.
– Character movement is both erratic and slow in third-person view; some ugly character models and textures.
? Suspension-of-disbelief alert: Can a basset hound really trigger those switches?
