Review: Turlock Holmes has the ability to be fun, but the repetition sucks out all of the joy

Table of Contents

• Turlock Holmes Gameplay
• Coziness / Art / Sound
• Cons
• Turlock Holmes Verdict

For me, Turlock Holmes seemed right up my alley. I love word games as well as games that present as if they’re case files. So, I had high hopes. Unfortunately, after getting my hands on the game, I was left feeling disappointed and frustrated. 

This game had a lot of potential that I feel didn’t get used and I, ultimately, didn’t like the finished product.

Turlock Holmes Gameplay

Turlock Holmes, as you can imagine, is a turtle that wants you to help solve crimes. You do this by being given something that looks like a newspaper snippet. In the article are slips of paper covering certain words in red, yellow, and white. These colors correlate to how important they are. Red is the most important, yellow is the next, and then white is the least. 

You’re meant to find out what these words are by typing what you think the word is and hitting the investigate button. If it’s right, you’re awarded mushrooms (the currency of the game) that you can use later to buy clues from Turlock. The amount that you’re awarded also correlates to the colors you complete. Red gives you 600 mushrooms, yellow gives 300, and white only gives you 50. 

You can also use the text bar to make guesses to ask questions like “Was it raining?” and then you’ll get either a yes or no answer. If your question has words that are hidden under the slips of paper, it will reveal them. 

You don’t get docked by having a bunch of wrong guesses, but sometimes it will trigger a bonus image that isn’t relevant but might help guide you to the right answers.

As you guess, some words will have letters pop up to give you a hint on what that word might be. Here’s where the game veers a bit and is basically Wordle. However, even if you don’t have letters unlocked on a slip of paper, you can still guess the word without spending mushrooms and get this Wordle popup. 

Just like Wordle, when you guess letters that are right but in the wrong spot, they show yellow. If they’re green then they’re right and in the correct spot. And, if they’re gray, the letter isn’t in that word. You can brute force this aspect of the game without penalty. You aren’t given a set amount of times that you can guess and you’re not restricted to making words. You can literally just type letters you haven’t used yet and see what sticks or doesn’t to figure it out. 

Luckily, you don’t have to uncover all of the slips of paper, just the ones in red. If you get those, then the rest will fill itself in. By completing a case, you’re awarded a red mushroom. This mushroom is different from the ones you get by guessing words correctly. This one seems to mostly be given for finishing puzzles and can be used to unlock aspects in something else. Why they chose mushrooms and two different mushrooms for this game is a mystery to me. Perhaps one hidden under slips of paper somewhere.

The aforementioned “something else” is a bit hard to describe. It’s almost like there’s a bigger picture beyond the case files. You’re presented with the picture of a woman in a grocery store (the picture that you see as the title card). And it’s unclear whether you’re this girl or if you’re following along as it happens. But, you’re told a story about this girl, and certain words are highlighted. Some are gray and irrelevant, but there are yellow words that if you click on them will prompt you to spend one of the mushrooms you got for completing a case. 

When you use a mushroom, you’re given more detail about that word. For instance, I was given a story that mentioned a stench and my friend Sean, the words ‘stench’ and ‘Sean’ were in yellow. By clicking either of those yellow words, I was prompted to spend a mushroom and by doing so, I opened up dialogue that told me more about that particular word. I chose to investigate the stench and found out that it was turtle soup. 

It seems that the whole point of these cases is to get mushrooms to unlock more of this big picture, but there’s nothing else to it other than dressing up your turtle in items you find by completing cases.

All in all, it’s a very simple premise that feels more suited to mobile games. 

Coziness / Art / Sound

Turlock Holmes has some aspect of cozy here in that you pretty much can’t fail. You can brute force your way through the game without ever using mushrooms if you really want to. However, because of how many words are covered in a case file, even with the ability to just guess forever, it makes gameplay feel like a slog. The only thing you get for achieving is a different mushroom to unlock a main story piece before being thrown right back into what feels like guessing sentences rather than words.

In terms of art, because it’s just screens of text, there’s very little to judge. The design of Turlock is cute and I like that you can dress him up. But, the art style feels very mobile-focused and I wish I could explain that in a way that made sense. It just feels like it’s on par with visuals like Simulacra, etc. 

As far as music goes, you get one tune. It’s a good tune, to be honest, but it lacks any sort of depth. It’s a pretty basic “creepy” music-box-sounding piece. 

Cons

Something is missing from Turlock Holmes to make it engaging. Mostly, it feels like glorified Wordle on easy mode. There’s no penance for getting anything wrong and while that can lend itself as a positive to the cozy side of things, it brings a negative drawback of feeling like nothing matters. 

It’s weird that it’s both too hard and too easy all at once. You’re dropped into snippets of a case, but most of it is redacted. Personally, I felt that too many words were covered. It would have been better for that to get harder gradually, but when you have a string of 6 covered words, you have to just brute force your way through it.

Likewise with the Wordle aspect. I didn’t have to use real words, I could just put in the alphabet, get the letters, and break that too. 

It lacked something that would have given it more life. 

Turlock Holmes Verdict

If you’re into word games, you may have more interest in this game, but I can’t recommend this game, personally. It’s not cozy because you’re constantly trying to guess words and it’s not really much of a game. 

If you’re interested in trying out Turlock Holmes yourself, you can get it on Steam for $9.99.

Turlock Holmes may not be the game for you, but maybe a different horror based game might! You can check out our review of Slay the Princess that we did and loved.