Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened

Recently, I finished playing Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened. This game was released in 2006, almost ten years ago and, well, it did not age well. It has some flaws, the story is so convoluted it literally lost all sense somewhere halfway through. Also, the game has quite a lot gory scenes, so it’s definitely not for weak of heart. Minor spoilers ahead.

Things I liked:

Cthulhu! The Great Old One himself plays a major role in this game and it was really fun to discover all kinds of references to the mythos. Though it made me wonder, are mythos copyrighted as such? Cthulhu was never called by name, and the book describing the rituals was never called Necronomicon, yet, at the same time, the game depicts the five-pointed star with eye inside.

Hello, Cthulhu, my old friend.

Next, since it was a Sherlock Holmes game, it was nice to be in the shoes of the famous detective again. But I had a bit of a problem with him. Alright, he’s supposed to solve everything using logic and and not have the very best social skills, but… Sherlock Holmes using puns? Puns about dead people, to add?

"Excuse me, ma'am, I'm only passing here, but I'm sure you found Mr Arneson a man of good taste."

Locations are quite pretty, I must say. Of course, when they are not meant to be foreboding and creepy. There’s also some local accent thrown in. However, for a reason unknown, the creators decided to choose Japanese hiragana as the writing of the cult of the eldritch abomination.

What ever the poor Japanese people ever did to the developers?

What I disliked about this game… It may be a list even longer than the “likes.” Let’s begin with the game mechanics. Quite a few times I became stuck, because game would not allow me to move elsewhere, since I didn’t do everything I have to in this one area. Sometimes, it needed me to look in this one place and trigger this one line of dialogue. Or it needed me to pick up flowers, even if there was nowhere even a hint of a clue I would need some. Or it wanted me to pick up a slightly darker object among equally grey surroundings, which turned out to be oh-so-vital hip flask. Or… The list goes on. Nobody likes pixel hunting, and in game like this, shouldn’t even need one.

His behind, Sherlock.

…This. Every now and then, you need to trigger the next game part by guessing correctly a word. And good luck doing this if you’re unfamiliar, for example, with districts of London. Or virtually everything else this kind of puzzle asks you for. In their latest installment Frogware got rid of these kinds of puzzles for which I’m grateful.

A story too complicated for its own good. I know, Holmes is a genius, he can make sense of even the most bizarre facts, but that doesn’t mean the player will, as well. The explanation for the whole thing sorta made sense, but there is just so many things happening, the player is unlikely to follow Holmes’ train of thought all the time. At the same time, all these people we met (but one) and who told us somebody they care about went missing, they never receive any kind of explanation what happened to the people who went AWOL, and that makes me feel bad for them.

Creepy Watson. It’s not a bug, it’s feature. Or so they say. Whenever you go, whatever you do, he’s always there. Right behind you. Always watching… O_o

It was a dark and stormy night…

GAH! Personal space, man!

He is more creepy than cultists, Cthulhu and gory scenes combined. At some point I couldn’t help but suspect he gets to be the main villain and will need to be defeated in some way or another.

Clichés. If there is a remotely located hospital, it will be an asylum and the person in charge will be twisted and evil. If you see a sheriff, he will be corrupted and hostile toward you. A servant will be either dead, missing, not right in the head or foreign. Or combination of those.

Last but not least, some parts of the game are inconsequent. Walk into a nurse in the asylum, game over. Run around while two people shoot at each other, you’re perfectly fine. Most of even remotely dangerous situations (unless they are happening in the asylum) are solved via cutscene. The only danger this game provides is if you start feeling bad because of all the blood and gore.

Overall, it’s not a bad game. It can get frustrating at times, but that is also part of the experience. It’s a mystery game, after all, and if the biggest mystery is how to operate the game mechanics? Well, maybe it’s what developers wanted us to do. Or maybe the engine is responsible for part of the bad stuff. If one likes Cthulhu mythos and Sherlock Holmes, it’s worth giving a try.