Sherlock Holmes – Nemesis

2007 Frogwares Adventure, RPG

Windows 11With a fix

MacNot sold

LinuxGold

Steam DeckPlayable

Gamicality score

Metacritic 714

OpenCritic Not rated

Steam players 691

How it’s combined

Playability today

Runs today3/5

Design today2.5/5

Steam user reviews

Mostly Positive

72%

653 reviews1

Get it on Steam Watch the trailer

Facts checked November 1, 2026

Does Sherlock Holmes – Nemesis run on Windows 11, Apple Silicon Macs, Linux and Steam Deck?

Windows 11With a fix

Runs with a fix. See the steps below.1

Mac (Apple Silicon)Not sold

No Mac version is sold.

LinuxGold

Through Proton. ProtonDB: Gold, runs perfectly after tweaks.3

Steam DeckPlayable

Playable, as rated by Valve. May need some setup.1

Played Sherlock Holmes – Nemesis lately?

One click, no account, so the next player knows. How we check where it runs

How to get Sherlock Holmes – Nemesis running today

If the game will not start or freezes after New Game, install the NVIDIA PhysX System Software as the developer advises (Steam Community).
Restart Windows, or copy PhysXLoader.dll from C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common\ into the game folder (Steam Community).
To restore character shadows and avoid movement problems above 60 FPS, copy the 32-bit d3d9.dll from DXVK into the game folder and add a dxvk.conf with the developer's settings, including a frame cap of 59 (Steam Community).

Synopsis

A first-person adventure in Victorian London in which Sherlock Holmes and Watson try to stop the French gentleman thief Arsene Lupin from stealing five national treasures. You search locations such as the National Gallery, the British Museum and Buckingham Palace, question characters, combine items and solve the riddles Lupin leaves behind.

Developer: Frogwares
Released: 2007
Best version: Steam and GOG sell only the 2010 Remastered edition, which replaced the 2007 release and adds a hotspot help system.
Genre: Adventure, RPG
Where to get it: Steam

Reception

Critics at release praised the detailed London locations, the classical soundtrack and the varied puzzles, and it holds a 71 Metascore on PC. Reviewers also pointed to strict linearity, objects that only become usable after a trigger, repeated backtracking and some pixel hunting. Players today still enjoy the Holmes and Lupin duel and the atmosphere. Recent Steam reviews call many riddles illogical or dependent on exact typed answers, and some players needed hints to finish.

Trailer from Steam

Playability today

The average of two parts, each from 1 to 5. Tap a check to see why. How it works

Runs today

3/5

Sold or given away today by an official source
Needs fan patches to run well on Windows 11
?Not confirmed yetSingle-player works without an internet connection
No source covers the current version yet, so this check counts as open, not passed. Played it lately? Tell us
All of its content still works (servers, DLC, unlocks)
The game is single-player only, and no content has been removed from the current release (PCGamingWiki).
No proper support for modern resolutions and widescreen
Native aspect ratio is 5:4, and wider screens show a stretched or pillarboxed image (PCGamingWiki).
No full controller support and no remappable controls
There is no controller support, though keys can be remapped (PCGamingWiki).
Steam Deck Verified or Playable
No intrusive DRM or required third-party launcher account
No pay-to-win or pushy microtransactions
Known game-breaking bugs in the current version
Without the PhysX System Software the game fails to launch or freezes after starting a new game, and the developer has pinned a workaround (Steam Community).

Design today

2.5/5

Controls feel awkward on a modern controller or mouse and keyboard
Mouse and keyboard controls are remappable, but there is no controller support, and the developer confirms that movement controls misbehave when the frame rate goes above 60, which the game leaves uncapped. Source: pcgamingwiki.com, steamcommunity.com.
Menus, text or interface are hard to read on today's screens
The game renders at a native 5:4 aspect ratio, so on widescreen displays the image is either stretched or pillarboxed, and windowed mode does not work. Source: pcgamingwiki.com.
Saving is fair: free saves or frequent checkpoints, little lost progress
Saving is free at any time with no limit on the number of save slots. Source: secure.uhs-hints.com.
Hard to make progress without a guide
Progress depends on Lupin's riddles and on-screen questions that need one exact answer, and players widely report needing hints or a walkthrough for the more obscure ones. Source: secure.uhs-hints.com, steamcommunity.com.
Pacing drags: grind, filler or forced backtracking
The strictly linear design locks items and hotspots until a trigger fires, which forces repeated trips back through large locations to talk to the same people and recheck scenes. Source: secure.uhs-hints.com, steamcommunity.com.
Camera and movement never fight the player
It is a first-person adventure with no camera to manage beyond looking around, and a map allows quick travel between known locations. Source: metacritic.com, secure.uhs-hints.com.