there've been many, many attempts to make a computer game of the legendary detective, I haven't tried them all but out of those I have tried none really stood out as being that impressive. which is odd really, it's not like the genre itself is to blame, after all we have Gabriel Knight, Discworld Noir, the Tex Murphy games to name just a few of the more popular games. it can't be an issue with translating a known character into a game either, after all we've seen successful moves from Agatha Christie's novels, Nancy Drew, Dune (ok so Dune 1 was poorly received but Dune 2 was a hit) and James Bond experience success in gaming. yet while some Sherlock games weren't exactly bad, they just didn't stand out as being especially good either

Crimes & Punishments though is different. it's not perfect, but it is a fun game, it does have strong detectivey elements, it does fit the spirit of the source material and the characters are faithfully adapted. the main gameplay is about what you'd expect, it works very much like a 3D adventure game just without the "point and click" (although you can in fact point at things and click on them at times), walking around crime scenes (and other areas of interest) picking up clues, looking at things, talking to people and generally sticking your nose everywhere it isn't wanted. of course there's more to the game than just that though, but that's where things usually fall apart with many games, throwing in extra things like mazes, badly controlled fight scenes, outrunning nazi soldiers, flying hot air balloons that need to land on top of tiny submarines... and that's just from games I actually LIKED (don't ask me about Operation Stealth or Still Life 2)
but anyway, for the most part these are handled very well in this game and they also make sense! the Deduction system works really well, allowing you to pair different pieces of information together to draw conclusions is a little similar to Discworld Noir but expanded on to allow more complex chains of thought allowing you to combine various clues together to draw out the chain of events. once you complete that chain and reach a potential conclusion you can make an accusation. unlike most such games, you ARE allowed to make the wrong choice and still proceed with the next case, although if you want to be certain you got it right you can ask the game for a spoiler and it'll let you know if you did or not. you can't just accuse anyone randomly Cluedo style (that's Clue! for Americans) though, you have to form a reasonable suspicion of them first by interpreting the evidence, but you CAN make mistakes (deliberately or intentionally). on top of that you also have a moral choice, but I'll get into that later
sadly not all additional elements are so well implemented however. at one point in the first case I had to beat a sailor at arm wrestling, very annoying segment although once I figured out his facial tells it became easier but the changing camera angles make it awkward to follow those at times. apparently there's an even worse section later involving a rope bridge but I haven't encountered it yet and am trying to avoid spoilers

one particularly interesting feature though is the games morality based choices. unlike the accusations there's no right or wrong answer for these, you make your decision with nobody to judge it but yourself. feel more sympathy towards the killer than the victim? well you can chose to let them go rather than turn them over to Scotland Yard. risk an international incident by arresting someone but guarantee justice is done or alternatively use Mycroft to deal with things quietly through political channels but risk the possibility that they'll escape justice. you can even make moral choices on false accusations, adding some extra possibilities. these choices, while not having a huge effect on the game apparently, will have some effect on Sherlock's personality and interactions with Watson, as well as being referenced in later cases

overall it's a solid game that I'd imagine most fans of the genre would enjoy but fans of Holmes will find especially interesting. the first case at least though will be a little easy since it's based on one of the stories and has only a few differences from the source material, however the second case is written especially for the game (although takes a little inspiration from one story for one element) so it's less predictable but still manages to fit nicely into the Holmes lore

no Moriarty yet, but I'd imagine that if he does show up in the game it won't be until late in. I've only completed the first two cases so far