In Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter, the player controls the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The game is set in late 19th century London. While Holmes and Dr. Holmes have been completely redesigned to look younger and more dynamic, the game is still set in the same timeline as the rest of Frogware's Sherlock Holmes games. While the four big cases are unrelated to each other, there is a framing story in which the detective has to deal with his adoptive daughter Kate (continuing the story of The Testament of Sherlock Holmes) and a mysterious new neighbor.
The gameplay mechanics are mostly identical to the direct predecessor Crimes & Punishments: Sherlock Holmes: the player searches the environment for clues, interrogates suspects, solves mini games and makes deductions based on the found clues. While inspecting persons, Holmes now sometimes has to choose between two alternative interpretations, e.g. if a red stain on the suit is wine or blood. If the wrong alternative is chosen, it can't be taken back. While this does not tamper the ability to solve the case, the person's character interpretation in the log is marked as incomplete.
The major difference in comparison to Crimes & Punishments is that the investigating and interrogating parts have been scaled back in favor of the mini-games. While there are still many mini-games which can be solved quickly (e.g. using the lab to examine a piece of evidence, balancing or quick-time events), many are more involved: they are either action-based (e.g. Holmes needs to flee from an assailant while frequently taking cover) or large-scale logic puzzles. While the latter were always an integral part of the series, they were mostly gone from the direct predecessor. Most mini-games can be skipped.
Additionally there are multiple occasions where player control shifts to another character. Mostly it's just switching to Dr. Watson during a puzzle sequence, but sometimes there are longer parts like a stealth sequence with Wiggins (tailing a suspect without him noticing) or following a trail with Holmes' dog Toby. The game can be played in 1st or 3rd person perspective, but in some sequences 3rd-person is forced.
