Watson & Holmes Review (First Impressions)

Watson & Holmes is kind of a competitive, tighter version of things like Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. For each case, a set of cards is laid out representing places of interest. Each turn, players visit different locations and read/take notes on the information on the other side of the card in an attempt to be the first to correctly answer three questions presented at the beginning of the case.

There are token based mechanics via which players jockey for position (only one person can visit each location per turn), attempt to block each other, etc. After the first case character roles are introduced that give players special powers, and there are also methods for gaining information about eliminated players’ failed guesses.

The structure and gameplay elements are incredibly well integrated with the mystery solving aspect. There’s a real sense of exploration and immersion, the scope and length of the game feels right, and the cases themselves (I’ve played two of ) are interesting. In one game no one was actually able to solve the case due to not quite having enough detail in one of our answers, but everyone still had fun and having a better idea of what the game’s looking for I don’t think it’ll be an issue going forward.

I love that they found a way to keep the story and mystery aspects of cooperative type Holmes’ games in a competitive, compelling, mechanics driven game. The overall balance and way everything comes together is fantastic, and I loved what I’ve played of this thus far.