Today we venture into Victorian England and match wits with the greatest detective in all of fiction in Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. Worthy of note right off the bat is that, unlike many other games which will appear later on this list which are primarily 4 player games scaled down to 2 players, this is actually a solo experience with the option to play with more. I use the term “experience” instead of game, because it is very barebones, but I will get into more detail on that further down.
The game’s components are extremely simple, yet extremely well done for what they are. Every piece is dripping with theme, from the rulebook to the newspapers to the case files to the map. I have also just described the entirety of the components. For a game that runs almost exclusively on theme, the components need to be top notch to suck you into the atmosphere, and they are certainly on point.
As far as the game itself goes, I would compare it much more to one of the “escape room in a box” experiences than a board game. Whether or not this is a positive or negative will depend on what sort of experience you were expecting, for me it was good. Ostensibly you are playing the role of the “baker street irregulars” attempting to solve a case more efficiently than Sherlock Holes, by gathering information about the case and attempting to do so in as few or less leads than Sherlock.
It runs something like a mix between a choose your own adventure and an escape room. You choose a lead, use the map or directory to find out where it is, and then look up that location in the case file where you will get a short vignette describing the results of your investigation or interview, and you move on from there. Once you believe you have solved the case you open an envelope with questions about the investigation and once those are answered, you compare them to the actual solution and receive a score based on how you did compared to Holmes. There is no failure condition apart from incorrectly solving the crime, the scoring system at the end is based on whether you found out all the answers to the case, and your efficiency in doing so. There are 100 points awarded for answering the main mysteries related to the crime, and several bonus questions.
Overall I enjoy the game, but I have a few minor complaints. My biggest issue with this game is that it is nearly, if not totally impossible, to beat Sherlock Holmes without cheating. He finishes the cases with the absolute minimum amount of leads followed and gets a default perfect score, there is no other comparison. To beat that means you need to get all the bonus questions and only follow the best leads, or get at least one while finishing the case with perfect efficiency. This becomes a problem where there are 2 perfectly good leads to follow, and one of them is simply less efficient than another, but there is no way to tell until after you investigate.
I would have liked if your score was compared against more characters for example: Sherlock solved it in 4 leads with 100 points, Watson in 6 with 80 points, Inspector Lestrade in 7 with 70 points and so on. That being said, you can also ignore the end game scoring and have no less fun solving the mystery and investigating the case. I am absolutely in no way bitter that in our first case we ended up with -5 points as a result of our particularly thorough investigation, no sir.
The other minor issue I have is the fact that players will miss 95% of the game, there are probably about 200 entries in each of the case files, and the game is designed that you will use between 4-20 of them at most. This is probably unavoidable by the nature of the game, but something to bear in mind when buying, as there is 0 replay value and you will be paying for a lot of paper you will never use. Since there is no replay value to the cases, it is an excellent candidate for trade or borrowing from a friend.
Overall I quite enjoy it and will give a very specific recommendation. If you like murder mysteries, escape rooms and the home versions thereof, you will quite enjoy Sherlock Holes: Consulting Detective, as it is a lot closer to those than any other board game, there is even less game to it than a typical fighting fantasy book. If you are looking for any sort of Gamey experience, look elsewhere. In terms of it’s 2 player playability, this is probably more dependent than any other game on the person you are playing with. My wife and I enjoy discussing the case and going over theories and we don’t really bicker, so it worked out very well for us. If your partner is the type to easily argue or wants disputes to be ruled out by game mechanics, then this is a terrible choice. Either way the games mechanics don’t really influence this, though I certainly would not want to play with more than 2.
That’s it for today, tomorrow we hop aboard our long ships to raid the north seas.
Note: While I (Amanda) also enjoyed this experience, it was far more an “experience” and less a game. As stated, it is more like a murder mystery/escape room type of mash up in “playability”. It worked for us as we do well as a team, and both enjoy mysteries and trying to solve them, but for others it might just become frustrating and tedious quickly.
The Teal Dear
Game: Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective
Designers: Raymond Edwards, Suzanne Goldberg, Gary Grady
Price: $60 per box/expansion
Players: 1-99
2 player Scaling: Highly dependent on partner.
Playtime: 30-90 minutes per case
Estimated Lifespan: 10 games per box, there is no replayability
Complexity: 0.5
Components: 5
Bang for Buck: 3
Value for Time: 5
Fun Factor: 4.5
Overall: 4
Cardboard for 2 
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