Analysis Sherlock Holmes The Awakened

Today we present to you the best detective ever. sherlock holmes returns to the front of the stage to face his most formidable enemy, a timeless, primal evil that only drives madness. Are you ready for this great adventure? Well, grab your magnifying glass, your hat and sharpen your brains because we bring you the analysis of Sherlock Holmes the waking en Xbox Series X.

Frogwares updates its 2007 classic

With exceptions, as Capcom is now with its saga resident Evilit’s not very common for a developer to update their own game nearly 20 years later. Frogwares was entrusted with the task of modernizing the graphical and playable aspect of Sherlock Holmes the waking. The original dates from 2007. Released only on PC. The following year will release a remastered version including the third person as well as graphic improvements and the help system. This version already meant some updating of the title, but now, in 2023, we have a version that, maintaining the essence and masterful story of the original, adapts it to new times and assimilates it graphically and playfully Sherlock Holmes chapter one.

Frogwares has a special association with sherlock holmes and the writer HP Lovecraft in his creations. He has been making games since the year 2000. To his credit he has 8 games of the character created by Conan Doyle and with several games that touch on the theme of Lovecraft, being The sinking city one of the games recognized as the best adaptations of the Cthulhu and ancient mythos.

The studio is located between Ireland and Ukraine. There The international situation with the war in this country forced the release of the title to be delayed and an incredible effort on the part of its developers, forcing them to work in extreme conditions and with many limitations. That is why we must give credit to the diploma and to the study, for his work.

Sherlock Holmes and Cthulhu, two united mythologies

Two pillars of world literature come together in this game. On the one hand, we have well-known detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:Sherlock Holmes. A true pillar of culture that has inspired many other works of fiction in all fields: cinema, literature, comics, video games. Appointing Holmes is almost a guarantee of immediate success.

On the other hand, it is joined by a whole world created by the genius of Providence: HP Lovecraft. A writer, perhaps less known to the general public than the Briton Conan Doylebut who created one of the most harrowing and influential universes of horror literature of all time. The Chtulhu myths are a series of stories from the first third of the 19th century. They speak of monstrous and unknown beings, a kind of deities who transcend time and space.. These stalk the fragile humanity of darkness and are capable of driving into panic and madness anyone who dares attempt to enter into the knowledge of these extradimensional beings.

The union of these worlds certainly seems tailor-made. Who better than Sherlock Holmes to face the primal terror of Cthulhu?

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened, gameplay in Frogwares mode

frogs he always applies a very similar mode of play in his works. We will have his already classic “spirit palace”in which the different clues that we find will be compiled and we will have to relate them to each other to draw conclusions that will allow us to move forward in the story.

We will also have the other classic, the notebook with clues and notes on how to use each of them (talk to characters from one, go to a place…). One will find here objects with dialogues with characters and profiles that Sherlock makes of the characters or deductions that one will have extracted from the spirit palace

We will have to look for witnesses who provide data to the case and guide us, question people, and even “force” them to dialogue and show them incriminating evidence in order to extract information from them and stop hiding things from us. In addition, we will have to search for more clues and reconstruct the crime scenes with our “made in Sherlock” concentration. With this we will complete the case and move forward in the story. In this case, it is a question of choosing between two options of what could have happened, for different moments of the crime.

We will have the main story but also a good number of missions, some of which are secondary. These are, on many occasions, more trivial and light cases. Of course, some of them bring interesting things, which help to temporarily locate time and even raise moral questions about certain facts. In some of these cases, Sherlock himself may even reconsider whether to report to the police or let this supposedly “criminal” activity continue. Additionally, these cases unlock cosmetic items in the form of outfits and costumes for Holmes and Watson. Because yes, Watson accompanies us in this adventure and even reserves a role in it, which can be controlled by the player as we progress on it.

Added to this are some skill tests such as opening locks or solving small puzzles. That they provide some kind of mini-games to give some variety in the investigation and it’s not all about talking and finding clues.

Difficulty modes, for all players

The game has two levels of difficulty, which would be easy and difficult. This could be a problem if there was not the existence of a fully configurable third party: Mycroft. Holmes’ brother names this difficulty after the consumer. The easiest is extremely easy and makes the game kind of like a walking simulator with hardly any challenge. On the contrary, the difficult can test us too much and if we skip a little detail in the form of a test, let ourselves be trapped. And that in players with little experience in the genre can end in frustration.

We we recommend using the Mycroft with everything equal to hard difficulty but allowing the option to highlight the items you interact with. With this, the level of the game turns into a kind of medium difficulty mode. If it continues to be difficult for us, we can always activate additional help in the middle of the game, saving, exiting the menu and re-entering the new configuration will be activated. Without a doubt, a more than useful and practical option to adapt the game to our level.

In any case, the first chapter-mission will serve to situate us in the game and to learn the mechanics.

Very good graphics and sound

The graphics are displayed at a good level, especially in-game. the scenarios are rich in detail, with NPCs moving around the stages and creating a truly remarkable Victorian atmosphere. The cinematics are of a good standard, although a bit inferior to the game itself. Despite this, they manage to put everything in place better, to give continuity to the story and to give us more depth in the knowledge of the characters. The game reaches stable 60 fps with 4k resolution for Xbox Series X, so it is fantastic to move between the fog and the darkest London, it is a most pleasant experience. We did not observe any fps drops or graphical glitches such as flickering. It is clear that the graphic work is very neat.

The sets, sometimes dark and dark, achieve a truly masterful, almost cinematic degree of atmosphere

The dialogues are in English and are downright brilliant. The voice actors do an amazing job. marking different accents and their different nationalities. The truth is that we hardly miss that they are in Spanish, but anyway we have subtitles in the language of Cervantes. The sound staging is also very successful, with background noises that manage to bring us fully into the story. The music goes somewhat unnoticed, but it is ambient and sometimes helps to create this atmosphere of tension and fear.

Conclusions Sherlock Holmes The Awakened

Sherlock Holmes the waking recovers a game from 2007 to give it a facelift and adapt it to the current scene and the current saga of Sherlock Holmes. The story and worlds that the game’s story hosts can be one of the most interesting for lovers of terror and mystery.

The story is frankly interesting and immersive and that with a good level in all sections we must Sherlock Holmes the waking it may be one, if not the best, adventure game of recent years. It’s true that it’s a remake, but given that the original is almost 20 years behind and the gameplay has changed a lot in the graphical adventures, and even more in adapting the genre to the controller and the consoles, it remains an exceptional game, it can also give us many hours of pleasure, especially if we stop at the side missions.

From the Xbox area we can only recommend this authentic game