I’ve played quite a few hidden object, or seek-and-find, games in my time. They have ranged from the so-so, such as The History Channel Lost Worlds, to the excellent, like the Mystery Case Files series. There are certain things that I look for when evaluating these games, such as the quality of the graphics, the difficulty of the hidden object sections, and the story involved. I wasn’t sure what I was going to be getting into with The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes.

You follow Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s titular sleuth on 16 new cases, the “Lost Cases,” as it were. With names such as The Porcelain Dragon, The Vanishing Actress, and King Arthur’s Arrow, you would be forgiven for thinking that they were based on Doyle’s actual stories. But these are original creations, and while they might not quite live up to the pedigree of the original author’s work (a lofty goal, by any estimation), they are among the best stories that I have seen in a hidden object game this side of the Mystery Case Files series. They are very interesting, and like Doyle’s original stories, the ending is not immediately obvious to the player.

You and your trusted partner Dr. John Watson start each adventure at Holmes place at 221B Baker Street. Here you are given your marching orders, so to speak, sometimes from Detective Lestrade of Scotland Yard, other times from people involved with the crime at hand. You are then presented with a map of London, with a highlighted area to click on. This is the destination that holds your next puzzle. These, of course, will be mainly of the hidden-object persuasion. Unlike many similar games, the objects that you will have to find here actually have something to do with the plot of the story. What you end up finding are clues to the identities of the suspects. As you find the objects relating to the suspects, their portraits will become complete at the bottom of the screen, and Holmes or Watson will pop up and give you a quick fact about their involvement in the case. Often during the course of the case, you will be presented with a mini-game, like finding the difference between two scenes, placing objects in a box so that they don’t touch, or piecing together a puzzle. Even the mini-games relate with the case at hand. You will come across a couple of special objects in the scenes. One is Holmes’ pipe. This gives you a hint that you can use to locate items that prove hard to find. The other object is Holmes’ signature Henschel Deerstalker hat. 25 of these are scattered around the scenes. If you can find all 25, you will open up the Laboratory bonus game.

Once you have collected all of the items, it’s back to 221B Baker Street to solve the case. This involves taking the portraits of the suspects and arranging them based on certain traits, such as gender, occupation, or wardrobe. Once you’ve done this, you are faced with a memory game to narrow down the suspects. Each portrait has a small icon showing the object they were associated with. With each round, one of the suspect objects will change. It is up to you to decide which one it was, and thus eliminate one of the suspects. Once you’ve narrowed it down to the last suspect, Holmes steps in and closes the case. Then it’s on to the next.

I can’t say enough about the quality of the stories and gameplay in this game. They are absolutely top-notch. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the voice acting. B-quality, at best. They sound, to use the phraseology of one of my friends, like “BBC rejects, the lot of them.” Fortunately, all of the voice-overs are also accompanied with text, so it is possible to turn the voices down in order to save your ears and sanity. This aside, The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes is certainly worth your hard earned dosh. It’s elementary, my dear reader.

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