Customer Reviews

Sherlock Holmes: The Secret of the Silver Earring

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For ten dollars, what an excellent game! From the same voice-acting as Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened and Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis comes the case of the Silver Earring. Holmes and Watson, as in the two 'later' games are played quite well.

I wouldn't ruin the plot but will say this. Plenty of people die and it is up to Holmes to link Brazil, a pillow, cigarettes, a ball-room function, and a young woman's fortune together. Needless to say when the case is resolved, bravo if you figured out who the real culprits were on your own. I for one needed Holmes to explain it to me, using very small words.

Graphic Wise, the game is decent but the human characters are blocky and move like robots.

Music is limited and the later games were far better at including more period sounds.

Movement is a true pain, rather than by arrow key, you must use your mouse cursor to tell Holmes where to go. Normally I would not complain except several times there are cases where swift movement is key, and the game is dreadful at it. There is a situation involving guard dogs, and later a fire, which seems to be the main complaint from users I've found online, and rightfully so!

At the end of each segment, a quiz is given where you must answer questions and link them to evidence. A neat feature except the game is exacting in which evidence you need to use. A few times, the testimony of another would have sufficed.

For ten dollars the game is interesting and not too challenging. The puzzles sadly revolve around little math games. Who does math for fun? If you do, do investigate the other games!

Like the other games you are more a witness to a movie than a real interacting detective. But that is not so bad. Watching Holmes work makes me feel like Watson. I see everything but observe nothing and am amazed by Holmes' conclusion at the end!

I just finished playing the "Silver Earring" for the first time. I have to say that it is quite addictive as I started it at 12am and didn't stop playing it until 7am! I didn't even realize that I had been up for so long until my eyes started to droop. I really liked this game as I felt I was watching a movie to which I could be a part by solving the mysteries. However, as usual, I am always outwitted by Sherlock Holmes because I had no idea who the real murderer was and I was very surprised when the true identity of the murderer was revealed as I had him pegged for someone else.

The game does have it's problems, though. Several times, there are moments where a fast, stealthy approach are necessary to gain access to different points in the game, but the cursor is monumentally slow in allowing movement. I can't count the number of times I had to click on an object and I would get so irritated because the game would end because I was not fast enough, and I had to reload the game from the saved games. Also, the characters could appear more lifelike. They look very strange and almost cartoonish in a way. I think The Adventure Company should work on their animation.

Nevertheless, it is an intriguing game and should keep you busy for hours, as long as you don't go crazy with the slow movements.

We liked this game. We are used to playing Nancy Drew so it is a little difficult, at first, manuvering. I think the game overall is a little more difficult to solve than a Nancy Drew. It was still fun and had good graphics.

This game is good for the price. I am a huge fan of point-and-click mystery games, and I did enjoy this game.

Things I liked:

- Game graphics are good
- Enjoyable plot

Things that I did not like:

- Navigating Holmes can be a bit frustrating (especially during timed tasks!)
- Story has way too many characters (they can easily be confused with each other)

There are quizzes at the end of each day, where you must answer some questions correctly and provide evidence. These can be a little tricky (yes, I did cheat once or twice). This was a good game overall, especially for the price!

After playing almost all the Nancy Drew games, Myst games, etc. usually without helps, I found this game to be very annoying. It was hard to navigate around, which became particularly annoying when you have to move quickly and precisely. I had to play certain portions of the game over and over and over just because of the delay in moving where I clicked and then time would run out. I personally like games where I know it can be solved without using a walkthrough and, for me, certain puzzles required use of the walkthrough because the answer made no logical sense (ex)hiding from the dog and watchman - they might see you behind a wagon but not behind a small barrel??). Also the quizes were frustrating at times because it doesn't tell you which question is incorrect and some of the questions can be interpreted different ways. I'm pretty sure I recognized the exact same graphics for a certain location from another sherlock holmes game! You will have some fun, but will probably have to use the walkthrough. I think for having the name 'Sherlock Holmes' this game should just be higher quality.

This game is similar to most adventure games that are out there and if you are into these games, like I am, it is well worth it. Some of the puzzles were a little hard for me so I had to cheat and use the walkthru. The game was fun to play and had a good story line to it.

"Earring" is, in my recollection, the slowest game I've ever played. It's unusually difficult to make your character move, and he's inordinately slow when he does. It also seems to be possible to move only where the game wants you to move, not where YOU want to. I also found the discussion bits (talking with the other characters) to be unusually, and annoyingly, slow, with no way that I could find to speed them up.

There's a lot of potential in this game, but, honestly, I couldn't take much of the hair-pulling slowness. A map option would also be a welcome addition. Captions are provided for the hearing impaired.

I am currently playing this game. I finished The Awakened a while ago, and just replayed it. I liked it that much. It's a bit disconcerting to move from The Awakened to Silver Earring. In The Awakened, to get to your map, items, dialogue, etc., you have to press the "I" key for items, or "M" key for map, and so on. In the Silver Earring, I constantly find myself hitting the I key to find my items, before remembering that I have right click. I don't think the voice acting in this game is as good as the Awakened. It may seem like a little thing, but I miss being able to click while someone is talking to speed up dialogue, as I normally read the dialogue, not listen to it, and I finish reading before the person is finished talking. I also find that the graphics are better in The Awakened than in the Silver Earring. If you have to pick one game to get, I recommend the Awakened rather than The Silver Earring.