Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is the third entry to Frogwares' Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series. This time it involves a case that delves into H.P. Lovecraft's 'Cthulhu Mythos'. Due to its subject matter and occasionally graphic scenes, it is the first Sherlock Holmes game to get an 'M' rating.
Story
6 September, 1894, a bored Sherlock Holmes stares out his window. The detective is going through another frustrating dry spell where no case has presented itself worthy of his talents. He's about to get his wish.
Word soon reaches him of the disappearance of a young Maori manservant who works for the wealthy Captain Stenwick. Holmes quickly deduces that the boy had not left of his own choice, but was kidnapped by two men. Following the clues takes them to the docks near the River Thames, where Holmes and John Watson soon learn that many similar 'disappearances' have occurred. Further investigation turns up a bizarre subterranean 'temple' where they come across a bloodied (and tortured) corpse upon a strange sacrificial altar set before an equally strange statue of a horrific tentacled creature.
Sherlock soon realises that there is much more to this case than even he could've imagined when he initially began. His search for answers will take him not only to 'The Continent' but across the Atlantic to America itself, unravelling a dark plot along the way.
Gameplay
With its initial release, the game was done in full-roaming First Person Perspective, then in 2008 it was re-released with a new option to switch to a Third-Person Perspective (classic point-n-click perspective) along with improved graphics.
Allusions
- In one of the newspaper articles, mention is made of a daring robbery in France by a thief who left his initials "A.L", an obvious foreshadowing of the crossover game yet to come in the next entry which would pit Holmes against master thief Arsene Lupin.
- During the train ride back to England, a young boy enters the room of Holmes and Watson. The child hands Sherlock a puzzle box, to which the Master Detective easily solves. Watson gives the boy advice on using "his little grey cells" to help him solve such mysteries. The child's mother comes looking for him. His name is Hercule. This is a nod to Frogwares earlier "Agatha Christie" series of games, most of which starred her famous detective Hercule Poirot.