Sherlock Holmes: The Silver Earring

2004 Frogwares Adventure

Windows 11With a fix

MacNot sold

LinuxPlatinum

Gamicality score

Metacritic 684

OpenCritic Not rated

Steam players 591

How it’s combined

Playability today

2.5

Runs today3/5

Design today1.5/5

Steam user reviews

Mixed

60%

680 reviews1

Get it on Steam

Facts checked November 1, 2026

Does Sherlock Holmes: The Silver Earring 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.

LinuxPlatinum

Through Proton. ProtonDB: Platinum, runs perfectly out of the box.3

Played Sherlock Holmes: The Silver Earring lately?

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

How to get Sherlock Holmes: The Silver Earring running today

Open setup.ini in the game folder and set the resolution to a 4:3 value matching the monitor height, such as 1440,1080 on a 1080p screen; this fixes characters being cut off and exits that cannot be reached (Steam Community).
If the game opens on the wrong monitor with no visible cursor, make that monitor the main display in Windows display settings before launching (Steam Community).
If vsync does not work, copy d3d8.dll from d3d8to9 into the game folder (PCGamingWiki).

Synopsis

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate a murder committed during a society party at a country estate in 1897, in Frogwares' third-person adventure. Players search scenes for clues, question suspects, run lab tests and must pass quizzes on what they have deduced before the case moves on.

Developer: Frogwares
Released: 2004
Genre: Adventure
Where to get it: Steam

Reception

Critics at release gave it a PC Metascore of 68, crediting the faithful Victorian atmosphere and a solid mystery while finding the presentation stiff and the investigation slow. Today the Steam rating is Mixed, and recent players say the story still works but the game is hard to get running correctly on modern displays. Common complaints are slow, clunky movement, pixel hunting, weak voice acting and end-of-chapter quizzes that are hard to read and sometimes seem to reject correct answers.

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 and nothing has been removed from the current release (PCGamingWiki).
No proper support for modern resolutions and widescreen
The game has no widescreen or ultrawide support (PCGamingWiki).
No full controller support and no remappable controls
Keys cannot be remapped and there is no controller support (PCGamingWiki).
?Not confirmed yetSteam Deck Verified or Playable
No source covers the current version yet, so this check counts as open, not passed. Played it lately? Tell us
No intrusive DRM or required third-party launcher account
No pay-to-win or pushy microtransactions
Known game-breaking bugs in the current version
At default settings many players get stuck in rooms or cannot see the cursor, and a long Steam thread reports the first-day quiz refusing correct answers; a setup.ini resolution change fixes the room problem (Steam Community).

Design today

1.5/5

Controls feel awkward on a modern controller or mouse and keyboard
Movement and interaction are mouse driven with no key remapping, mouse sensitivity setting or controller support, and recent players describe the controls as clunky and every action as slow. Source: pcgamingwiki.com, steamcommunity.com.
Menus, text or interface are hard to read on today's screens
There is no widescreen support, and at a mismatched resolution characters are cut off at the top of the screen and clickable hotspots drift away from the objects they belong to. Source: pcgamingwiki.com, steamcommunity.com, steamcommunity.com.
Saving is fair: free saves or frequent checkpoints, little lost progress
Manual saves have unlimited slots, each marked by date, time and a snapshot, though keeping several matters because an item missed on Day 1 can force a restart from a very early save. Source: gameboomers.com, uhs-hints.com.
Hard to make progress without a guide
The deduction quizzes that close each chapter are vague about what they want, unanswered questions count as wrong, and recent players report turning to walkthroughs to get past them. Source: steamcommunity.com, steamcommunity.com.
Pacing drags: grind, filler or forced backtracking
Progress depends on finding small hotspots in large rooms and walking slowly between them, which recent players call tedious pixel hunting. Source: steamcommunity.com.
Camera or movement fights the player
Unless the resolution is corrected by hand, room exits fall outside the visible frame and players get stuck unable to leave an area. Source: steamcommunity.com.