Detective Sherlock Holmes Consulting Review
Detective Sherlock Holmes Consulting Review
We’ve all watched a Sherlock Holmes show or movie and thought we knew them from the start. That should be obvious to him, especially the kind of voice they were making .
Well, now’s your chance to test those crime-solving skills and show Sherlock who the boss is.
- NEW STANDALONS IN THE SERIES: As members of Baker Street ...
- MYSTERY COMMITTEE GAME: Solve mysterious cases with an interview ...
- COOPERATIVE GAME: The actors participate as a team of detectives ...
Read the full review of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective board games below.
A brief overview of Counseling Detective Sherlock Holmes
Advisory Detective Sherlock Holmes is a cooperative crime-solving and deduction game for one -eight players. With ten cases to be broken, come together to explore clues, question witnesses, scan the local press, and follow instructions to get to the bottom of them.
Your goal is to present a theory that is as close as possible to what actually happened, and to strive for it with the least amount of hints. You also get a special round of applause if you do it faster than Holmes himself.
We can only very loosely describe it as a board game , as most of the experience is recognizing clues, discovering information, and theorizing among your fellow detectives.
With a map where you can track where a key character is located, with printed cutouts for review, and a long directory of people you can talk to, you can get your teeth stuck.
Variations and extensions
In this review, we look at the original edition - first published in 1982 - entitled Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases. However, there are many extensions, all of which bring many new secrets to be solved.
Improper Baker Street authorities
In 2020, the expansion of Baker Street Irregulars was released, in which you take on the role of a street gang of Sherlock children solving mysteries.
- NEW STANDALONS IN THE SERIES: Players embody Baker Street ...
- MYSTERY COMMITTEE GAME: Solve mysterious cases with an interview ...
- COOPERATIVE GAME: The actors participate as a team of detectives ...
Jack the Ripper & West End Adventures
But you can also test yourself in the ultimate revelation of the identity of the infamous Jack the Ripper in Sherlock Holmes Counseling Detective: Jack the Ripper & West End Adventures. As someone who lives right next to the road from his foot on Whitechapel, I would be very grateful to put him to bed.
Carlton House in Queen's Park
However, if you want to explore some of the more leafy crime scenes in London, you can also try the Carlton House & Queen’s Park extension.
- NEW STANDALONS IN THE SERIES: Return to the streets of Victorian ...
- MYSTERY COMMITTEE GAME: Solve mysterious cases with an interview ...
- COOPERATIVE GAME: The actors participate as a team of detectives ...
Unpacking counsel detective Sherlock Holmes
In Sherlock Holmes Counseling Detective you will get:
- Map of London
- Ten writings
- A directory
- Ten newspapers
- A rulebook
This game is beautifully crafted to fit the theme. Even the box itself is in action as it slides from the side like a file instead of opening the usual way. All booklets and documents are made to view the part. The policy is designed to look like a notebook detective policy, with scattered pages and photos / notes. I half expected to see a tea ring on one side.
There is also a fantastic map of Victorian London’s beautiful street streets intersected by the River Thames. When it’s in front of you with all the different titles you can visit - from Hyde Park in the west to Tower Bridge in the east - you suddenly realize how difficult this game could be.
I especially liked the newspapers, which again look incredibly realistic. While reading old crusty paper, you really feel like a detective browsing the local press about possible related events.
You will also find individual case files for each of the ten cases you need to solve. These are actually quite compact in terms of the amount of information that needs to be captured, but you’ll need to make sure that you don’t accidentally read pieces of information that you shouldn’t while browsing.
How to play Sherlock Holmes Advisory Detective
Your goal
At Sherlock Holmes Counseling Detective, your goal is to solve the crime as accurately and quickly as possible. There are ten of them in the box, sorted by date. We recommend that you start at the beginning or risk disclosing information you shouldn’t otherwise know (unless you feel like you’re a time-traveling detective).
Players will explore various possible cases in the case book, question witnesses, and review the local press to find information. After you think you have a solution to the crime, you will go to him Sherlock Holmes to present his findings.
Your success is measured by how close you are to the actual solution to the crime and how quickly you managed to solve it compared to Sherlock himself (measured by the number of possible visits).
What you have at your disposal
Example
This book provides an introduction to the example and a list of all possible tips to help you discover more information. They are sorted by location (divided into five districts) and, if you choose to follow one, contain a paragraph of information about what you learn from it.
Directory
This is the address book of everyone in London that could be linked to the case. He advises you on what guidance to follow in the book of examples to find this person.
Magazines
You will also have access to local newspapers to help you put things together.
Map
The game board is a map of London divided into five areas. With it, you can make fun of where the various suspects have been compared to the crime scene and where the leads are.
When turning
The turns are very simple. The first actor - known as the lead investigator - takes a case book and selects a potential site from it (say “crime scene”). They then turn to this page in the case book and read the relevant paragraph aloud.
Then it is the turn of the next player to similarly choose the lead, read it aloud, and so on.
During this time, players are free to delve into the character directory to find potential suspects / witnesses, browse the map, or read newspapers. You can also go back and read the old guides.
Players are encouraged to openly discuss their thoughts on hints and theories about the case. When the team thinks they may have broken it, they stop following the lead and move on to the revealing and scoring part of the game.
Scoring
In this chapter, your team answers two sets of questions about the case and scores points, depending on how accurate you are. The first set refers directly to the example and asks you about the different elements of the crime. The second set are bonus points and relate to events that are indirectly related to the case.
You then compare the number of leads you used and the amount Sherlock needed to solve the case. For every extra advantage he needed over Sherlock, you lose five points. If it took away less of an advantage than Sherlock, you get five points for each.
If your score ends up above 100, you’ve beaten Sherlock. Well done! If not, then you tried well anyway and hoped to catch a criminal in the process.
Your first game of Counselor Sherlock Holmes
Cooperative or competition?
The rules tell you that you can play as a team or against each other. The only real difference to the rules of the game is that in the end you all expose individual theories and not one.
It’s an interesting idea and I’m sure it will be a fun round or two. However, this destroys one of the key elements of the game: collaboration. My advice is that if you are first in line, stick to playing as a team. It’s a lot more fun with group discussion and theorizing.
Stay on target
If you want, you can explore every lead in the game, but you will get terrible results. The key to a good result is a wise use of time - or, in other words, the efficient use of potential customers.
I recommend that everyone write it down when the details of the case are read and when all potential buyers are read. Identify key information you are missing and treat each potential customer carefully.
Nothing is basic (my dear Watson)
Breaking the case can be difficult. Defeating Sherlock, however, is almost impossible. Don't be disappointed if you don't beat him - after all, he's the greatest detective in the world. Just focus on collecting points and if you manage to beat the big man, create a circle and organize a group pat on the back. You deserve it.
Advantages disadvantages
Advantages:
- The examples are really interesting
- Nicely written
- Great cooperative
- Great components
- There are really no rules so you can start right into it
Weaknesses:
- It requires a lot of attention
- Limited repeatability
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective is like an escape room in a box. Your team is basically left to fend for itself with your various resources and is told to tackle this. The discussion and theorizing that results from this can be intense and a lot of fun, and the game is designed to adapt to the thinking and theorizing out of the box.
You’ll explore all the corners of the components to get the slightest hint - dragging through the newspapers, tracing the lines on the map, diving through the phone book to find someone who might have some useful information to share - just figuring out the key to the point that he was breaking the case all the time.
It is particularly challenging because not all information is relevant. Some of the signs you are talking to may not tell you everything. Other items you come across may not be a hint at all. And it’s up to you to sort the wheat out of the chaff and draw a picture of what’s going on.
The story is also brilliantly written. From the writings to the individual possible pages, they could easily have been written by Arthur Conan Doyle himself. Every hint and guide is fantastically woven into the story. It won’t take long for the whole group to catch you in a thrill. Importantly, there isn’t as much reading to make it exceptional.
I find Counsel Detective Sherlock Holmes particularly interesting because there are basically no rules for a tough game. That means you can pretty much open the box and get started. This makes it great for introducing new players to co-op or subtraction board games, as you’ll be starting soon and you won’t have to tell people about the rules for years.
Nevertheless, the depth of the game could be a challenge for those trying to stay focused. There is a lot of information to keep at the top. It is therefore important that all players keep notes and stay focused on the discussion so as not to be left behind.
In the end, keep in mind that once you play the thing, you can’t play it anymore because you’ll already know everything. So you only get ten cherry bites before the magic of the game is over. Definitely worth buying, but keep in mind that this shelf life is limited. The components are intentionally designed to look old, so you can always give them to someone as a cheap birthday gift.
Advisory Detective Sherlock Holmes (TL; DR)
Advisory Detective Sherlock Holmes is a fantastic co-op game for potential aspiring detectives. It’s all in the analysis and subtraction, which is likely to be a refreshing course of every game night that Strategy and Tactics traditionally focus on.
It is beautifully written and everyone will be invested in horrible secrets, regardless of whether you manage to solve them or not.
Conclusion: a verdict?
Let’s face it, we all dreamed of being Sherlock Holmes sometime in our lives (except for that weird kid who always wanted to be Watson). Well, Counsel Detective Sherlock Holmes may be the closest thing you get.
Brilliant storytelling, disturbing plots, eccentric characters and abundant red traces make a convincing investigation of the collaboration and you are sure to have fun.
Simple layout, minimal rules and stunning components ensure you the perfect arena for the life of your childhood dreams.
Oh, and even before anyone angrily wrote to GameCows headquarters - yes, I know, Holmes never actually said "Elementary, my dear Watson."
- NEW STANDALONS IN THE SERIES: As members of Baker Street ...
- MYSTERY COMMITTEE GAME: Solve mysterious cases with an interview ...
- COOPERATIVE GAME: The actors participate as a team of detectives ...
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