The game is set to release at the end of the month

Sep 19, 2014 07:36 GMT  ·  By

Developer Frogwares has released another teaser trailer for the upcoming crime mystery video game Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments, highlighting the darker undertones of the next installment in the series.

The game is definitely as mature as it gets, not by portrayals of gore, profanity or excessive violence, but in the way the protagonist is presented, struggling with his demons and the choices he has to make, and having his moral compass challenged by what he uncovers during his investigations.

The upcoming title invites gamers to explore a much more vivid and realistic version of London, where there are no clear guilty parties, and they have to make the moral judgment themselves, based on the clues they pick up while playing, not merely hand the culprit over to the authorities.

No black or white for me, thank you very much

Developer Frogwares' latest post on the PlayStation Blog reveals that players will not only be charged with narrowing down the suspect list and pin-pointing the guilty party, but they will also have to empathize with the situations they face.

The new trailer is all about blame, punishment, and the moral burden that Holmes faces when discovering that not every case is a clear-cut murder, and that many hold a deeper meaning that Holmes' conscience has to judge.

The atmospheric video offers us a glimpse of some of the cases that Holmes will be tasked with investigating, hinting that behind each and every one of them lies a web of events that have to be distinctly pulled from the past in order to gain a better understanding of the circumstances of the deeds.

A more serious undertaking

Victorian England is a dark and gritty place, under the glossy veneer of proper etiquette and extravagant clothing and well-oiled mustaches lying a sprawling human network of lies, jealousy, deceit and revenge.

The British culture is famous for its reliance on polite interactions and euphemism, and Holmes has to step in and do his best in picking up the details and piecing together the bigger picture.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments challenges players with six different cases, each one with multiple possible suspects and a lot of unique conditions that Holmes has to juggle to the best of his abilities in order to discern what actual happened.

His legendary observation skills will come in handy when piecing together the events of a crime from crime-scene details and inductive reasoning, and getting insight into the habits and characters of his fellow men from analyzing their appearance and clothing.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments is slated for a September 30 worldwide release, coming to the PC, the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 home entertainment systems from Sony, and the Xbox 360 and Xbox One home gaming consoles from Microsoft.