The story of Jack the Ripper is a blood soaked one filled with unspeakable violence, venereal disease, prostitution as well as being a racial hotbed. In the years last 1800′s his name was regarded with terror by the residents of London’s East End, and was known the world over. Sherlock Holmes is one of the literary world’s greatest detectives the creation of Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Fantasy & reality clash as these two heavyweights of Victorian culture finally meet on the Xbox 360.

Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper is a first and third person point and click adventure title. The world of Jack the Ripper is portrayed in a 3D environment which you must traverse as Holmes, Watson and for a brief period you see from the eyes of Jack himself. Looking through the eyes of Baker Street’s most famous resident, players scan the environments for clues, many of which can, after some pixel-hunting, be examined in closer detail. The game is rigidly linear, you will constantly be pushed in the direction that the story wants you to take. Any exploration will quickly be curtailed with dead-end allies or your character being reluctant to venture any further down a street. However, since the story is the strongest part of the game, the lack of exploration outside of investigating the ripper activities is acceptable. The majority of the story has been adapted from police and newspaper records, only Holmes’ residence at 221b Baker Street and Holmes and Watson interacting with characters involved in the actual Jack the ripper murders are fictitious.

The best part of the game concerns the fascinating investigation of the crime scenes. Holmes and Watson arrive shortly after the gruesome murders take place, so you can get a close-up look of the Rippers work. However the scenes aren’t quite as grotesque as the games PEGI 16 age rating would lead you to believe. Jack’s victims have been replaced with comic mannequins that only bear the slightest resemblance to the killings, if at all. On occasions where the Rippers actions are extremely graphic the bodies of the victims have been replaced with cartoon chalk outlines and only when you run a magnifying glass over areas are details unveiled. Each crime scene also lets you reconstruct what happened, taking the pieces of evidence and linking them together until you can form conclusions. For instance when investigating the injuries and location of Mary Ann Nichols’ body you deduce that Jack the Ripper is right-handed. Though this deduction does take some time as you must painfully position Dr. Waton in a variety of positions to mimic the actions of both Jack and Mary Ann.

In addition to the on location investigations, you also take on sleuthing at 221B Baker Street. You read witness accounts of the crimes and put together timelines about when the murders actually took place. You even work up detailed theories about why the murders are being committed. Sometimes the deductions are a little unnatural, but most of the time the investigation runs smoothly and your logical assumption and hypothesising feel like you are actually investigating a crime in a realistic way. Regrettably, the puzzles aren’t to the same high standards as the investigation phases. You will come across familiar run of the mill puzzles common to most point and click adventure games, like patching together a ripped up letter. All puzzles are easily solved and are excessively used to increase the games playtime.

Graphically Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the ripper is suitably mediocre. Main characters have an acceptable level of detail; Holmes and Watson follow the classic Strand magazine designs of Sidney Paget, while characters actually associated with the Jack the ripper killings have been recreated from archive photos. It is a huge shame that such attention to detail hasn’t been adorned on lesser characters. This lack of attention to detail is noticeable throughout, no more so than in character animations. Holmes’ animations while pontificating and arguing facts with Dr. Watson are well realised and believable, whilst simple actions to pick up objects seem limited to only a few animations. The limited animations cycles are most noticeable whiles walking around the streets of Whitechapel. Street traders are on an incredibly short animation cycle lasting no longer that 2 to 3 seconds, whiles a local drunk will walk around stumbling and staggering the length of the street.

The same inconsistencies in quality are prevalent in the voice acting. The quality ranges from respectable with Holmes, Watson and to a lesser degree Detective Inspector Aberline, to downright appalling with all minor characters being voiced by only a handful of people. The game is to be admired in that it totally avoids all cockney stereotypes, however the Jewish residents of Whitechapel are shocking cartoon caricatures.

Ultimately your enjoyment of Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the ripper will come down to your ability to overlook and practically ignore the low production values and frustrating control scheme, while fully immersing yourself in the first-class story that wonderfully blends the worlds of two of London’s well-known characters. Amateur sleuths and puzzle fans will just about get enough entertainment from the game to pass the 8 to 12 hours of gameplay. However if you like a more structure and consistence quality in a narrative driven story, you’re advised to give this game a miss.

Mark Craven

•