221b.sh
Daniel Neville
Okay, I'm putting it out there - I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan so I was bound to find this very exciting. In the lead up to the release of the new Sherlock Holmes movie, which stars Robert Downey Junior as Holmes, Jude Law as Watson and is directed by Guy Ritchie, Warner Bros have released a browser based flash game called 221B which like I said, sparked my interest. Not only is 221B a top-notch Flash game, but the epic span of it is just crazy.
The game is designed to be played in the 8 weeks leading up to the release of the movie and features a prologue followed by 8 chapters. So you can see this isn’t just some 30 seconds and it's done Flash game, in fact it is one huge alternative reality game.
I have been playing the game over the last few weeks and it has only made me get more excited for the movie (which is a good thing, although not really needed in my case) and after watching the trailer I can see the game leading me very nicely into the opening of the film.
Because it's Sherlock Holms there is no surprise that the game involves a certain amount of mystery - as you progress through the game you have to solve a series of murders using a range of cunning and old school run and jump type gaming skills that used to irritate me a lot when I was a kid... probably because I was never very good.
The game is designed to be played by two people, connected via Facebook, one taking the role of Holmes and the other Watson, or you can play on your own by doing the work of both characters. As I said this is one epic Flash game - and a very cleaver way of marketing the movie, building both awareness as well as anticipation for the film.
Overall 221B is an awesome way of pretending to do work (just make sure you have your back against a wall) or just getting yourself way too excited for the film. It is a must for all mystery fans and if you played Monkey Island I can guarantee you will like it too. Get started - 221B
Comments
Thanks for the heads up, Alex!
Do you have to have facebook to play? :)
@ A
Unfortunately you do need Facebook to play - im not sure if the game is even still live though!
I don't know if it is still going anymore. :( I tried typing in http://www.221b.sh/ but it kept going to a search engine. :( Does anyone know how to actually get on?
@Tianna
Unfortunately I think the campaign has been discontinued.
Im sorry you missed it!
nice that game!!!!!!!!!!
Alex Fleetwood on 11/12/2009
Hey there, great review! Just one thing - the URL is 221b.sh, not 221b.com.
Cheers
Alex