If there’s one thing I know about Frogwares, it’s that they love Cthulhu. If there’s two things I know about Frogwares, it’s that they love making Sherlock Holmes games, to the point that this one was funded through Kickstarter (so, yes, it is ALSO a Kickstarter game that’s actually coming out, truly this is the time of miracles. Combining the two? MADNESS, MY GOOD SIR, SIMPLY MADNESS. Sorry, you have to talk like that for a Sherlock Holmes game.
The Awakened is an “early” Sherlock Holmes game, where he and Doctor Watson are simply good friends and roommates and NOTHING ELSE, sickos (I am a historian and I know this to be true). As someone that enjoys Sherlock Holmes, it’s pretty funny that he’ll go on to face Moriarty, who has to be much less intimidating than Cthulhu. Sorry for the spoilers on a property over a century old, please don’t send me hate mail. I mean I won’t read it anyway so don’t send it.
The preview build I played began with a classic scene: a black stagecoach cutting through foggy woods, crows cawing overhead, on its way to an ominous gothic building that turned out to be a mental asylum run by a spooky woman with a thick German accent. Frankly, either you rolled your eyes or you hooted and hollered when I wrote that, and it is for the hooters and hollerers that I write.
The Awakened is a game that really leans into its atmosphere, like I said above. Even the cutscenes are all tight close ups of faces and zooms and mood. Someone’s been watching the Bela Lugosi Dracula is all I’m saying. You are either going to love creeping around an ominous asylum where terrible things are afoot or you’re taking to Twitter to complain about the creepy asylum trope.
As Doctor Watson and…others…(sorry, I only spoil for when it’s a century old), you skulk around the creepy asylum doing some detective shit. This isn’t one of those games where violence is always an option. You have to investigate and solve puzzles. You can go into your MIND PALACE to put together clues. You imagine and rebuild investigation scenes. You run around trying to figure out what you missed, who you need to talk to, and what conversation options advance you.
It’s not subtle is what I’m saying. It’s not going to seduce you into enjoying it if it’s not your thing. But if you want a creepy Sherlock Holmes adventure with some fantastic and moody atmosphere and some fiendish atmosphere…THE GAME IS AFOOT!
Also, Frogwares is Ukranian, so not only are they delivering a Kickstarter game when people can’t do that in countries not literally being invaded by Russia, they are doing it when, as stated, their homeland is literally being invaded by Russia. And it’s pretty, pretty, pretty good if you enjoy spooky investigations, so give them some love.
