Frogware's Sherlock Holmes series

Thought I'd start this topic in order to get some general information on this long-running adventure game series from people who've actually played them.

I've recently entertained the thought of taking the plunge into this series. But before I do so, I'd like to know what people around here think of the individual games in terms of gameplay, plot (keep these spoiler-free!), technical matters (Any notable bugs? What platform do you prefer to play these on? Issues pertaining to running these on various operating systems? etc.), and anything else you think might be of relevance.

The series is currently comprised of the following games:

1. The Mystery of the Mummy

2. The Case of the Silver Earring

3. The Awakened

4. Sherlock Holmes Versus Arsène Lupin

5. Sherlock Holmes Versus Jack the Ripper

6. The Testament of Sherlock Holmes

7. Crimes & Punishments

8. The Devil's Daughter

Also, I'm curious as to whether these games feature an overarching plot or if each game has its own self-contained storyline.

Alright, the floor is yours!

I believe they're all self-contained. I enjoyed Crimes and Punishments quite a bit, but I haven't played any other entries in the series.

I'll say I haven't heard good things about earlier entries if you're eyeing the whole set, though.

I've only played Crimes & Punishments on PS4. It was pretty good! The cases were engaging and the game play systems for clue gathering and solving cases were fairly intuitive. There was an awkward bit with arm wrestling.

I've been considering getting more on PC.

Crimes & Punishments was fantastic, also the only one i've played (i'm sensing a theme).
Prior entries look a lot jankier so i haven't brought myself to try them.

I played Sherlock Holmes Versus Jack the Ripper on the pc without issues.

It immediatly feels dated & low budget, but the story was engaging enough to drive me through. Some of the puzzles were quite awful (they never made me feel smart) and the game could've done a better job to make it more of a mystery which suspect actually did it all. Sadly, the evidence was so clearly pointing towards one suspect that it never really felt like a challenge to discover the murderer. The dialog & the vibe of the game make up for a lot though. I also appreciated that it was fairly faithful to the actual historical Jack the Ripper story that i wasn't really familiar with beforehand.

I'm fairly certain all these games stand on their own and don't require you to play them in a certain order.

Yep another person who got oddly into Crimes & Punishment but hasn't played any other here.

Thanks for all your replies!

Seeing as the stories appear to be self-contained and that most participants in this thread have played Crimes & Punishments and enjoyed it, I think I'll try that one out.

Cheers everybody!

Crimes & Punishment is excellent, whereas the others are not so much.