Over the years there have been plenty of Sherlock Holmes media, some of which attempted to be closer to the original works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and some tried to reinterpret the famous character. Having been a fan of the books since my childhood and lucky enough to have worked on two games based on the character as an adult, The Beekeeper’s Picnic – A Sherlockian Adventure caught my attention as a seemingly “wholesome” approach to the character, set during his retirement days. And now having played it – it really is very nice.
As mentioned – the main events of the game happen during the time when Sherlock Holmes has long retired to become a beekeeper. Specifically, it’s the 1920, after the Great War has ended and doctor John H. Watson has a chance to return to England, having served during the war. As a result, you can imagine that the game isn’t about the famous pair trying to investigate some grisly crime with their youthful energy and is instead about two old friends trying to have a nice time together and figuring out if they’re happy where they are at the moment with their lives. Not that there is no crime solving along the way of this very short game (took me slightly over 2 hours to finish), but the overall tone of the game is considerably more “wholesome”, as I’ve mentioned.
And it works well. It has a few moments, where figuring out what to do next may be not very obvious. But those are rare and there is a cute hint system in the game as well, that you almost want to use, as it involves more of the canonical characters. The game also feature non-linear elements and some of the problems you encounter can be solved in multiple ways. You even have a say in just how platonic the relationship between our main heroes is, which has been a popular topic of debate over the years.
I really liked the game. It feels very much in tone with the original books in the best way, using the same parlance where needed to remind you of when it’s set, giving you just enough references to the books and their characters to feel nice, but without ever overwhelming the story the game is trying to tell. It is, at times, a bit too silly, but at the same time it feels almost intentional. To give a nice retirement for the characters who went through a lot in the books and the times between the books. If you like nice more story-focused but still investigative adventure games and like Sherlock Holmes, you should definitely give this game a chance.