Since the turn of the century, the folks over at Frogwares Studio have been churning out a stellar series of Sherlock Holmes point and click games - and while they were originally PC only fare, 2009 marked the detective's first foray onto home consoles with the grizzly, gripping tale of Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper. Last year brought us the just as awesome The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, a sure-fire contender for our point and click of 2012 if ever there was one, but keen to follow in its footsteps is the even better looking Holmesian adventure, Crimes & Punishments: Sherlock Holmes.
When we originally wrote about the title, we were under the impression this would be the first downloadable Sherlock adventure from the folks at Frogwares - but it seems we'd got the wrong end of the stick. Crime & Punishments is very definitely going to be a fully-fledged disc based release, with a whopping eight different cases with which to tax your grey matter. You'll be mulling over murders, deciphering disappearances and solving spectacular thefts as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective as you explore Victorian London, tackling the same Professor Layton-style brainteasers we've come to expect from the series as you go.
Horsey!
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the new game is that every one of the great detective's actions will have a direct influence on what happens during the course of the story, diverging to a possible twelve different endings - although whether this is twelve endings per case, or twelve endings across the entire game is a bit unclear (we'd imagine it's the latter). The decisions you make will all add together to affect your reputation among the folks of London, and may even have unexpected consequences later down the line, forcing you to consider your actions carefully.
Fans of the series will want to stay tuned in the coming weeks, as Frogwares promises to unveil more new features in the coming weeks, culminating in a presentation at this year's E3 in the summer. Hopefully we'll also get a concrete release date around then too, and perhaps even a little bit more of his long-suffering side-kick Creepy Watson - in the meantime, why not check out the trailer below, which shows off many of the areas you'll be exploring during your time in Victorian London:
