The latest adventures of Sherlock Holmes is being developed on Epic's Unreal Engine 3, allowing the series to jump ahead in graphical quality. Environments are more realistic and detailed with dynamic lighting and shadows. The game also benefits from a powerful animation engine for smooth movement and animation transitions, real-time shaders, a particle system, and advanced post-processing effects.

In Crimes and Punishments, you aren't just a spectator during the investigation. It is now your turn to become Sherlock Holmes and lead your own investigations, as eight captivating cases await you. Murders, disappearances, thefts, and other investigations bring you to the edge of the detective genre, and these cases will be the bread and butter of this game, written in the tradition of Conan Doyle's novels. Each case offers freedom to make important choices instead of simply going by the book. All decisions an influence the game, affect your character's reputation, and have realistic consequences. You must bear the weight of your choices, as Crimes and Punishments offers a system of actions/consequences that forces players to think before acting by giving depth to every decision.

In Crimes and Punishments, players embody a Sherlock Holmes with a new look. The developers at Frogwares have abandoned the classic Sherlock Holmes inspired by the 1960s movies and replaced him with a more modern character that matches the title's artistic ambitions.