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Sherlock Holmes The Awakened Review

Baker Street’s back, alright

If there’s one developer that has done it tough over the past couple of years it’s Ukrainian developer Frogwares. Not only has the studio had to deal with the COVID pandemic and its ongoing court battle with Nacon over ownership of The Sinking City IP, but it’s also been heavily affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite the challenges, Frogwares has kept working, with the team remaking the fan favourite Sherlock Holmes The Awakened thanks to the help of Kickstarter as a tribute to those that have given their services to defend Ukraine, as well as to keep the lights on and set the team up for its next major project.

Originally released in 2007 and remastered in 2008, The Awakened sees Sherlock and his Baker Street roommate begin looking into a missing servant of one of London’s more affluent locals, and what starts as a simple missing persons case spirals into an elaborate investigation involving worshippers of the Cthulhu Mythos. It’s a case that will expose Holmes and Watson to horrors they’ve never seen before, and one that will see them travel to Switzerland, New Orleans and Scotland for answers. But can they solve the case before Holmes’s sanity is pushed beyond its limit?

Is that your tendril or are you just happy to see me?

Although a lot of the main story beats are like for like, this 2023 version isn’t a straight carbon copy of the original, with Frogwares integrating its new take on Sherlock Holmes from Chapter One into the narrative. The events of The Awakened take place several years after Chapter One, so expect to see our young handsome Sherlock once more, and hear references to Cordona and what transpired during Holmes’ last visit to his Mediterranean homeland.

For as smart and switched on as Sherlock is, he’s still very much a man burdened by his past, and Watson almost acts as a guardian of sorts at times, ensuring that Holmes navigates their challenges successfully, and with Holmes’ sanity intact. But Watson himself isn’t without his demons, with his time spent in the war leaving some emotional scarring. However, Watson often has to ignore his baggage in favour of supporting Holmes and it creates a strong bond between the two and the player.

One of Frogwares’ strengths has been its ability to capture the charm that Sherlock Holmes is known for, and once again Alex Jordan does a fantastic job at voicing our titular protagonist and Andrew Wincott nails the voice of Watson. They’re both helped by some clever writing that encapsulates the posh tone of Sherlock Holmes but also adds a human side to our private eye. Jordan brings the complex character of Holmes to life, who over the course of the game will question his existence and the choices he has made, and it just shows that even the sharpest minds can have rough days.

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Despite being a fan of Frogwares’ detective-focused games, I’ve never played The Awakened, but I did enjoy the studio’s other Lovecraftian-inspired detective game The Sinking City. It’s a complementary mixture of components that creates an intriguing premise, and for the most part, The Awakened delivers on the promise of its concept, blending elements of both IPs to create a narrative that is compelling and full of mystery.

The Baker Street Boys

While Frogwares has tweaked the story ever so slightly, The Awakened’s gameplay is very much the tried and trusted experience fans have come to expect. Sherlock and Watson both can interact with items and parts of the environment or observe persons of interest and make assumptions as to what took place at a particular scene. Clues and evidence will then go into Sherlock’s Mind Palace where players will piece the puzzle together to make deductions about the situation they’re investigating. Evidence is colour-coded and categorised to make it easier for players to find the correct answers, and the game will tell you when you’ve selected the wrong combination of evidence.

Some pieces of evidence will require Sherlock or Watson to speak to the locals to gain a better understanding, and to do this, players will need to pin the relevant evidence. However, the evidence can take up a large portion of the screen and can be a bit of a nuisance and an eyesore. It’s not the first time I’ve made this complaint and I refuse to believe there isn’t a better way to incorporate this mechanic. Once enough evidence has been uncovered, Holmes must confront certain characters who may not be sharing all the information they know. These confrontations require Holmes to select the correct three pieces of information in the right order, and failing to do so will see the sequence start again.

For those that were born with eagle eyes and like a challenge, there is a hard difficulty that disables a lot of what some players would call hand holding, which includes the ability to skip lockpicking, turns off interactivity hints, and ups the challenge of the Mind Palace.

Time to observe

Much like Chapter One, The Awakened is a semi-open world game, with Sherlock able to explore each area he is in at will (within reason). The open world can at times feel a little dull at times, especially with Holmes frequently having to go to-and-fro between the same location. Side quests will be available and there seems to have been some improvement to NPC behaviour from previous games, but they still walk around without any real sense of purpose and far too often NPCs will repeat the same dialogue over and over again.

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One new addition to the game will see Sherlock transported to otherworldly locations and be required to escape. These were probably my least favourite sequences in the game due to the randomness of how they’re completed. Thankfully they’re short and not overly frequent.

As a remake the game’s visuals have had a significant overhaul, with the game looking quite beautiful at times and a good sense of atmosphere is created as a result. In saying that, The Awakened is very much a AA game, with textures often looking muddy, and some janky movement is also to be expected. It does at times feel and look quite dated, but that plays into the charm of the whole experience, harkening back to adventure games of the PS3 era.

Some environments look quite stunning in the right light

Final Thoughts

In a lot of ways it’s unbelievable that Frogwares has not only continued working but managed to ship a game with everything the studio has faced. Remakes may be an easy cash cow for developers and publishers these days, but no one could begrudge Frogwares for dusting off an old fan favourite to keep the company afloat. With excellent voice acting, solid writing, and enjoyable gameplay, Sherlock Holmes The Awakened delivers an experience that fans of the series would be hoping for, proving once again that the studio is a master of its craft.

Reviewed on PS5 // Review code supplied by publisher

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Sherlock Holmes The Awakened Review
Arts and Lovecraft
Frogwares’ remake of Sherlock Holmes The Awakened successfully blends the otherworldly with the logical in a compelling and well-written adventure that shows a different side of the iconic detective.
The Good
Lovecraft and Sherlock combine for an interesting narrative
Superbly voice acted
Well written relationship between Holmes and Watson
Solid detective gameplay
The Bad
The open world design doesn't always work in its favour
Pinned evidence is still too massive
Otherworldly sequences of the game could have been implemented better
7.5
Solid
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  • Frogwares
  • Frogwares
  • PS5 / PS4 / Xbox Series X|S / Xbox One / Switch / PC
  • April 11, 2023

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened Review
Arts and Lovecraft
Frogwares’ remake of Sherlock Holmes The Awakened successfully blends the otherworldly with the logical in a compelling and well-written adventure that shows a different side of the iconic detective.
The Good
Lovecraft and Sherlock combine for an interesting narrative
Superbly voice acted
Well written relationship between Holmes and Watson
Solid detective gameplay
The Bad
The open world design doesn’t always work in its favour
Pinned evidence is still too massive
Otherworldly sequences of the game could have been implemented better
7.5
Solid
Written By Zach Jackson

Despite a childhood playing survival horrors, point and clicks and beat ’em ups, these days Zach tries to convince people that Homefront: The Revolution is a good game while pining for a sequel to The Order: 1886 and a live-action Treasure Planet film. Carlton, Burnley FC & SJ Sharks fan. Get around him on Twitter @tightinthejorts

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