Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened

Even if Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened was slightly disappointing, we’d ultimately still be impressed, given the hardship that Frogwares has faced over the course of its development. The fact that it’s actually a very good game its own right shouts volumes about the talent housed within this small Ukrainian developer. Truly, this is a real showcase of passion, perseverance and raw talent. Detective games really don’t come much better than this – especially if you like a bit of the occult thrown in for good measure.

A slightly janky Lovecraftian Holmes adventure in neo-classic Frogwares style, offering decent fun for fans of the studio's work.

I’m not going to reveal much of the story since that’s the entire point of playing this one, but while it’s fairly linear, it’s fun to see it unfold from a fairly mundane beginning to what becomes kind of bugfuck especially once we get into the whole cults and Lovecraft and mythos thing. So yes, there’s some animation jank, the world isn’t as open as some of their bigger budget titles, and it’s fairly short (about 10-12 hours), but if you like to actually keep a notebook at your computer and write things down like we did back when your choice of display was “green” or “amber”, you can forgive ...

Sherlock brings Watson along in this remake of Sherlock Holmes The Awakened with the same engine as the awesome Chapter One.

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is the kind of game that makes you wonder if the current model for reviewing games is working. It’s the tenth game in Frogwares’ Sherlock Holmes series, but as Frogwares is a Ukrainian developer, it’s the first game they made since the country was invaded by Russia in February 2022. Looking at their social media presence over the last year has been heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure. Posts about the devastation caused by the war, including the ...

It might be going too far to suggest that you'll like The Awakened even if you're not a fan of adventure games, but for those adventure fans who are looking for smart puzzles and a sophisticated story, this game has it in spades. The combination of Sherlockian sleuthery and Cthonic cultists is such a natural fit that you never question that the two not only can exist together, but that they were ever apart from each other to begin with.

A total remake of its 2007 game of the same name, developer Frogwares has embarked on a complete overhaul of Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened. This Lovecraftian adventure sees Sherlock investigating a series of disappearances that ultimately end up linked into the Cthulhu Mythos.

Sherlock Holmes's The Awakened has an incredibly rich story to experience, and it feels like you have to work much harder than normal to get to it. It's a great game to experience as long as you have the patience of a saint to solve the mysteries.

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.

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is a remake made under difficult circumstances and for that reason its shortcomings are certainly more than understandable. However, the fact remains that the resulting game falls short of the standard we've come to expect from Frogwares' excellent sleuthing series. There's still some reasonable investigative work and a nice atmosphere for fans to enjoy should they decide to bite the bullet here, but rough edges, a lack of scares, dialled back level design (compared to Chapter One) and detective work that plays it too safe makes for a Holmes outing that's rather h...