For nearly 20 years, Frogwares has been the premier developer of games based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Following the release of 2019's The Sinking City, an open-world adventure game inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, the developer jumped straight to work on its follow-up--this time bringing their most well-known character back to his roots in a large setting to explore. In an exclusive with GameSpot, the developers at Frogwares have revealed that is developing and self-publishing Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, a prequel that will focus on the early exploits of the gentleman sleuth.
Set for release in 2021 for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and next-gen consoles, Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One takes cues from The Sinking City, bringing players into an explorable open-world city filled with characters to meet, disguises to wear, and mysteries to solve. Set in the early years of the detective's career, the game casts you as a 21-year-old Sherlock Holmes who returns to his Mediterranean island hometown following his mother's death. After reacquainting himself with the island, his family manor, and the enigmatic companion Jonathan--who is definitely not Watson--he'll discover that the town has got some secrets, and he'll use his budding yet still brilliant detective skills to uncover a larger conspiracy at work.
Before the reveal, I spoke with Frogwares producer and community manager Sergey Oganesyan and lead feature designer Yaroslav Martyniuk about what's to come in the next Sherlock Holmes game. As a prequel, Chapter One is set many years before the detective's other cases in games like Crime and Punishment and The Devil's Daughter. Similar to Batman: Year One, Chapter One reframes the early years of the detective and his world, doubling as a prequel to the narrative arc from Frogwares' previous Sherlock games, and a gateway for newcomers to jump into the series.
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