Sherlock Holmes The Awakened Xbox Review
For those of you who love the romance of the mystery and the practical puzzling deductions in the style of Sherlock Holmes, then you cannot go past Sherlock Holmes The awakened.
Frogmore are no stranger to Sherlock Holmes, but unique circumstances have led to an alternative development approach. This video below explains;
The official release trailer captures the fast action drama and mystery of the latter part of the story and the level of graphical detail throughout the game.
Source: Frogwares.com
Story
This story takes place at an earlier point of time in the beginning of the younger Holmes and Watson’s relationship. Watson is fresh from the war and Holmes is ever so slightly over-confident of his abilities; albeit arrogant, yet subtle in only the way Sherlock Holmes can tolerably manifest.
Holmes uses his exacting power of observation to follow a missing persons trail to what is simply beyond the pale, entering into the world of occult style grotesque and inhuman people snatchers.
From Baker Street London, to Switzerland and then onto New Orleans, the duo follow the clues to and blood (sometimes literally) to the ultimate end.
The mark of a good mystery is the story and this one is very fitting in the styles of Holmes, although license is taken to enhance the mystique. Exploring the mind and temperament of Holmes and Watson as much as the mystery in front of them.
Frogwares developers also ensured that the game was not woke-washed and consequently left all expected references and synergy inline with the time period the game is set in. As such, there are narrative elements of race and slavery in the game, but these are not presented in any way that should cause offence, save only for their mere inclusion, which may only derive offence for those individuals who would be predisposed to take offense without due cause; you know the type, the ones who consequently ruin the storylines of games?
Game play
The game play is as expected, walk around and point and click.
Holmes can walk or run, activate items of interest when highlighted, and send out a radar like ‘ping’ to get help/hints on anything you may have missed – depending on the difficulty chosen at the start of the game.
Some items in the game environment are semi intractable, for example a stool may be able to be kicked over by walking near it, which also produces sounds. These objects don’t move from their position, just fall ‘over’. For the most part those objects get in the way and it is possible to get stuck between Watson who crowds you and the object, which forces you to reload a previous save.
The scene must be fully examined and hypothesis drawn and verified by scene reconstruction. The game delivers a unique mechanism that takes place in Sherlocks mind, enabling you to run through various scenarios and positions to re-tell the series of events. It’s pretty cool!
Sherlock must examine his clues and draw conclusions based on all the collected evidence. This is done in the “Mind Palace” which typically requires three points of evidence to draw conclusions. Each chapter of the story require these answers in order to progress.
Upon reviewing, we found that towards the end of Chapter 5, after completing the Mind Palace requirements, the investigation scene did not complete. This does appear to be a bug but hopefully will be patched soon, or resolved with reviving an earlier save.
Audio
The voice acting is fantastic. Holmes in particular has a delightful poetic, authoritative, gentrified and magnanimous tone that simply fits and amplifies all expectations of what Holmes would sound like.
Watson equally impressive, stands out as perhaps the singular authority that could challenge Holmes. What we hear with Watson is a character who reflects his back story. He is a doctor, he is an officer, and he carries the confidence and strength of those roles, whilst also being taken-a-back by Holmes and his impressive deductive skills.
The back and forth cut scenes between Holmes and Watson gives the audience the impression of a perfect match and complimentary friendship, which is what the duo is known for.
The only detraction is in 5.1 surround on the Xbox One, the audio field is narrow on the stereo, so when the camera is not facing the source, the dialogue is hollow and thin. Some like this, and for many games that is perfect, but for this game it is only an annoyance. For example, as the player directs Holmes in one direction and perhaps triggers dialogue from an interaction or stepping into a position, the camera is usually facing away from Watson who is behind, consequently the player has to stop and pan the camera around to hear it properly – if they don’t cancel the dialogue in favour of something else they activated.
Graphics
The graphics are perfect. The animation style, character design, clothing and NPC’s are all perfectly complimented and appropriate for the game.
If any critique is warranted, it may be in the “observe” phase when Holmes and Watson are eyeing off witnesses and suspects and make observations on them, the items that are identified are not always visible and it would be good if this could be enhanced rather then a ‘sparkle’ being emitted from an area of interest. Then again, it makes sense the way it is because Holmes can notice the ‘smallest’ of details.
Conclusion
Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is one of those games that you will want to strap in and play through, because the story is so compelling. The voice acting and design of the game make the experience immersive and highly enjoyable.
Frogwares 5 star decision decision to be true and accurate to the time period is the only reason this game and story hold its credibility, for to do otherwise would have reduced this game in quality and authenticity.
If you are fan of mysteries, puzzling solving and immersive story-lines, this is a good one for the collection.
Frogwares, you have something good here. More please!
Summary: Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is one of those games that you will want to strap in and play through, because the story is so compelling.
4.3
Solved!
About the Author
Scott De Lacy Scott has a professional IT background spanning over 18 years, is an hobbyist electronics designer, talented musician, holds qualifications as a trainer and experience in emergency and community services sectors. He reviews Movies, PC and XBOX One games, and hardware.
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