Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective 1 - The Case of the Mummy's Curse

aka: 1 Mummy
Moby ID: 57935
Windows Specs
Buy on Windows
$1.99 new on Steam

Description

This game, the first mission of the 1991 FMV game Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective (itself an adaptation of the 1981 game of the same name, based on the Victorian London of Arthur Conan Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes character) presents players with a mystery which much be unraveled through detective work -- visits to crime scenes, interviews with witnesses and other research through the journalism of the day and gossip as reported by the Baker Street Irregulars. In this first episode the renowned detective and his friend the good Doctor Watson investigate an apparently supernatural rash of murders linked to an Egyptian mummy.

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Credits (Windows version)

33 People (30 developers, 3 thanks) · View all

Developed by
  • Zojoi LLC [www.zojoi.com]
Based on an Original Design by Sleuth Times
Programmer
Executive Producers
Artwork
Music
Scripting
Quality Assurance
Additional Editing
  • Paladin Media Group
  • Virginia Arts Recording
Director/Producer
Production Manager
Scenery and Prop Design
Costumes
Screenplay
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Players

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 3 ratings with 1 reviews)

The original was an important technical achievement, but the remaster only inherits its flaws

The Good
The concept is very intriguing: you solve a murder case as Sherlock Holmes. Instead of usual adventure game mechanics, you only choose the next destination from a list, watch FMV interrogations and have to puzzle the clues together yourself. In the end, you enter the court and have to name the murderer and the motive. I was always interested in this game (the original version was released in 1991) and was delighted to finally give it a try.

The Bad
Unfortunately the execution is pretty bad. First off, the acting is amateurish even for the standards of early CD-ROM games. I liked the chap who plays Sherlock Holmes, but everyone else was either stiff or hopelessly overacted. The costumes are hilarious. Normally I would write this off as special charm, but the case is boring, obvious and badly written. What jarred me the most is how the second murder was handled: Holmes enters the residence of a suspect and finds him murdered. Then he invents a murder suspect out of thin air with a ridiculous reasoning and we never hear of it again.

The game design also doesn't work. The game used a point system to rank the player's performance: every action adds penalty points and if you investigated too much, the judge calls you an idiot even when the case is correctly solved. This is a stupid system because it punishes playing the game. It also does not add replayability because everything is fixed - in your second playthrough (mine took three minutes) you are guaranteed to ace it. The hint system is a nice idea, but because the game does not track what videos you have already seen, you will get hints (and penalty points) for things you have already figured out. Also some hints are wrong or needlessly confusing.

The Bottom Line
Maybe some of my complaints come off as unfair because this was one of the first CD-ROM games ever. However, I think my points (with the exception of bad acting which probably would have been offset by the technical amazement) would be justified even in 1991.

In the end, this is a remaster no one needs: the historically interested should play the original instead and for everyone else it has too many flaws to enjoy. I backed the failed Kickstarter campaign and also own the other two remastered cases, but I see no reason to touch them.

Windows · by Patrick Bregger (298416) · 2021

Trivia

Crowdfunding

This port was the subject of an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign, but was carried through anyway.

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  • MobyGames ID: 57935
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Pseudo_Intellectual.

Macintosh, Windows added by Sciere.

Additional contributors: Sciere.

Game added September 28, 2012. Last modified July 16, 2023.