Sherlock Holmes The Awakened review: a diamond in the rough

11 April, 2023

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened

Developing Sherlock Holmes The Awakened has been a bit of a rough time for Frogwares. While other developments may have trouble with bugs or perhaps funding, Frogwares has had an entire war to contend with. Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is still the ideal title for any amateur sleuth who can’t resist a great (if sometimes odd) adventure game.

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There’s a young Holmes afoot again but while Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One had him teamed up with his imaginary friend, Jon, Sherlock Holmes The Awakened has him back with Watson. This is a remake of Frogwares’ original Sherlock Holmes The Awakened from back in 2007. It has a similar storyline but is an altogether entirely different game. It demonstrates how far the developer has come but that’s not to say that this isn’t a game that feels a little dated at times.

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened. Credit: Frogwares.

Young Holmes and Watson start out investigating a crime in London, moving from the relative safety of near 221B Baker Street to the dingy docks of London, barely visible thanks to the infamous fog of the era. From there, international travel and investigation become the name of the game along with a hint of strange moments for Holmes as he gets thrust into a Lovecraftian world of weirdness and that steady sense of madness that you just know Holmes is dipping into on a regular basis.

Action is much like the previous Sherlock Holmes games, although unlike Chapter One, it’s a little more tightly woven and less open-world-ish. Even better, there’s no more combat which felt jarringly awkward in the past. This is all a very good thing. Much of Chapter One had exploration for the sake of it while having a walk about now makes more sense. That’s not to say that it isn’t bewildering at times. One sequence within the London docks led me to start considering drawing up my own map. There’s an in-game map but it’s unhelpful and a strong sense of direction was vital in the deep fog.

Instead, you make your own way in this world and that’s the same with deciphering clues. Typically, you’ll come across a body or a scene that needs to be investigated. Some clues can be quite obviously highlighted while others need you to dip into concentration mode to be able to spot something more subtle. An early case has you piecing together how someone was kidnapped. You need to figure out each step that was taken with a choice of different methods in which something may have occurred.

There’s a certain amount of trial and error here, but you’ll also need to pay attention to what’s been said and what your growing pile of notes in-game can provide. Once in a while, a simple sentence can suddenly open up what you need to do next but the game never holds your hand here. For the most part, it’s down to you to figure out what needs doing. At times, this can be irritating if you’ve got too used to the more helpful manner of recent games although it does make it a good game to play alongside someone who might spot something you didn’t think of.

While there’s no guidance system, Frogwares does help things a little. Notably, each clue also has an icon placed above it. This icon could suggest you need to talk to someone about it, look for another connected piece of evidence, or to pin it. The latter is the method by which you can then discuss it with someone. That could be a key witness or a random person in the street. If you’ve played previous Sherlock Holmes games, you’ll know how this works but for newcomers, it’s a fairly steep learning curve in a world where games are usually more obviously laid out.

There’s also a hint of the old-fashioned charm (and irritation) of adventure games. One example of the strangeness an adventure game can offer up is during a sequence in a mental asylum. You need to help fix a patient’s doll by finding nails, glue, and other parts. It’s not too hard to find those parts (if you pay attention) but it feels like busy work at times. The payoff is a spectacularly creepy scene with a talking doll. A reminder of just how atmospheric Sherlock Holmes The Awakened can get.

Where things get more obtuse is when you’re occasionally thrown into the Cthulhu-esque world of Holmes’s nightmares. Were you one of those people that hated it when the Assassin’s Creed series threw you back into the present day for a time? Then you also won’t like this either. Solutions for the other world are simultaneously annoyingly obvious yet frequently difficult to see beforehand. You’ll inwardly groan at some of them because, ultimately, you’ll simply want to get back to the main part of the game. They knock you off your rhythm and the game loses momentum until you return to normality.

As with previous Sherlock Holmes games, you chip away at what unfolds. It’s easily a good game to chill with after a busy week, with pacing that lends itself to you poking around some areas casually and seeing what you uncover. Often though, you’ll need a breather, almost like a break resets your brain into thinking about how to approach something differently. Alternatively, you can pursue some of the side quests that aren’t essential to story progression but give you more insight into the world around you. It’s incredibly satisfying even if much like how not everyone wants the challenge of Elden Ring, it won’t suit everyone.

As the years go by, the more the Sherlock Holmes series feels like one that hangs onto the past and that’s both good and bad. For adventure game fans, it’s a breath of nostalgic air as you feel like you’re genuinely accomplishing things by yourself. However, it’s clunky for sure. Sherlock runs awkwardly at times. Many areas are blocked off in slightly unintuitive ways while the moment the great detective goes anywhere near water, things go very badly indeed.

Fortunately, this is a game that isn’t really disrupted by odd movements in motion. Instead, it has that old-school charm that a traditional point-and-click adventure once had while having a third-person overlay that makes it look better if not one to rave about visually. It’s a cliche but if you loved previous Frogwares games, you’ll easily adore this one. For everyone else, there’s still something worth checking out here if you fancy something a little calmer and more cerebral than what you usually play.

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is out now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. We played it on Xbox Series X.

Verdict

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened succeeds through refining and bettering the normal Sherlock Holmes formula. A return to pure exploration over combat is great to see and the game is more tightly woven than before. Our only real quibble comes from those visits to the other world but for the most part, this is pure sleuthing.