Gamers take on the role of fiction's greatest detective as he solves six complicated cases in Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments. Developer Frogwares has employed the Unreal game engine for the first time in the series, and the overall aesthetic has been altered to present Holmes in a modern era. Players get to the bottom of strange disappearances, complicated robberies and even murders by using the new Sherlock Vision feature to scour crime scenes for clues, examine witnesses and suspects, and piece together evidence to make educated deductions. The Xbox One gamers can freely switch between first- and third-person viewpoints at any time in order to take a grand view of a scene or zoom in for a closer inspection. Crimes & Punishments offers multiple different outcomes for each individual case, and it introduces a new morality element to the series, with Holmes capable of throwing the book at criminals, or letting them walk free. However, the choices players make can have unexpected consequences and influence the way other characters look at Holmes.