Good game with some minor flaws
The plot was a good one, involving investigations in several well-depicted locations – with one notable exception. In the pub at the harbour, there is a big St George Cross flag with 'ENGLAND' across it. As an Englishman I can assure you that these flags, used to show support to the England football team, have only been really popular for the last 10-15 years. You certainly wouldn't have had one in Holmes' time – not least because there wasn't even an England football team then…
Back to the plot – it is a fairly grim tale (though all Holmes tales are) which borders on horror – my only gripe is that the end felt a bit anti-climactic. The game is also just a tad short, I think – one more 'chapter' would have made it feel more satisfying.
The first person perspective worked well, although the game sometimes swaps you from being Holmes to Watson. To be honest, this didn't happen often and most of the time Watson didn't do anything that was that great (apart from shoot something from a tree, but SH could do that). Also Holmes occasionally asks Watson to answer a question, the answer needing to be worked out from the evidence gathered, but there's other ways of doing that whilst allowing the gameplayer always to be Holmes, which would surely make one feel more immersed.
In terms of movement, it was occasionally problematic, being clunky and involving having to be unnecessarily circumspect when going around certain objects. There were a couple of times when you are required to move quickly (including one highly amusing chase sequence) but the movement let these bits down a bit, doors particularly causing problems – UT this ain't.
The voice acting is for the most part good, particularly Watson, but sadly I didn't like Holmes' voice at all – in terms of the accent it was not at all how the public-school educated Holmes would have sounded, and also is very thin and weedy – almost camp, to be honest.
Not much to say about the graphics, except they are a pretty good standard.
The quality of the problem-solving is what really makes this enjoyable – solving them made use of stuff I hadn't thought about since school, and they all required logic – you may feel a bit lost with the numerical problems – I did – but others will excel in those and be stuck on others.
Other problems are solved by good old digging around and intensive searching – the good news is, the game never makes detailed search too daunting. Although as you go through the game you can travel to and from various maps, it doesn't allow you to leave one map until you've discovered everything you can in your present location.
At times there are unwelcome constraints on freedom of movement within a map, for example you're unable to walk on the grass in the garden of a big house, which makes the game feel less 'realistic'.
So although there are some elements that could have been improved, overall it's a very enjoyable first-person adventure game which, particularly if you're and SH fan, will engage, challenge and entertain you.