Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective

Mystery. Murder. Investigative interviews. Great, obnoxious, illogical leaps in deduction. Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective has it all.

The Gameplay

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is a mystery game that puts you in control. You choose where to go and who to investigate, collecting clues and solving mysteries.

The game starts with a case book that gives you a mystery prompt. A poor soul looking for help shows up at Sherlock’s office and tells their tale. Sherlock is busy, of course, so you are put on the job.

After the prompt you are handed a map, a directory of London (including addresses, names, and businesses), and a few additional contacts. Based on the clues you picked up on from the mystery prompt, you will use your map, directory, and contacts to decide who to investigate next. Matching their London address in the case book, you will read what you find at that location, hopefully leading you to find more clues.

After investigating all over London, you will (hopefully) have a good idea of what really is going on. At the back of the case book you will be prompted with a series of questions – can you answer them all correctly? More importantly, can you even come close to Sherlock’s high score?

Included in the game are 10 different mysteries. In my experience, each takes a few hours to complete.

Why I Like It

The first time I played this game, my friends and I were feeling pretty confident. We had investigated a few areas, and thought we had the case solved. We went to the back of the case book to read the questions, and one of the questions asked, “Who killed <name redacted>?” Not only could we not answer that question – we didn’t even know who <name redacted> was!

This game challenges you in a serious way. Sherlock Holmes seems to cheat sometimes, as his deductive reasoning requires absurd logical leaps. But the journey this game takes you on is like no other I’ve experienced. After each session, we always have pages and pages of notes. We always “theory-craft” to try and get to the bottom of the mystery. And…we’re almost always frustrated (in a good way) by our low – and sometimes negative – score. This game is an absolute gem for us.

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective has two expansions. My group has moved on to the second expansion, Sherlock Holmes: Carlton House & Queen’s Park This expansion adds two new areas – Carleton House, which you can explore room by room (kind of like Clue), and Queens Park, which is a 3-part mega mystery. The other expansion is Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Jack the Ripper & West End Adventures, which I haven’t gotten a chance to play yet (but certainly will, at some point).