Sherlock Holmes: The Devils Daughter

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter — 2 Hour Review
Playtime at review: ~2 hours
Engine: Unreal Engine 3
Verdict: Mixed / leaning negative
I went into this knowing it’s an older game, but what surprised me most isn’t just the gameplay — it’s how clearly the engine influences both performance and design.
Out of the last 6 games I bought, 4 use Unreal Engine. I don’t believe in conspiracies, but at some point you can’t help noticing patterns. It almost feels like Unreal became the default answer to everything, and games started inheriting the same problems along with the convenience.
This one runs on Unreal Engine 3, and you can absolutely feel it.
Performance & Engine Behavior (UE3)
This game behaves very differently from modern UE4/UE5 titles:
Very heavy CPU usage (often up to ~90%)
Relatively low GPU usage
Feels CPU-bound when new scenes or assets are rendered
That has to be a UE3 thing. Newer Unreal games usually hammer the GPU instead — sometimes to disastrous results.
The important part:
Even at high CPU load, the game stayed playable.
For comparison, I’ve had Dead Island 2 (UE4) drop to 4 FPS on my system. This game never did that. So ironically, for older GPUs, this might actually be the better-behaving Unreal game.
My setup:
GTX 1080
Older CPU (clearly the bottleneck here)
Linux via Proton
No crashes, no insane stutter, no slideshow moments. Not great efficiency — but stable.
Gameplay: identity crisis
The core Sherlock Holmes systems are still here:
Crime scene investigation
Clue collection
Deduction board / mind palace
And when the game focuses on those, it works.
The problem is that it constantly interrupts itself with:
Mini-games
QTE-style sequences
Timing mechanics
Action and stealth sections
Some of these are skippable — which honestly feels like the developers admitting they don’t really belong here.
This is a detective game, but it keeps trying to be:
An action-adventure
A stealth game
A mini-game collection
It never fully commits to being a proper detective experience.
Mini-games: not broken, just misplaced
Not all mini-games are terrible.
I played a lawn-bowling-style mini-game:
It worked
It wasn’t frustrating
I won 2–1
So credit where it’s due — mechanically, some of them are fine.
But they don’t belong in a Sherlock Holmes game. Less mechanics would honestly make the game feel more believable. At times it even looks like characters (or animals) interact with the world in unnatural ways, breaking immersion completely.
Writing & tone (early hours)
After two hours, Sherlock already feels… off.
Instead of a calm, calculating observer, he often comes across as:
Too reactive
Too action-oriented
Less methodical than expected
This lines up with a lot of long-time fan criticism, and I understand it now.
Unreal Engine fatigue (a broader observation)
Playing many Unreal Engine games back-to-back makes certain things impossible to ignore:
Similar animation stiffness
Familiar camera behavior
Shared performance quirks
Repeated design shortcuts
Unreal makes it easy to ship games — maybe too easy. And sometimes it feels like the engine is doing more of the design work than the developers themselves.
Again, not a conspiracy — just a pattern.
Conclusion (after ~2 hours)
Pros:
Stable performance, even on older hardware
Atmosphere is decent
Detective systems still have potential
Cons:
Too many forced mechanics
Confused identity
Too much action for a detective game
UE3 limitations are very visible
This game is not terrible, but it’s also not what it should be.
If you want:
Pure deduction
Minimal hand-holding
A proper Sherlock Holmes experience
You’ll likely be disappointed.
If you get it cheap and accept it as a flawed experiment, it’s… okay.
Score so far: ~6/10
Recommendation: Only on sale, and only if you know what you’re getting into.

dont ever let the person who made the graveyard section work in game dev ever again i'm so serious

First playthrough review time.
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter is a mystery game where you play as Sherlock Holmes. The game takes place in London, and you need to solve five different cases. You will explore places, find clues, and talk to people to solve the mysteries.
The game looks nice, with good character designs and detailed places. The London setting feels dark, with fog and street lamps. The voices and movements of the characters are well done, which makes the game feel real. The story has many surprises, so it may keep players interested.
I bought Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter on Steam in May 2021 for 1 dollar, which was the lowest price I’d ever seen on a Steam sale. I didn’t start playing it until this year because I wanted to finish the earlier Sherlock Holmes games first before moving on to this one.
In the end, this is a game for people who like solving mysteries. It has a good mix of exploring, finding clues, and some action. While some people might not like the action parts, the story and graphics make the game captivating for anyone who likes mysteries.

PROS:
5 interesting cases, each with its own unique story and mystery.
Decent graphics that still hold up reasonably well.
Good voice acting that helps bring the characters to life.
You can customize and disguise Sherlock, which adds a bit of fun and variety.
Moral choices at the end of each case.
Some genuinely clever puzzles and deductions that make you feel like a detective.
The investigation mechanics become more enjoyable once you understand how the game works.
CONS:
Whoever designed the first case deserves to be forced to play it for 100000 years! The forest chase sequence combined with the awful controls is incredibly frustrating and nearly made me quit the game.
Terrible camera handling and controls. It takes a long time to get used to them, and they never feel truly comfortable.
The game often hides progression behind tiny, easy-to-miss details. For example, you may find a postcard containing all the information you need, but the game refuses to progress until you inspect the back and make a specific deduction.
The highlighting feature is not very helpful, as many important objects are still difficult to spot.
Sherlock is surprisingly unlikeable at times and often comes across as a complete jerk.
A ridiculous amount of QTE events.
Lots of loading screens when fast traveling.
Some puzzles are poorly designed and simply not fun. Pushing boxes around at a snail's pace or following barely visible scent trails while playing as a dog quickly becomes tedious.
The autosave system can be frustrating and often saves at the worst possible moments.
Certain obstacle room puzzles rely more on trial and error than actual problem solving.
The game occasionally mistakes pixel hunting for detective work.
OVERALL:
This game has a lot of flaws, and honestly the first case almost made me quit more times than I can count. Between the clunky controls, frustrating chase sequences, and obscure objectives, the opening hours are easily the worst part of the experience.
However, once you get past that rough start, the game becomes surprisingly enjoyable. The cases become more interesting, the mysteries are engaging, and the deduction system starts to shine. While the gameplay is often held back by questionable design decisions, there is still a solid detective adventure hidden underneath all the frustration.
I bought the game for around 5€ during a sale, and that's exactly how I would recommend getting it. At a heavily discounted price, it's worth experiencing for the stories and investigations alone. Just be prepared to deal with some outdated mechanics, frustrating puzzles, and a lot of patience-testing moments along the way.

Very nice (in borat voice)

I enjoyed it. felt like a detective there. some puzzles where difficult but most of them was easy enough. so basically there was 5 chapters or cases. 3rd chapter being my FAV. One thing dont sit right with me is the game title name is The devils daughter but it is only involved in the final chapter (5). The city was nice 18/19th london movie vibes.

one complain is the city is very unlively. there are NPC there but most dont talk they just do some random stuff. There are few activites in the city but its meh. most of the time you can fast travel from anywhere so its not even noticable.

You get to play a dog in one chapter.

4/5

The game is kinda short in comparison to Crimes & Punishments. The time it took for me to 100% the games (DD: 7,5h, C&P: 13,5h). In my opinion C&P was the best one from the pack of "Testament of Sherlock Holmes", "Crimes & Punishments" and "Devil's Daughter". This one is still a good game (especially at the beginning since the later cases are more for storytelling purposes and somewhat short). This has great potential and is a lot of fun to play, but it was ended a bit too quickly. If it's on sale, it's absolutely worth a try, but for 30€, I personally wouldn't buy it.

If you loved Crimes and Punishments, this is a must-play The deduction mechanics are brilliant, requiring actual logic to connect clues and accuse the right suspect. It brings a darker, more cinematic atmosphere to Sherlock's world A fantastic puzzle-deduction game that is incredibly satisfying to 100% complete.