Five Nights at Holmes?
After a long period without finding a job, Jack is forced to join the family business, which he had disowned since he was a child. He begins what will be his first case, simple in appearance, but which will suddenly become his worst nightmare. Embark with Jack Holmes in a macabre story of living puppets, uncontrolled animatronics and more nightmarish beings through places as strange as a house where experiments are done with children, some mines full of huge spiders or a terrifying amusement park while you do everything to survive. You’ll also have to manage the bullets and first aid kits you find… oh, and don’t forget to get on the rides!
Jack Holmes: Master of Puppets is a strange first-person horror that has you avoiding deadly puppets and animatronics through areas including a house, mines and an amusement park. The opening section alone may make you want to throw the towel in due to how easy you can die, plus simple things like using a flashlight doesn’t seem to make that much difference in terms of lighting up an area. I honestly had to level up the brightness on my TV to see where I was going, but maybe a patch will fix that in due course.
It also feels very clunky, the combat itself isn’t great, the story is hit and miss yet despite this, there is something that keeps drawing me back to it. I also love that there’s a Animal Crossing horror rip-off at the amusement park, even the logo is done in the same style. The actual scares themselves are good enough and while I did find the game frustrating, I also found it impossible to stop playing until I beat it.
The visuals are a mixed bag and there are definitely areas that look unpolished. The framerate is mostly consistent but has the odd hiccup, while the voice-acting is laughably bad. The soundtrack is pretty decent though.
The Verdict
Jack Holmes: Master of Puppets is impressive as it’s made by just one person. It does accomplish a decent horror setting and while it has a lot of issues that hold it back from being a true great, it still manages to captivate despite of it.