Adventure Gamers - Forums

If you have ever written a user review here on this site, then you know that one of the options for selecting the difficulty is “Just Right”, and just right is the best way to describe the difficulty in Sherlock Holmes vs. Arsène Lupin aka Nemesis.

Other ways to describe it would of course be “Insanely Difficult” or “For crying out loud .. You would have to be Sherlock himself to solve that puzzle!”, but isn’t that the whole purpose of a Sherlock Holmes game? If we don’t get the chance to match wits with the great detective in a game bearing his name, to show that we are every bit as smart as he is and that we can solve the most difficult riddles thrown at us, when will we get the chance? Sherlock Holmes games are in my opinion suppose to be very difficult, otherwise I don’t really see the purpose, its not like the stories themselves are really that good.

In the game we are up against a French master thief called Arsène Lupin, who to taunt Sherlock and show that he is the smartest of the two, are sending him clues as to where his next theft are taking place. The game will occasionally pause and ask Watson aka the player, what the clues actually mean and where the next theft will take place, and we either have to type in the answer or as in the screenshot, point to a location on a map of London.

In this particular case the obvious answer is .. well pretty obvious! But is the obvious answer also the correct answer?! Remember this is a Sherlock Holmes game, and if anybody and their dog could solve it, then there wouldn’t be any need to involve the great detective himself.

What I really like about this puzzle, is that in order to solve it, we have to take one step back from the game, put on our thinking cap and contemplate, not only where the next set of clues points us to, but have a really good think about everything that has happened in the game, and ask the big questions like why, why are Lupin sending us these clues in the first place? Is it really all just about proving that he is smarter than Sherlock, or is there something else going on.

And that is something that is actually extremely difficult, not so much because the puzzle in itself is that difficult, in fact in retrospect it is still fairly obvious, but more because this kind of thinking is something that is almost never required in adventure games. Normally we just follow the game from A to B and end up wherever the game takes us, without ever having to think about the bigger picture, because the game does that for us. Up until this point, the game has also kind of lured us into that kind of A->B->C thinking, but now it throws us something that requires a completely different kind of thinking, and that is were the real challenge is.

Did I mention that it is also possible to completely fail in this game. The case will never be solved, Lupin will win, Lestrade will get fired and Sherlock Holmes will retire in disgrace never to be heard of again. 

Sherlock Holmes vs. Arsène Lupin is unfortunately also the last game in the series that had any above average difficulty I guess that Frogwares are more interested in selling a lot of copies, than they are in providing us with real Sherlock Holmes challenges, well I can’t really blame them for that, but it is nevertheless a great pity.

I can honestly say I’ve never played this game. Nor any Frogwares game for that matter. I just didn’t find their 3D movement enjoyable. Which is the same way I felt with the Pandora playthrough. But I do like your logic for why the puzzles ought to be harder than hell. You’re going to Sherlock because he is the detective of last resort. Everyone else has failed. So the expectation is that finding the solution will be extremely difficult.

Excellent choice! On many occasions I wrote about “Type the answer manually” in The Awakened, which was even closer to “text adventures” because you couldn’t pin-point it on the map. It was a revelation to me, and was sad to see the route Frogwares took after “Arsene Lupine”, which is also the point where I agree with you.

I’ll YET AGAIN repost what I think is the gradation of puzzle design, in example of cracking the password:

Let’s say we need to hack into the computer, but we need the password. In terms of “creativity”, we can grade the levels:

4. You must manually input the password, based on what you’ve learned by examining the book.

Obviously, Awakened/Nemesis manual input is the highest level of “difficulty”, or creativity if you will. There’s another thing - the game has to “prepare” you for this kind of puzzle, by providing you all the clues, and keeping your attention to it. You need to be ready to solve it by yourself. It’s not just - “let’s put the manual input (or any other more layered and thought-out) puzzle here”, it’s everything that led to that point. In conjunction, it’s a winner.

rtrooney - 15 July 2015 06:22 PM

I can honestly say I’ve never played this game. Nor any Frogwares game for that matter. I just didn’t find their 3D movement enjoyable. Which is the same way I felt with the Pandora playthrough.

A shame really as both Nemesis and Awakened are quite good game. The Silver Earring is actually point & click, but I can’t really recommend it as it has some horrible navigation issues.

diego - 15 July 2015 06:23 PM

Excellent choice! On many occasions I wrote about “Type the answer manually” in The Awakened, which was even closer to “text adventures” because you couldn’t pin-point it on the map.

The one problem I have with typing in answers is that it opens up for typing errors, which might lead you to believe your conclusion was wrong even when it is right. But also non-native English speakers might be able to deduce the correct answer, but not know the correct English word. Perhaps not a big issue in these two games as it is one word answers, and there is such things as dictionaries and google translate, but still a small extra unintentional potential obstacle.

The problem with using a map instead, is of course that it makes it possible or at least easier, to brute force the solution. In fact I saw a part of a let’s play of this puzzle, where the guy got it right in the second try, but he clearly didn’t understand why it was the correct answer, he just selected it more or less randomly.

Personally I think I slightly prefer the map version, at least as long as there is enough possible locations and enough punishment for getting it wrong, to discourage a brute force attempt.

No no no, I am totally upset,  with all due Respect Iz,  last two weeks are choices are like choosing silver chuncks outta box full geniun diamonds,  there are some puzzles, 100s out there which could break hell loose if brought into discussion, think of Riven marbles, MI spitting contest,  map diagram PQIII, Deponia sound puzzle, Syberia Oscar’ reconstructing… I can go on forever.
Sorry Izno if these words would bother you, its your* job, and you gotta do what you gotta do

Patience Advie, I have a long list of puzzles and games I plan to post about, and not all are selected because of their popularity