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"Elementary my dear Watson...."

Most of the earlier games that you might have found with the Apple II computer system were nothing more than text adventures with a little visual to go along with it. In this adventure, you undertake the role of Sherlock Holmes and attempt to solve several murders that leave clues to the actual killer. As you progress through the game, the puzzles become a little harder and in fact, you’ll have to keep your brain sharp in order to complete the later stages. With over thirty puzzles to solve, the question is whether or not you’ll be able to rack your brain long enough to get the job done.

The storylines that you find throughout the game are essentially the different crimes that you come across through merry old England. You’ll find the murderers of stock-brokers and merchantmen as well as other criminals that undertake some pretty interesting crimes. As you progress, the clues that you come across require you to think and at some points, write down different scenarios and think about them in order to find the answer. Considering that this game is one of the more challenging text-adventure games, it would probably be a good idea to keep a record of what it is that you’re doing.

-The Game Play-

Game play varies depending on the mood that you’re in and just how hard that you’re paying attention to what’s going on in the game. As you talk to different characters and collect the clues to solve the crime, you might find it a little distracting if there are things that are taking away your concentration. The further you get into the game, the harder the clues are to come by and the more the story wraps around until you have little to come up with. Backtracking at times is key to find the clues, so be aware of what is happening in your surroundings.

Control really isn’t much of an issue here in which you select where you want to go with a press of the keys and then talk to the different characters. There is no battle system and confrontation of enemies is non-existent so be aware of that. You’ll find that there is little to do other than travel from place to place and the further you get into the game, the easier the options are to talk to people. With nothing special that you have to pay attention to or learn while you’re playing, those who are into the more modern puzzle games might find that this title lacks more intricate interaction.

-The Visuals-

Visually, the game is lacking anything special and most of what you see is faces of characters and sometimes the places of the crimes. However, you really won’t find too much here that will keep you interested and there isn’t anything really detailed for the eyes to watch. Getting into the game you might notice that some of the characters look the same with the lack of detail and difference between them. All in all, this is to be expected from an early text adventure game with little or no true detail to find throughout the duration of the title.

-The Audio-

If you’re looking for any type of audio, you won’t find anything here. I’m really not sure if the limitations of the game is due to the hardware or the fact that there really isn’t much audio to be found in text adventures. This could be a little hard to deal with once you’re into the game and without anything in the background to keep you interested in what’s going on, you might grow bored. Best advice is to have something to listen to in the background, and something that would keep you interested in order to keep your mind thinking with the different crimes.

-The Verdict-

221B Baker Street is something that you have to take with a grain of salt considering that it is a text adventure. The best part of the game and really the only part of the game is the fact that you have plenty of puzzles to solve. The clues aren’t always in front of your face, but you’ll find that the crimes are interesting and if it weren’t for some of the mistakes, you could find them to mirror some of the more modern crimes. If you like the text adventures, then you’ll find this to be a game that will test your brain and at times your patience, so dig into the crime Watson.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/02, Updated 09/26/02