While watching the new E3 2012 trailer for The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, the first thing that popped into my head was: “Hey, this looks a lot like L.A. Noire. I like it!”
On the surface, the similarities are vaguely apparent but not outright blatant. The PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 adventure game will have you, playing as both Holmes and Watson, investigating crimes and searching for clues in a free-roam Victorian London. A lot of crime/mystery adventure games have done similar things before. No big deal. Then I read the description from the game’s website, and it become crystal clear that L.A. Noire must have been the main source of inspiration for Frogwares’ latest Sherlock Holmes detective thriller. Here, read it for yourself:
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is an investigation game that puts you at the core of a thrilling and complex plot. It has all of the ingredients to make a great investigation: examination of crimes scenes, collection of clues and evidence, pursuing of leads, questioning of witnesses and suspects, reasoning and deduction work…that’s what the heart of the game is made of. The game is easily played with a gamepad on console, yet keeps the classic mouse gameplay on PC. While playing as the famous detective, you will have to solve the trickiest case of his entire career since Sherlock Holmes himself is the main suspect!
Use all of your skills to sort out the numerous twists and mysteries of this investigation. You will need to be a keen observer on the different crime scenes in order to examine every single clue. Your logic and the game’s ingenious deduction system will be of great help to link the facts together and draw the right conclusions. During the questioning, you will choose your approach to put your interlocutor off guard to find out as much information as possible! In the end, you will lead a head-on open investigation, sometimes playing as Sherlock Holmes, sometimes as Doctor Watson. You alone will decide which leads to follow.
Crime scene examination. Evidence gathering. Questioning suspects and witnesses. Using the clues to draw your own conclusions and solve cases. That sure sounds like a certain Team Bondi game I played last year.
Again, I’m not judging here at all. When it wasn’t attempting to be a GTA knock-off, L.A. Noire pushed crime adventure game concepts forward with some incredible innovations, so I’m all for other developers pulling ideas from it. There have been a bunch of Sherlock Holmes games over recent years; this is the first I’ve been truly eager to play.
Check it out this September on your favorite console or a PC. I know I will.
Matt Litten is the full-time editor and owner of VGBlogger.com. He is responsible for maintaining the day to day operation of the site, editing all staff content before it is published, and contributing regular news, reviews, previews and other articles.
Matt landed his first gig in the video game review business writing for the now-defunct website BonusStage.com. After the sad and untimely close of BonusStage, the former staff went on to found VGBlogger.com. After a short stint as US Site Manager for AceGamez, Matt assumed full ownership over VGBlogger, and to this day he is dedicated to making it one of the top video game blogs in all the blogosphere.
Matt is a fair-minded reviewer and lover of games of all platforms and types, big or small, hyped or niche, big-budget or indie. But that doesn't mean he will let poor games slide without a good thrashing when necessary! 
It sounds like L.A. Noire without all/most of its flaws. As in, there won’t be any bad plot devices (aka the transition between the Vice and Arson desks in L.A. Noire), too much driving, forced character switch in the last few hours of the game (switching with Watson and Holmes will probably be consistently on and off throughout the entire game), and a tightly linear storyline (you can pursue any lead you want, rather than having them spoonfed to you).