I recently dug out an old game from 1996 "Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo". I could not believe my luck! For over fifteen hours, I truly enjoyed solving this mystery multiple murder case! That is a lot of game time for an older DOS based game! I must confess I had to resort to using a walkthrough. Without that crutch, who knows how long I would have taken, twenty, thirty hours or more?
An excellent feature of the game is the most amusing, informative and eloquent British dialogue! It totally sets the scene for the upper class or lower class citizens, depending on the type of spoken English.
Even foreign accents sound authentic! Yes, you will meet an international cast of characters, adding to the mystery! For a period, you play Watson, and then you switch to playing Sherlock Holmes, himself. What keeps the game interesting are places where you cannot progress in the game, until you go back and catch what you might have missed, in terms of items that need examination or conversations overlooked.
Some dialogues are not triggered unless you look at a certain person or item in the room. If you listen very carefully at all that is said, especially by Watson, you should be able to figure most things out easily. I truly enjoyed using Holmes's laboratory bench to analyze some of my finds. I love blowing things
up with chemicals! Did I mention this game has explosions, murders, kidnapping and so much more? Another great feature of this game are the detailed rooms, realistic transitions from one scene to the next, and the true feeling of either indoor or outdoor atmosphere.
The graphics are easy on the eye and the people are filmed and imposed onto the background to give their movements realism. That brings me to the very well done audio feature of this game. All the musical instruments sound authentic; the animals sound real. Be prepared for some fine music! The actor’s voices are unique and well rounded. There are plenty of fun things to do and to try out in this game. They do not affect game play, nor are they essential to the progress, but I for one love them! Where else could you test a skull with calipers? Would you normally go examine a total stranger’s body in the morgue? There is so much more about this game that I love, but cannot write about, without giving part of the game away. Don’t let this one pass you by!
