Sherlock Holmes trailer weighs the morality of justice

A new trailer for Frogwares’ Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments debates what it means to be just.

In the trailer, Holmes and his erstwhile companion Watson examine the scene of a murder, and Holmes quickly deduces which of the potential suspects is guilty. While Watson suggests they bring the culprit in to the police, Holmes realizes that she was defending herself. Which then, he wonders, is better: To send someone to prison for killing in self-defense, or to allow someone who has killed to walk free?

Each of the games’ seven cases will contain moral dilemmas like that, according to the trailer.

The trailer also coincides with a post on the game’s development blog discussing the creation of the game’s 79 puzzles, from the use of authentic 19th-century investigative techniques and the recreation of crime scenes to the dev team’s desire to include puzzles that deal with Holmes’ sense of smell.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments hits Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC in early 2014.