Faisal Ghaffar 
The most iconic detective in the world confronted the ghosts from his past in Sherlock Holmes Chapter One that was released in 2021. But, in Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, he dusts off his deerstalker cap to look into a cult that appears to be worshipping a Cthulu-like, cosmic presence. While HP Lovecraft’s influence is clearly visible, the mystery that you will come across in The Awakened is not that heavy on the scares.
As a matter of fact, most of the attempts come off as unsettling or silly rather than spine-chilling. Even though there is still a lot crime scene recreation and investigations that you have to indulge in during the 10 hours of gameplay, but the lack of fear made the story a bit difficult to buy.
The remake
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is a remake of an adventure in 2007 of the same name and the same engine has been used for rebuilding it that was behind Chapter One. However, they have slightly retooled its plot for making it into a direct sequel of the story that was told back in 2021. The friendship of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson is still very new, with the former pressing the latter for information about what happened in Chapter One on the island of Cordona.
Watson wants to figure out what makes Sherlock tick and is attempting to peel off the layers. The performances and writing are of a reasonable standard, but the dialogue between the two friends could have used some work. The lip syncing is really loose and this eventually becomes very distracting. In Chapter One, there was an open-world island setting, which included a variety of side stories and cases to cover.
But, the same does not apply to The Awakened because it has a more linear story in which both Watson and Holmes go from the streets of London to other countries. These include the Swiss Alps as well as New Orleans and then back to London. There is a lot of exploration to be done in these settings, but the game does not offer a lot of incentive to do so.
The investigations
For the most part, Sherlock does his crime scene investigations the same way as he did in Chapter One. You will be presented with the aftermath of some crime and you have to first gather evidence like footprints and bloodstains. Next, you have to interview the victim’s known acquaintances or potential witnesses and then shuffle through the scenarios to put together the sequence of events.
Putting it all together can undoubtedly be quite rewarding, but the fact is that The Awakened has cases that are a lot more straightforward than the previous game. The crimes are not that imaginative and the risk of not solving them is also very little. Likewise, it also lacks the disguise system that had been seen in Chapter One and this makes the casework a tad superficial.
The Verdict
While Chapter One did have its own flaws, it was still a good detective simulation. The Awakened may be a remake, but it feels like an inferior one and does not have a lot of scares, which can be a bit disappointing. If you do not want cases too complex to solve, you will certainly enjoy it.
