Sherlock: The Network

[Caya]

An official Sherlock network app is set to be released on Jan. 20, called Sherlock: The Network.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Sherlockology has posted a very favorable review of it.

 

Sounds like a really fun game (for those who enjoy that sort of thing).

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

From Sherlockology:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pX1_NoxguE8
 

Sherlock: The Network is out now to purchase on the UK iOS App Store!

In addition, it has been announced the App will debut on the USA App store a week today on January 27!

Watch the Official Launch Trailer

[Caya]

I am sure we have a thread for this from back when the game was an iExclusive, but I'll be damned if I can find it . Anyway, the Android port is finally here:
 

You ask, you get – Sherlock: The Network, the hugely popular iOS game starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Mark Gatiss has arrived on Android devices at last!
The basic version of the Android App is available for FREE in the Amazon Appstore and on Google Play, and as of today it is now also free on iOS devices.
The free version grants you access to the first two cases of the game – to continue to play to the end, in app purchases are available for cases 3-6 and 7-10 (£1.49 each) or 3-10 (£1.99).
In addition, an exclusive bonus bundle offer in the Amazon Appstore includes cases 1-6 for free for a limited time between 6-20 August.
Sherlock: The Network has also made its Chinese language debut, with an iOS version available in Apple App Store right now – a Chinese language release will be coming soon for Android.
So Android users – time to join The Network and get cracking cases at last! Search Sherlock The Network on your store to get downloading!
Read our review of Sherlock: The Network.

View the full article

 

Review to follow as soon as I can get my hands on my husband's phone (mine's not smart) .

[Carol the Dabbler]

The prior posts were in the "Series 3 News" thread.  I've moved 'em here and changed the thread title to reflect that.

 

[Caya]

Carol, you rule .

 

A quick review after having played the first case:

 

The game manages to capture the mood of Sherlock, circa Series 1, very well so far. The cutscenes are really brief (so if you're getting it for those, I'd reconsider) but good, and Sherlock is at his acerbic best. More detailed review to follow once I find the time and concentration (it is, unsurprisingly, a detective game and you definitely need to pay attention).

 

Oh, and that facebook integration Sherlockology mentions is optional. Just fyi for those, like me, who don't have an account.

 

eta: Forgot to mention that it has subtitles. Very helpful .

[Janie]

I downloaded this app from Amazon where you can get the first 6 cases for free. At first I had to wait for half an hour before it finally downloaded (it's quite a huge file, about 700 Mb). Then I finally started to play the first case, which would have been great if I had the chance to finish it. It keeps crashing just before the last clue. Now every time I open it it crashes after about 10 seconds. Maybe I should add that I have Android. Don't know if there is the same problem with iPhone. 

 

So don't bother to download it until they fix it (I read reviews on Amazon and it's not just me but it's probably a bug).

[Caya]

Yeah, same here - I tried the second case today, which actually started off quite interesting (Mrs. Hudson is missing, and you're searching 221B for clues), but it crashed halfway through. Seems the Android port isn't exactly stable at this point.

[sfmpco]

Okay, i don't know when this was recorded, but it was just released.  So if Ben has done a big of voice recording as Sherlock recently, then he is getting his Sherlock ON again!  Woot!

 

[Caya]

Out of the blue, the app decided to let me finish the second case today (well, I'm puzzled, but not complaining ). Shortly thereafter, it demonstrated once again that I'd be a lousy detective by confusing me with a scrambled image puzzle. If you happen to have the same problem, this site offers the answer:

 

Answer from: Thoie
Finally figured it out after much frustration!

The 4 numbers at the bottom are the guide. If, for example, those are 1 2 3 4, then the 4 numbers around the edge (up, down, right, left) need to be made to match those. So it might be 4 up, 3 left, 2 down and 1 right. The u/d/l/r scroll through the numbers 0-9. If you want to try 1 right first, keep swiping the image right until you get to 1, then scroll down until it hits 2, etc.

 

[sfmpco]

See, that's one of the reasons why I'm not sure I want to download it.  I'm a terrible puzzle solver.  Except jigsaw puzzles.

[Arcadia]

You and me both. It took me years to figure out the answer to "Who's buried in Grant's tomb?"

[Carol the Dabbler]

Actually, it's President and Mrs. Grant. 

 

[Caya]

I finally finished this game today, and wow did it show me my limits as a detective . If you're having trouble with the puzzles in the first few cases, well, look forward to case 6+ where they get balls to the wall hard (except for the Underground puzzle, which for some unfathomable reason gets easier) - even the Taxi puzzle had me give up and walk in frustration a couple times . You think unscrambling was a chore with the numbers in random order? Try it with only two numbers and the others showing as ? .

 

That being said, the acting was excellent (well, duh, but it still bears mentioning). Some of John's later sequences were especially touching (can't say more without spoilering, though) and made me wistful for the feeling of the first series - I admit to a slight John bias , but really, his performance stood out. Not that Sherlock and Mycroft weren't excellent either, mind you. So on balance I'd say it was well worth the frustration (I know what her name was by now? Really, Sherlock? I haven't got a freakin' clue ).

 

 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Please note that if you replay, the numbers change so the answer the first time for a decoder or image scramble will not be the answer the next time.

[avoca]

I am really NOT a game person, but I loved The Network. so well made and so entertaining!

 

downloaded the free version for my iphone and shortly after, upgraded it so I could have access to all 10 cases.

 

it did get stuck most of the times I reached a decoder,  which was highly annoyingly, as it took a whole day to get back to normal. if it wasn't for that, I'd have finished the game in a  day or two probably, cause I got really addicted to it 

 

I hope new cases will be added soon. 

[Caya]

Well if we're lucky they'll do some filming / voice recording together with series 4 filming - I rather doubt they'll bring the three of them together (and go through the costuming, hair colouring and all) just for the short game sequences. But as an afterthought of the Christmas special filming, maybe.

 

Let's hope that the game was successful enough to warrant new cases - I couldn't find numbers anywhere . Google play shows 50k plus installations, but that's only one distribution channel. Keeping fingers crossed .

[Van Buren Supernova]

Moved here from another thread:

 

 

I don't know where to put, so here. It fits. Anyone knows/plays this? I don't see this around, so sorry if it's old news as I always behind. :P


I play nerdy game apps on my phone. So the other day I searched Sherlock and found this, an official Sherlock game.
Didn't have time to play it for a while, but today I had chance to give it a try.



It has same opening scene with the series eventhough it was edited to be shorter, I must say I get fuzzy everytime I hear it. Anyway, it has instruction that it's best if you have headphone.
And soon I found out why.



There is Sherlock! It's really him, he speaks to 'me' in generous introduction scene (which I could play over and over again). So I am being recruited into his homeless network. I turn on the subtitle to show you guys how he insults my look, my smell and my self worth. :P. (It's just his loving way to say I am suitable to sneak around odd places because i don't mind to get dirty and I am 'invisible' :D)
There are a bit more to this, including him shouting for Mrs.Hudson after he fails to find his spare phone to give me.

[Van Buren Supernova]

So I get on the case, there are times when I have to travel around London with my choice of transportation mode (each comes with mini game to solve to get to destination), one could also collect money around to pay for those fees. There is London map (I guess it's accurate) with landmarks around (blue circles) that I could click to see the photo and information. I guess those could be important later.

The mini games are something like slide and connecting puzzle so far.

 

 

Another cool thing is Sherlock contacts me several times when I make progress to direct or give me clue. voice. VOICE!

 

And I could enter his Mind Palace to sort out the information that we have collected to do elimination proccesses and choose only information that matters.

 

 

At the end of the first case, when I have so-called proven that I could be useful, I meet John who gives me few good advices. :p

 

 

 

My deduction is: I must be stupid wanting to work with Sherlock. XD

 

Anyway, there are only one and a half cases provided for free, which is a bummer. Another 8 cases are available for purchase around 3+ US dollar for all. I haven't bought anything from apps store so far, but I probably would try this later. (I am curious!)

 

I'd say the graphic and quality everything are very good, it certainly amazing to see Sherlock and John appear as them (John twice!) in something that I haven't watched for many many times. It is mentioned that other characters will appear on other cases (Mycroft etc). Lestrade and Molly appeared offline in the first two cases.

 

The cases, for the free ones are a bit too short but potentially fun. There is password guessing, clue hunting from newspaper article and in 221B Baker Street when I could get good view of the flat with all Sherlock's mess and trying to find something odd.. because the cliff hanger was... Mrs.Hudson is missing!

 

(Image rotatable to see the other side)

 

And she seems to be in danger from the clues we found. Sherlock said he is taking the case very personally. ( I want to see him throwing bad guys out of the window I want to see him throwing bad guy out of the window I want to see him throwing bad guys out of the window)...

[Arcadia]

Yep. Obsessed. :p

 

I think I'd heard of this but since I can't, and probably never will be able to, afford a smart phone, I shunted it out of my mind palace. :d

[Carol the Dabbler]

I'm not surprised you couldn't find this thread, VBS, since nobody's posted on it for almost two years.  Thanks for the nifty screencaps -- I'm almost tempted to sign up for this myself, even though I'm not a game person.  At all.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Bahahhaha..

 

Aiz.. this is so embarassing (hiding in my pillow and blanket fort).

 

How many times I come here with starry eyes talking about something you guys had talked to death before, hmmm??? And why you guys are still so patient with me, hmmmm??? (Scold before being scolded :p)

 

Anyway, eta, I had purchased last night when I came back from work because my only debit that could be used for online transaction is at home, I don't have credit card, never like them (with a bit of trouble, I hate &^%$&* all administrative process) and had finished all cases. A bit dissappointed, I thought it would occupy me for a while, but the cases are quite short. At least at the end there is a compliment from Sherlock, sort of. And John is so nice, Mycroft.. he is okay. :p

 

The great thing is that the whole story are very in character with all of them, their relationship, the way things work, and John is quite a highlight. I don't regret buying it eventhough it's over so quickly. Wish there are more cases, clips and variations to the mini games though, scrambling could be fun, but annoying, I prefer password cracking (similar to mastermind), but the best would be spotting photos for clue. Oh, I like decoder unscrambling, I think that is the fastest puzzle.

 

Okay,.. get back to waiting for S4. This actually helps a bit with the hiatus. I'd be in my best behavior for this week. But it's not a promise.

 

 

P.S. regarding smart phone, I use it for everything including coming here so I really depend on it (except holiday! :p), but other than the very first generation (XDA O2, it no longer exists) I always use 'economical' brand, the lower/st-tier price you can find for smart phone but have very comparable specifications to other fancy brands (that I can't stand). There was a time I even got it from internet, a China brand (everything is made there anyway) aka brandless, the price was great and the specifications were superb, much higher than the most expensive fruit with less than 15% of its cost. I always happy to see some of my ex-colleague's reaction to it because they always worship the fruit and looked down on my phone. One time I almost gave them heart attack because I started to use a blunt wooden food stick as the stylus (yes my stylus phone was still great by the time it was super outdated) because original stylus was broken, and the back of my phone had to be duct taped so it wouldn't fall apart. To them, it's a horror that I walked around with that, but yeah, I feel good.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Aiz.. this is so embarassing (hiding in my pillow and blanket fort).

 

How many times I come here with starry eyes talking about something you guys had talked to death before, hmmm??? And why you guys are still so patient with me, hmmmm??? (Scold before being scolded :P

 

Hey, not a problem!  When I joined, the forum was only two months old, so I was able to read the entire backlog pretty quickly, but I can't imagine any new member even wanting to do that nowadays.  There are lots of other newish members here, and surely you're not the only one who hadn't come across that thread already -- so you've done the rest a favor.

 

Besides, I really was interested in the screencaps you posted.  Nobody had posted that much detail before, so I had no idea the game was so realistic.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Yes it has good quality.

I think you would be happy to know that John actually has the most clips and as usual.. the most heart.

 

For the whole ten cases, the main story is about Mrs.Hudson's kidnapping, but there are other cases in between.

 

Without spoiling anything, below are more screenshots. But of course, if anyone is particular like me everything is potential spoiler in its own way. In that case, don't look so that it doesn't affect your enjoyment because there are some information like samples of mini games/case clues/codes to crack/clips:

 

 

 

 

So

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top to bottom: Taxi game, encryption, train game.

 

Top to bottom: Image scrambling, Decoder, Map clue

 

Top to bottom: all clues for case deduction.

 

Mycroft and John.

Some interview with witness and conversations are in these format too (top image). Can't post any without spoiling.

[Arcadia]

Neat.

 

I have to clarify my "can't afford a phone" statement ... it's the monthly data plans I can't afford, actually. So I see no point in spending extra money for a smart phone.

 

However, my current phone is being phased out so I'll have to come up with a solution soon. Ugh. I hate buying electronics, the research is so frickin' time consuming; and all that interaction with sales people ..... my fault for being so behind the curve, I guess.