Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Silver Earring Review

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Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Silver Earring

Review by Old RoosterSeptember 2004

Yesterday, I finished a ten-day visit with an old friend—Sherlock Holmes. Together with his associate, Dr. Watson, Holmes asked for my assistance in solving the Case of the Silver Earring.

Unfortunately, although I’ve always enjoyed visits to the gracious and visually elegant times of Queen Victoria, I also found this particular journey with the brilliant detective to be quite tedious, even rather boring.

“He Is of Low Birth, Has Few Friends and Poor Taste in Women” —Holmes

It is always entertaining when our sleuth can make deductions such as the above without even having met the person in question—in this case, Lord Bromsby. Our evening began with what was going to be a pleasurable outing. We were to visit Cavendish Hall, largely to hear one of our favorite opera singers, Gallia. Also, the hugely successful Lord Melvyn Bromsby was to give a short address highlighting some changes in his lucrative business. Tragically, Lord Bromsby didn’t get too far into his speech before he was most rudely shot!  Of course, Holmes and Watson immediately react to seal off the mansion and grounds, enlisting you and me, the players, to help them solve what develops into a most confounding conundrum of crime.

“The Game Is Afoot”

Let’s be initially a bit pedantic and discuss the presentation of and mechanisms for playing this case. After three installations from the two included CDs, we couldn’t get Silver Earring to run without immediately crashing to the desktop. Finally, I discovered two critical factors—turn off your virus checker while playing and, most important, set the desktop resolution to the resolution of the game, in this case 1024×768.

Once up and running, one can’t help but be very impressed and properly motivated by the initial cutscene (and subsequent ones), as well as the stunning and detailed depiction of Cavendish Hall and other prerendered backgrounds. Indeed, your mystery tour will take you through 40 London-area locations over five levels, with the visuals being a major part of the appeal.

Voice acting seems professionally done and is generally “spot on,” at least according to my English wife. Holmes sounds upper-class and pompous, while the “downstairs” Cavendish Hall staff display the London city accents one might expect.

In close-ups, the expressions of the multitude of characters are impressive, although lip-synching is not at all accurate. From a distance, though, you’ll find that Holmes and Watson are controlled by the traditional point-and-click-on-the-floor method, with this movement being accomplished on a static screen. Tragically, pathfinding and precision of control are poor, and you may spend undue time literally going in circles!

“Hmm … There Is Dust. Excellent!” —Holmes

As with most adventures, and particularly with ones of a scientific nature, you’ll spend an inordinate amount of time pixel-hunting.  This presents a problem to happy progress! Not only is there a dreadful lack of precision with movement, but also some of the items to be discovered are impossible to see unless your cursor “lights up” with a hand to alert you. A strand of greasy red hair comes to mind.

There are cursors for movement, dialogue, and action (open a door, pick up an object). These are accompanied by a very efficient inventory bar, accessed with a simple mouse right-click. Your notebook records the essence of conversations, reports, documents. Also included is a map of London, with the various locations opened as you progress in the game.

Holmes is equipped with a magnifying glass, tape measure, and test tube for taking samples. Occasionally, you and he return to his “lab” at Baker Street where detailed analyses must be performed. One thinks here of some of the tasks in the CSI and Law & Order games, although with 19th-century science.

Saving the game can be done anywhere (except during the fairly frequent cutscenes), and there seem to be an unlimited number of saves possible.

“I Have Not Yet Examined Everything” —Holmes

And we may add to that comment: “I have not yet spoken with everyone—again and again!” The complex and interesting story, which moves well beyond the initial murder, is laid out in a very linear fashion. Within particular scenes or screens, you must retrieve all items relevant to the case and move through all conversational trees. You are not allowed to proceed (meeting with Watson, for example) until and unless these tasks are completed.  As earlier mentioned, the pixel-hunting can be most difficult, and I was hung up for a long time on that strand of hair, moving fruitlessly from room to room, wondering what I had missed. Further, you may think you have completed your conversation with a particular character, but something else may open up without your realizing it. So you sometimes have to go back and check with the multitude of persons to see if any additional queries have become available.

There are some interesting gameplay twists, including a timed maze, a stealth exercise getting past a guard dog and, most novel of all, a quiz at the end of each of the five sections! All questions must be answered correctly in order to move on, with the quizzes offering a few ringers that can be confounding. Still, it’s an interesting and logical approach—the kind of thing Holmes might expect of you (and Watson) as you offer your assistance.

“I Need Something” —Holmes

The Case of the Silver Earring also needs something. Initially, the game impresses with attractive settings, decent voice acting and the promise of a thoughtful mystery to be solved. Unfortunately, this becomes bogged down by static scenes, poor character movement control, obscure pixel-hunting and the wearying need to redo conversations.  As regards gameplay and mechanisms, Silver Earring is dated, not in the same league as the Law & Order series, for example. What I had hoped would be a relaxing, intellectual, drawing-room kind of experience became, instead, a tedious, boring, sometimes very frustrating exercise I was glad to finish. In my final exam for the game, I found Holmes to be barely acceptable.

What I Liked Most About The Case of the Silver Earring

  • The Victorian times visuals are detailed and outstanding;
  • Voice acting is professional and generally well-done;
  • Story and narrative show the promise of being interesting.

What I Liked Least About the Game

  • Each scene or screen is static;
  • Character movement is imprecise;
  • Required items can be almost impossible to locate;
  • Redoing conversations is tedious;
  • Rigidly enforced linearity can be painful. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Frogwares Publisher: Digital Jesters (Europe—version reviewed); Ubisoft (North America—published as The Secret of the Silver Earring) Release Date: August 27, 2004 (Europe); September 28, 2004 (North America)

Available for: Windows

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Screenshots

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System Requirements

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP Pentium III 500 GHz (PIII 700 recommended) 192 MB RAM (256 MB recommended) 32 MB DirectX compatible video card 1.5 GB free hard disk space

Where to Find It

GoGamer (Digital Jesters version) 47.90Amazon.com (Ubisoft version) $19.99

Prices/links current as of 09/27/04Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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