Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (2008)

+rep

A fun adventure game. Lots of interesting and fairly challenging puzzles.

Game obviously involves Sherlock Holmes, but the twist is that it features Lovecraft mythology. The two settings do fit quite well together. Though Holmes and Watson are a fair bit more sarcastic and witty compared to the average Lovecraft main character, I think they still manage to fit well into the setting, or lovecraft fits well into Sherlock's setting.
Ultimately it was a fun story to take part in, and the game provided lots of little bits of background info you will read about and that all does a good job of building atmosphere.

The puzzles as I mentioned are fun and engaging. Some are a considerable challenge too. If you can manage to solve every single one without the use of the hint system, you are big brained. Those who are not the biggest brainiacs, like myself, there is a pretty good hint system. Per puzzle, or activity you have to complete, the game provides a number of hints. Each time you click the hint button, you receive a clue, and every subsequent click, the clue becomes much more specific. So you can use as many or as few to figure out how to complete whatever it is you need to solve.

You can navigate in first person or "third person mode". The third person mode is a more typical point and click view. I mostly used first person mode, as to me it was the most comfortable way to go through the levels.
Either way, it was nice to have the option, as I would on occasion switch up the view. I found the third person view would help when trying to locate a specific object or location to interact with. It will angle the camera to a set area, rather than the 100% free range of motion the first person view provides.

The game ran fine for the most part despite the reviews. Using Proton it booted up first go and I had no issues running it, benefits of not using winblows I suppose.
I did run into one rather annoying glitch. Essentially softlocked me.. Despite the game telling me I needed to go to a specific location, any time I would attempt to travel there, Holmes would run through a bit of dialogue saying how important it was for us to travel to that location, then nothing would happen. Saw a few other people in the discussions with a similar issue, and the workaround was to download a save file at the place I needed to travel to. This solved my issue (if this happens to you too, make sure the save file is for the Remastered version of Awakened 2008, otherwise the save seems to be incompatible.). Though I am still not sure if this happened because I missed one specific object on the map or not. Oh well, I will only find out if I replay this game in the future.

Anyway, good game, do buy. Also, remember to SAVE, there are fail-states.

This game can be complicated if you don't know what you are doing. There will be very little hints you get through out the game, but the rest is where you must figure out yourself, OR search up for answers if you are stuck and can not progress. Rather than that, everything was alright. I liked the story but the graphics were not the best. Game did come out on 2008, so can't really complain... Hopefully it will have a remake one day. If you are Sherlock Holmes fan and don't mind the nerve racking game like me, then this is for you.

Nice game, I enjoyed it.

makes you feel like a real detective

Good plot, good voice acting, some visual design problems making it difficult to tell which doors can be interacted with, but the game also has graphical glitches with some decoration objects turning invisible when viewed from certain angles and a few puzzles are terrible, like the sea chart having an extremely small click target and no zoom. Ontop of that, there are CRITICAL performance problems (fix described further down).

I do like this game but problems like those above and the clunkiest chase scene imaginable makes it tough to recommend.

Unlike the Mystery of the Mummy and The Case of the Silver Earring, which came before it, this game works pretty well after applying the following fix:
solution: go to Appdata/roaming/games/yoursherlockholmesgame
- find setup.ini
- open it with Notepad or another text editor
- find v-sync and change "default" to "four"
- find windowed mode and change "no" with "yes"

Optional: * execute the game as administrator

❤️

The original still fun. Some of the puzzles are quite challenging and hard to figure for a non-native.

I had hoped this was going to be better than the last but alas, this one too sucked and blew.

Crashed out at Warehouse 12 for me and I was not wasting any more time of restarting the game to see if it fixed it on a new play through.

So far this has been a dead loss for me, the 2 of the Sherlock games I've played are dismal in controls, without any real guidance what's so ever (NO not hand holding but at least an idea from your previous task completed where you need to head next.).
I have 5 more from the bundle I bought to try but I am not holding out hope for any improvement. As an after thought, Watson still gets in your way and is a PITA!

Game breaking bug central. A number of people, including myself have completed all tasks in order in the Arneson House only to have the game not allow you to proceed back to the Docks area after using the lemon to get by the mosquitoes/see the blood/rope on the dock. When using the map or trying to leave the area Sherlock will say you still need to do something.

I've followed every walkthrough to a T during this section, and the game should have progressed but is bug central. It's the worst Sherlock game I've played thus far. Every game after this one has been great.

Much better than the previous installments of the series. In fact, I would suggest starting with this one.
+/- Controls are MUCH better than previous games but still clunky and obtuse.
+/- Music is still very repetitive, but some new tracks for the darker parts of the game add some needed spice.
+ Sherlock is still a little annoying, but he no longer tries his best to be hated by the player.
+ The nature of this mystery really feels like a match for Holmes and Watson: an intelligent duo encountering the unknown and still coming out the victors.

Better than the first one! Old, but still worth a play! Would have loved more detective works as early stage of the game... but like the horror aspects.

Original awakened. Play this first and then the other one

it's an interesting game for me to play. And most of the time, i enjoy it so much. However, i don't recommend this game to friends or people.

Why? Frankly speaking, there are some bugs and crashes that can really make you mad or cry during the gameplay. For me, after going to the Switzerland, i failed a mission during that time (discovered by those doctors), then, i realised that i didnt save. So what, i still enjoy the game, so i played the whole game one more time, and got back to that "hospital". It's understandable for a old game doesnt have a auto save. (at least for me XD) After that, i also fell into the void while catching the thief. And now, the game crashes in the garden chapter and the save is also crashed.( It actually costs me a huge time.)

Nevertheless, i still like this game and i will try to play it again safer after that. (until i reach to the ending >:(((((( ).

If youre doubted for buying this game or not, i would suggest you watch the full game walkthrough on youtube. It would be much better if you dont want to risk money or time on playing nothing but bugs.

A great Sherlock Holmes story with twist and turns. The addition of first person also improved the investigation part since you can have more detailed view but sometimes you will miss something when not in third person which will see you go back and forth. The lack of tutorial also will become apparent when you are halfway in the game (the help screen isn't a tutorial, it is more like a holding hand).

Confusing mess.

A very nice palette cleanser after the previous Frogwares Sherlock games. The controls are much easier to handle, the inclusion of a first-person perspective really helps. The game also had (this is quite subjective but I’d still like to mention it) a much more interesting story with fun characters compared to the previous instalments. The puzzles were nice and I really like the inclusion of a sort of fast travel mechanic and a strategy guide to help you out. Massive improvement and (in my opinion) the first real game of this series.