25 years later, this game is still afoot
SHERLOCK HOLMES CONSULTING DETECTIVE: THE BAKER STREET IRREGULARS
Designer: Dave Neale, Gary Grady, Suzanne Goldberg| Publisher: Space Cowboys
When the original Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective was released in 1981, the concept of interactive fiction was still relatively new. The iconic Fighting Fantasy series of adventure game books would only begin the following year, and the first Choose Your Own Adventure book had only been released in 1979. The idea of readers taking control of a story was an intriguing one, and Sherlock stood out not only for its novelty, but for its immersive air of mystery.
The game cast players as investigators working alongside the great detective, tasking them with solving a series of baffling cases by visiting crime scenes, interviewing witnesses and confronting suspects. It came with a set of booklets to work through, each containing a series of numbered, interlinked paragraphs, and each with a hearty helping of dark deeds, strange circumstances, red herrings and memorable characters. But what was perhaps most impressive were the lengths it went to to build its setting.
Consulting Detective came with a detailed map of Victorian London, as well as a collection of replica newspaper pages full of information on brazen thefts, society scandals and gristly murders. It made it easy for players to imagine themselves amid the swirling fog and gaslit streets of Holmes’ city. And when the game was re-released in 2016, a new generation of players discovered its enduring appeal.
The Baker Street Irregulars offers a new set of cases for fans to crack. A standalone boxed set which you can tackle whether or not you’ve played the original game, it comes with a collection of stories focusing on the group of street children employed by Holmes to aid him in his investigations. Like the original game, players aim to unravel the truth behind a series of bizarre and shocking incidents – kidnappings, thefts and murders.
To uncover the truth, you’ll follow a succession of leads, some of which point to valuable information and others to dead ends. When you’re confident that you’ve solved the mystery, you’ll aim to answer a series of questions about the perpetrators and the circumstances around their crimes. When you’re done, you’ll score points based on the number of leads you followed and the number of questions you can answer correctly.
It’s absorbing and brain-teasing fun, rewarding players for picking up on small details and interpreting each new piece of evidence with Holmeslike logic. The individual cases are deftly crafted mysteries that feel true to Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories, although they do suffer from some occasional anachronistic language. And while some are self-contained single-session brainteasers, others knit together to unveil a longer campaign to lose yourself in.
If you’re the kind of person who relishes a good whodunit, there’s nothing else in gaming quite like this series, and it’s good to see it continue to spawn new mysteries so long after its initial release. While its box suggests playing with up to eight fellow sleuths, though, we wouldn’t advise it. This is an ideal game to tackle solo or with a trusty Watsonlike partner.
OWEN DUFFY
WE SAY
A great addition to a well established, classic series. The choice as to whether you pick this up or not is… elementary…
WHAT’S IN THE BOX
► 10 Case Booklets
► 10 Newspapers
► 1 Informants List
► 1 London Directory
► 1 London Map
► Rulebook
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED LEGACY OF DRAGONHOLT
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective combines the narrative immersion of an adventure game book with a well-crafted set of Sherlockian mysteries.