Have you ever had the desire to walk the streets of Victorian London with Sherlock Holmes in search of Professor Moriarty? To search the docks for the giant rat of Sumatra? To walk up Baker Street as the fog is rolling in and hear Holmes cry out, "Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot!"? Now you can! You can enter the opium den beneath the Bar of Gold, but beware, that may be Colonel Sebastian Moran lurking around the corner. You can capture the mystery and excitement of Holmes' London in this challenging and informative game. You, the player, will match your deductive abilities against your opponents and the master sleuth himself, Sherlock Holmes.
In Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, you are presented with a mystery to solve, and it is then up to you to trace the threads of evidence through the byways and mansions of nineteenth century London. You will interview suspects, search the newspapers for clues, and put together the facts to reach a solution.
Why were two lions murdered in Hyde Park? Who is responsible for the missing paintings from the National Gallery? Who murdered Oswald Mason and why? These are just a few of the cases that will challenge your ingenuity and deductive abilities.
This is not a board game: No dice, no luck, but a challenge to your mental ability. The game has been thoroughly researched for Holmesian and Victorian accuracy so as to capture a feeling of that bygone era.
- Superb execution of thematic intent
- Unparalleled thematic execution
- Deep story and mystery
- Wonderful experience for fans of the genre
- Investment of reading aloud and copious note-taking for hours isn't for everyone.
- Sherlock Holmes himself in the game is a bit cocky about it and ignoring that race with him.
- Solving mysteries
- Victorian London
- Investigative narrative
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Deduction — You are presented with a mystery to solve. And it's then up to you to trace the threads of evidence through the byways and mansions of 19th-century London.
- Investigation — Interview suspects, search the newspapers for clues, and put together the facts to reach a solution.
- Reading/Note-taking — Requires reading aloud and copious note-taking for hours.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Roll your meeple, build your city.
- Supreme D says that I love the uniqueness of rolling meeples rather than dice, as well as the sheer amount of build options to customize your perfect city.
- The game is also quite a looker with its plastic pieces in a variety of colors.
- And you do, you roll your meeple, and you get very angry at your meeple, because they don't roll well, because they're meeple. And they land They are like wider than regular meeple. It works It does really work very well, but you just go, "Oh, come on. Why aren't you Why aren't you working right?"
- And the game does have incredible, like, table presence, because you're building up these huge skyscrapers.
- Join other ambitious guild leaders in mining and developing the famous city of silver during its period of rapid economic growth and expansion in the 14th century.
- The game features a real-life supply and demand experience.
- Kenneth K says that I recently acquired Coimbra, this is a very interesting game with an analog device for controlling stock market prices.
- Luke P says that I replayed this fantastic economic game at AirCon and was blown away by how smoothly the game ran, particularly with new players to the game and with breaks for chitchat.
- Everyone just seems to be really enjoying this.
- Man, this is fun.
- I do think that the box cover does the game a disservice.
- Because the box cover is like it's black with a like a thing white like a coin some silver I guess on the front.
- It's one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen on the table.
- All the artwork and the dark and the the the buildings all brightly colored on the dark background and it's absolutely gorgeous.
- It really is so much more beautiful on the inside of the game than on the outside of the box.
- So it's one of those I'm going to have to learn eventually just because it's going to come up.
References (from this video)
- Involves reading various supplementary materials to solve clues.
- Detective Investigation
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Deduction — Players must piece together clues from various sources to solve a mystery.
- Information gathering — Requires reading and analyzing supplementary materials like articles and pamphlets.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- God, there's a real interesting sort of analog digital tension going on here with some of these early games.
- This is very like board gamey.
- It feels very analog because I'm detached from the online.
- It's it's a digital little, you know, ones and zeros little etched thing on this this motherboard or this cart that is detached from, you know, the master control of, you know, the online social media nonsense.
- It feels very like almost post-apocalyptic, like you've you've dug up this thing and then you have this little like working device and then you like you slap it a couple of times and it like comes alive and it like does a couple of things and then it goes away and then it it feel goes back to the earth.
- There's something about there's a sinisterness to it to that sort of master control type of online thing.
- Like my brain after a session of, you know, one of these things I've talked about, it's in a similar spot to my brain after a board game night.
References (from this video)
- innovative for its time
- inspired modern mystery/escape room games
- narrative focus
- Sherlock Holmes can be a snob
- rules can be clunky
- detective work
- story-driven
- Jackbox
- Murder by Mail
- EXIT: The Game
- Unlock! Series
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Deduction — This idea of subscribing to a service, they send you a box of crap and you you figure out the who done it. You call a number, you put together clues. That's kind of what this is, right?
- Network/Route Building — you were moving on a board with tickets and things like that
- Storytelling — It's all about the narration, the story.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It's all about the narration, the story, the the you know, and that's I still get caught up in this map.
- It was called Remote Possibilities.
- Scotland Yard, it just it's one of those games that's way ahead of its time.
- Sid Sackson was Way ahead of his time.
- This game almost just This started a genre, but then didn't.
- Cosmic Encounter is the or one of the original asymmetric games.
- Also introduced the traitor mechanism, which was a really cool concept that again didn't really become a thing till years later.
References (from this video)
- Adventure game in a box
- London detective mystery
- Investigative/deductive
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It's now at this point the most prestigious board games award in the world.
- There is no public influence and there is no industry influence either because they just journalists they don't take review copies they don't take payment.
- You can only have the award logo on your box for three years.
- The rules have to be clear, they have to be concise, there can't be any weird ambiguities.
- It's independent as it can be, that's really cool.