I was more engrossed in the game than I had ever been in any other game before.Īnd the genuine sense of excitement when I thought I had worked out something about the murderer's relationship with the victim based on evidence at the crime scene is difficult to describe. As she reviewed her notes on the case (four A4 pages of them!) I rose from my chair, poured a glass of red wine, and proceeded to pace around the table as I continued to piece the events together. I can tell you that, at one point during our first investigation, I was talking though a potential sequence of events with my wife. Because this isn't so much a game as it is an experience.Īnd all I can do is tell you about my experience. Sometimes a suspect gives you a piece of information, and you need to study the map, think about the victim's movements on the night of the murder, and then cross-reference that with something you saw in a newspaper from an EARLIER case you solved.īut I can't give you any actual examples of any of that. Sometimes you have to look in the local newspaper to see if there are any current affairs that might help you, or maybe even advertisements. Sometimes you find a product, and you have to look up companies in the directory that might have manufactured that product, or companies that might have recently sold the product. Sometimes you get given a location as part of an alibi, and you have to refer to the map to see if it is far enough from the crime scene to rule out a suspect. Sometimes you get given a partial address, and you have to use the map to find the exact location. It also tells you which section of text to read from the case book if you go to visit that witness.
This tells you where the witness lives, so you can find them on the map.
You look up the witness in the directory, and the directory gives you the address (such as NW1). The way the components work together is actually a touch of genius.įor example, during a case, you may learn of a potential witness. It all sounds complicated on paper, but it really isn't. Each numbered address also correlates with a section of text in the case book. The map is divided into five sections (North West, North East, and so on.) and each section contains numbered addresses which all appear in the directory. You could compare it to a " choose your own adventure" game book, but that wouldn't do the design of the game justice.īasically, you get a case book, a map, a selection of newspapers, and a directory of addresses. It hardly even classifies as a board game. Something that didn't require dozens of cardboard tokens, hundreds of cards, and an army of plastic miniatures.Īnd I think it is fair to say, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is very different indeed. A simple game, with a small rule set, which would allow us to work together and have fun. The intention was to bring something to the table that would catch her interest. So, I purchased a copy of Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective as part of a cunning plan. Where once we had played games together all the time, now I spent most of my time playing games solo, or playing with my regular gaming group, while she did something else. She still plays some of my older games, but she shows little or no interest when newer titles land on the doorstep. I had started to accumulate more miniatures games, and war games, and complex games with a lot of mechanisms and exceptions to the general flow of the rules. I finally purchased the game when I noticed that my wife, who was once my main gaming partner, had lost interest in much of my games collection. However, it is only recently that I acquired a copy. So, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective was always going to be a game that was on my radar. I wanted to solve the case before Holmes did. I remember pausing at various sections, and thinking through the chain of events, making deductions, puzzling through clues. I remember the first time I read The Hound of the Baskervilles, reading every description carefully, trying to see if I could figure out the mystery. I mean the original works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I don't mean those loud and obnoxious movies starring Iron Man and Gigolo Joe. I don't mean the television show, Sherlock, starring Bandersnatch and Bilbo.
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