Sherlock Holmes Chapter One Review: Crimes in Cordona (PC)

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is set in the fictional Mediterranean island country of Cordona, and follows a young Sherlock and Watson as they explore their childhood home and solve any mysteries that come their way. The gameplay is something I haven’t seen before. It has an open-world city like the Arkham or Assassin’s Creed series but with so much focus on solving mysteries. There is a bit of combat, but that’s exceptionally rare.

The mysteries themselves are no walk in the park. Even if you find every clue and scrap of evidence, the game won’t tell you who the culprit is. It is up to your personal deduction skills and reasoning to determine what happened in many of these cases and what to do with some of the culprits if and when you find them. 

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is currently available on PC, PS4/5, and Xbox Series X/S for $44.99.

Story – Coming Home

The story begins in 1880. Young Sherlock Holmes returns to the Island Nation of Cordona, where he spent some of his childhood and where his mother died. Accompanying him is his childhood companion inside his mind, John Watson. Who doesn���t realize no one else can see him except for Sherlock. But never the less likes to help Sherlock with the case with commentary and visualizing his thoughts.

Not even having time to check in to their hotel room, the pair get immediately drawn into a mystery searching for the owner of a lost bejeweled cane, which leads to a stolen diamond chase and ends with a murder where you have to use the clues to decide who’s guilty and whether or not to let them go free or under arrest. Soon after that, Sherlock visits his mother’s grave, and upon going through memories of the funeral and a little investigating, you discover something suspicious about the way she died. As well as how Sherlock’s older brother, Mycroft, was reacting to it.

This will get very full very quick.

You follow leads, including Sherlock’s old abandoned manor. Various archives seem to be missing many files about Sherlock’s mother. If that wasn’t odd enough, Sherlock’s old family friend just died in a gruesome way right before you got to them.

During all of this, you are free to roam about Cordona. You can follow the main case or discover and solve all the various mysteries on the Island. From various murder mysteries, heists, corruptions, collectibles, and more. Including regaining memories that Sherlock didn’t even know he had lost with the help of Watson.

It was a very short job interview.

Gameplay – Sherlock on the Case

The gameplay in Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is a fun take on mystery solving with many mechanics to use. When investigating a crime scene, you can examine the area for clues. With your focus view, you can examine further details, like blood on broken glass. 

Chemical analysis can be performed on clues (though you can skip these if you don’t like them), to determine what sort of substance you found, such as arsenic on a bottle. The chemical analysis itself is simple. Using the base chemical numbers at the bottom and chemical modifiers at the top, you want to equal the chemical sum on the right. 

You have no idea how long it took me to figure this out.

You can also eavesdrop on potential witnesses, bystanders, suspects, and so on to gather more evidence or context. It’s a simple mini-game where you filter out unneeded info and focus on the key phrases. Searching various archives and cross-reference details you learned from your case can find things like police records or newspapers related to the suspect. Talking to people on the Island can also get you information. Whether or not you can get info out of them depends on their character, where you are, and what you look like. Coal Miner isn’t going to want to talk to a rich snob after all, so you can purchase or rent various disguises on the Island to dress like someone more approachable to the type of people you are asking.

Imagine the Scene

After investigating a scene, you can sit down while Watson helps create a mental image of what might have happened. Using all the evidence you’ve gathered, you determine where everyone involved was and what they were doing. Was the butler in the kitchen or cleaning the windows? Was the maid a witness or participant?

Finally, after everything, you take all the evidence you gathered and connect the dots in your mind palace to decide who is guilty. Was the drunk lord with a violent past and easy access to the roam the killer, or was the petty thief with lock picks and history to the victim the one who did it? Be sure to examine carefully because you can easily be wrong and pick the wrong person. 

Can’t imagine any beer was worth it.

In some cases, you decide what to do with the chosen suspect. Do you believe they deserve a second chance, or that the crime was justified and helped them escape, or should they be in prison for their crime and punished? What happens after can have lasting and surprising consequences. 

Graphics & Audio – Solid for Sleuthing

The Graphics in Sherlock Holmes Chapter One are a mixed bag. On the one hand, the lighting is good, but on the other, the reflections are terrible. The details on the buildings and environment look amazing, but the people can be rough, like Sherlock’s hair. Facial animations are good enough for what they need to do. However, I wish there was an element to reading people’s facial expressions like in LA Noire.

Fez’s are cool.

As for Audio, there is good background ambiance and sound effects. Music does the job as needed, but nothing has stood out to me so far. I don’t know if this is a glitch on my computer or something else, but I noticed that a dramatic violin note would play at odd times. It seems it plays too soon before a reveal or for something mundane. 

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One was reviewed on PC. These screenshots were taken on my PC with all settings at Ultra.