Sherlock Holmes The Awakened

I didn't play the original game but have done every Frogwares "Sherlock" since "Sherlock vs Jack the ripper". Done in no time and in difficult circumstances that everyone knows, there was reason to be worried about this one and, in the end… Good points : - Rushed but more focused: shorter than the previous games of the license (about 15 hours, however, if you want to explore everything and the DLC), the game is paradoxically closer to the canon of Sherlock Holmes than the previous “Chapter one”, which tried to make Holmes a hero of the 21st century (a Sherlock Holmes having grown up in the Mediterranean and wearing leather and chains… Really?), more Holmsian than "Cthulhu-esque" (where are the fantastic creatures ?), it's also less talkative than the previous one and offers more challenge - The gameplay, directly taken from "Chapter one" without the action scenes, the profiling. Welcome back to the neglected (in "Chapter one") mental palace - A nice artistic direction (special mention for the cinematics) with really bewitching passages (the bayou, Arneson's house, the finale), detailed graphics, realistic environments - Good dubbing work as usual, and quality music / sound design Not okay: - Rigid animations and camera - Lack of connection with the work of Conan Doyle (when are you going to adapt Conan Doyle short stories again ?) In conclusion: not at the level of "Crimes and punishments" but close. Even if the game is not revolutionary, it is satisfying and pleasant to see the improvements made by the studio as the episodes progress (the passers-by look more realistic and it is possible to engage in conversation with them for example). The mix between the good ideas brought by "Chapter one" (less interventionism, worked environments) and those of the "historic" episodes (return to the Holmsian canon in particular) make you want to see what the developers... Will develop later. Slava Frogwares!

It's a CliffNotes version of the original with their newer version of Sherlock replacing their old one. It's just not much as a game. You kind of just walk along with the plot. It certainly sanded down the rough edges of the original, but didn't leave enough left or add new. The last "puzzle" was just tedious.

I'm pretty certain that Watson never did, or would, say 'bollocks'. Well, in this game he did. You have to be flexible with going outside of canon with these games. That aside, I like this instalment. It feels different enough from the previous version of Awakened to make it worth playing, and it's engaging enough. If you've played a Frogwares game before, you'll be familiar with the rough edges and sometimes less than intuitive interface. I give it five stars on the basis that I really like Frogwares Holmes games. I've always finished them feeling entertained and that I've got my money's worth.

I completed the game in about 11 hours. I liked the levels and simplifying the game mechanics to remove the annoying chemical analysis minigame, and removal of the need for disguises etc brought it a bit closer to the older games which I preferred. I liked all the Lovecraftian stuff - the reason I bought the game! My main critique is that it didn't feel like there were many challenging puzzles really - it was only a matter of time before I got a sequence right, or had eliminated enough mind map clues. I wasn't really deducing anything, only eliminating possibilities. Still - I'm always happy for more Sherlock, more Lovecraft, and more Frogwares :-)