does a complete about-face by being primarily designed for consoles. Rather than a point and click interface, the player has direct control over Holmes (and sometimes Watson, and very occasionally, Holmes' dog) and can interact with the environment by pressing A upon discovering interactive icons. Don't feel that this simple control system means the game is easy, though -- it's what you do with the information that forms the bulk of the game's challenge.

A conscious decision was made to develop the game to be as cinematic as possible -- the developers were jealous that the action adventure and FPS genres had commandeered the cinematic storytelling which used to be the hallmark of adventure gaming. As such, conversations use a Mass Effect-style conversation system to keep the pace flowing, character models and animations are significantly better than in previous titles, and camera angles give a much more movie-like experience.

The story is of great importance to the game -- beginning with the conclusion of a theft case (which acts as a tutorial) where Holmes discovers some lost jewelry only to find it's a fake, the man who popularized the deerstalker hat soon finds himself accused of being the real thief. As the plot progresses, Holmes becomes more and more desperate, resorting to fleeing from the police, destroying evidence and even considering committing murder.

It's the investigation of the game's cases that drive the narrative -- Focus is keen to try and make the experience as logical as possible and not simply throw in arbitrary puzzles to artificially extend the play time. Rather, you'll find yourself using Holmes' traditional methods of careful observation and deduction to come up with the solutions.

Certain evidence can be examined up close using a magnifying glass, tape measure and other tools. Other items can be examines in a 3D view, and when the player points out interesting things, this reveals further clues. Holmes' constant companion Watson keeps track of these clues in Holmes' notebook, and the process of deduction is somewhat similar to the Logic mechanic from Ace Attorney investigations -- notes can be combined together to make deductions about what is going on, and this in turn reveals the way forward.