Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter gameplay preview: ‘forensic detail, stunning design, but dated stealth’

Sherlock Holmes is one of Britain's most famous detectives, so why there's been a lack of quality games about the deerstalker-clad genius is a complete mystery.

Thankfully, the upcoming Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter looks like it will go some way to solving that, perhaps offering the most definitive Sherlock experience in gaming yet.

Played through either a first- or third-person perspective, this puzzle-solving adventure sees players guide Sherlock and trusty sidekick Watson through a series of cases. At a preview event, the one we played through involved trying to find out what happened to a boy's father who had gone missing.

To make gamers feel like a real sleuth, developers Frogwares – behind the great Sherlock Holmes: Crime and Punishments – have included a function called Imagination, which allows Sherlock to focus on certain features in the environment or characters.

This is especially useful when trying to extract information from people, allowing Sherlock to deduce key facts from the smallest of details. When questioning the boy about his father, for example, we had to decide whether the boy's eyes were watering because of an infection or because he was recently crying; whether a sewn-up tear in his clothes indicated his parents were caring; or whether the fact he carried a map of London means he's educated enough to read. Get these right and they cause the character to warm to you, potentially unlocking key information.

Thanks to a clever map, Sherlock is able to fast travel to key districts and areas in London, with the demo mission taking him to Whitechapel. The world is stunningly detailed – bright and airy – and manages to capture the soot-covered dank atmosphere without limiting itself to a monochrome colour palette.

Civilians go about their everyday lives, and while they're not as ‘lifelike’ as the NPCs in top-flight RPG games, they're still convincing enough to draw you into the world. It's even more impressive given that the game runs on the ancient Unreal Engine 3 – albeit a highly modified version.

When investigating an area, Sherlock can tune his senses to pick out key clues in the environment or eavesdrop on conversations. This comes in handy as hints and tips are few and far between. As a result, expect to spend a lot of lot of time forensically scouring every little detail. Sherlock won't be able to progress through a case until all clues have been found – a rigidness that may anger impatient gamers.

One mechanic that didn't impress much was a scripted section where control shifted to a young boy tailing a target. Not only was it over long but the constant movement from cover to cover felt incredibly dated – as did the comical ‘awareness’ meter hovering intrusively in the middle of the screen. One mini-game in particular, which saw the boy climbing and cleaning a chimney mid-pursuit, was a lowlight.