Has anyone made an open-world video game like Grand Theft Auto/Elder Scrolls/Red Dead Redemption/L.A. Noire etc set in late 19th century England/London? Sort of a Sherlock Holmes meets Call of Cthulhu-type feel?
If not, then I think they should.
That looks just the sort of game I was thinking of.
I’m currently watching all of the 1980s TV series Sherlock Holmes episodes (although I’ve seen many of them before). It’s a great series and, of course, great source material.
Also, although I never actually played it, a few years back I had a couple of books of the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game (i.e. dice/D&D style). Although the main game was set in the 1920s, there was an expansion called Cthulhu by Gaslight which was set in the 1890s and I enjoyed reading about the world it tried to recreate.
I see the Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened game came out in 2007 and was remastered in 2009, so it’s a little bit dated, although it looks like sequels have been made for it. While Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened has decent reviews (Metacritic: 72%) they’re well below the 95% scores that the games I mentioned in the O.P. received. The Awakened’s sequels look to have ratings similar to what it scored.
So I think there’s still a great game to be made for this setting. Gaslight would be a good title. 
The Secret World was an MMO that had a very “Lovecraftian” vibe, though it was focused a lot of the “conspiracy theories are true” angle with Illuminati and such. I didn’t get very far because I had trouble getting a group for low level instances, but it was pretty cool. It broke a lot of MMO molds in that it had a lot of puzzle missions where you had to search the real internet via an in-game web browser to learn things about clues.
E: It was modern day rather than Sherlock Holmes era, though.
There’s also Sunless Sea, which is kind of “Pirates” meets what the OP was talking about.
Thanks for the input. The Secret World looks interesting but I’m really yearning for an open-world game with a Victorian London setting. Sunless Sea, from what I can see, is closer to that feel, (even if it’s a fantasy underground “Fallen London”), although, as you point out, it’s gameplay appears to be closer to* Pirates!* than GTA or Elder Scrolls.
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened looks closest to the kind of game I’m envisioning and so I’ll investigate it some more.
Meanwhile, I’ve jotted down some ideas for the kind of game I’d like to see…
It’d be like Elder Scrolls, GTA, Red Dead, L.A. Noire and so on. I’ve only played Oblivion and GTAs III and IV of the open world genre but they’re amazing games with the creation of vast, immersive worlds.
The game would be a mixture of Sherlock Holmes and Call of Cthulhu (although it could be a made-up, “inspired by”, imitation of them). It would be set in a recreation of 19th century London (or made-up city inpired by London).
The game could have three rough stages/“Acts”:
- The first stage would be Sherlock Holmes-esque.
The missions would be one-off, perhaps similar to Holmes’ cases or there could be some introductory story arc. As in GTA and Elder Scrolls there’d be lots of independent missions, some of which would be found from exploring and so on.
This world would feature hansom carriages, bobbies on the beat, street urchins, handlebar moustaches, lamplighters lighting public streetlamps, taverns, telegrams, cockneys, top hats, bicycles, early London Underground trains etc. There’d be buildings such as (or correlates of) Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Hyde Park, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Docks, The Thames River and Tower Bridge. Sometimes the London fog/smog would descend.
There could even be missions outside London, like a lot of the Holmes cases, which would require catching a train at one of the stations.
- The second “Act” would introduce a bigger story arc about a mystery evil organisation, perhaps a bit like the Freemasons (but more evil and intent on world domination) or like a 19th century SPECTRE. They would have some insidious and diabolical aim, like overthrowing the government. Their leader would be a nemesis-like Dr. Moriarty-style figure.
While I would have the everyday world in this game as a fairly authentic or plausible recreation of 19th century London, this evil organisation could perhaps have some light Steampunk capabilities.
This second Act would be introduced slowly and there’d still be lots of independent missions to do.
- The third stage would be Cthulhu-influenced, with the introduction of occult and supernatural elements. Perhaps the increase in such activity is a portent to the arrival of some malevolent supernatural force/entity.
Here’s some ideas and influences for missions and game flavour:
Queen Victoria and the royals, British Raj in India and Empire, a Koh-i-Noor-like diamond, a crime on a steam train, Fenians (or PC’ed equivalent), Jack the Ripper, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a political scandal, a visiting American, The Mummy, Dracula, The Lost World (Conan Doyle novel), Mary Poppins, Phileas Fogg, Allan Quartermain, Fu Manchu, Tarzan/Lord of Greystoke, Oliver Twist, Scrooge, Aleister Crowley, mediums/seances, levitation, Conan Doyle’s fairies.
I think that to really pull off the making of such a game, with a vast, immersive and cornucopian world, it would need to be made by one of the big studios, such as Rockstar Games or Bethesda, who’ve got the experience, huge workforce and track record in producing the classic examples of the open world game genre.
Anyway, I’m sure such a game will come out some day since it’s such a rich and compelling setting. I’m in no rush - as long as it happens at some point in my lifetime and I get to play it. 