I should start by mentioning this game was developed start to finish during a trivial time for the people of Ukraine, which is where the team resides. I hope they all stay safe and the ones who enlisted a safe return
I'll be blunt, this game is the definition of mediocre but I liked it.
Following from "SH:Chapter One" this game removes the open world aspect and becomes a watered down linear experience. That's not a bad thing but with how short the game is it makes it feel unfinished. Without going in too deep, don't expect an epic battle of Sherlock vs Lovercraftian creatures, However expect a story written to forge a bond between one of the most iconic duos.
The story is interesting for about half of the game and the other half I'm left wanting something to happen but it never does.
I will say I didn't experience any bugs or anything close to it and that's a welcome surprise.
Because the game is more linear this also causes the games detective work to be way too easy to solve which is disappointing. However the Voice Actors did a phenomenal job yet again.
I hope the team will still be around to continue this franchise in the future.

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is a decent remake of the original 2007 game, with some parts of the latter that have been adapted to make its narrative fill the role of sequel to 2021's Chapter One.

Sadly, though, The Awakened rarely reaches the heights of its predecessor. Whereas Chapter One's more open ended design allowed for more choices, opened to the possibility of mistakes during investigations and presented some great side quests; The Awakened's linearity strips the gameplay of all of these elements and dumbs down investigations to mere trial and error sequences that sometimes become frustrating to navigate as the solution might be clear in the player's mind, but cannot be applied in-game as not all objects have been interacted with or because the game forces you to follow a logic more complicated than it should be to reach the solution.

Despite this, not everything is to waste. The game's story is very well written with especially the protagonist duo shining through it, the game runs great and Frogwares' admirable knowledge and respect of the Lovecraftian mythos is present throughout the whole adventure, even if sometimes is a bit too shy to show itself compared to a game like The Sinking City.

It's also important to note how it is clear, by playing the game, how Frogwares is capable of much much more and how The Awakened's shortcomings are mainly due to the absurd situation the developers found themselves in while making the game in Ukraine in the midst of the Russian invasion that affects the country since the 24th of February, 2022.

In this sense, the fact this game even exists is a miracle and yet another proof of the absolute spiritual strenght and will power that the Ukrainian people have shown during the war. One can be certain that Frogwares will come back to the great standards of Chapter One once the war will be over, hopefully with a victorious Ukraine.

The original Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened had always piqued my curiosity, so I was thrilled when this remake was announced. I'm happy to say that The Awakened lives up to its zany premise and has reinvigorated my love for this franchise.

The Awakened is much more of a traditional adventure game that the last several Sherlock Holmes entries from Frogwares and I think the game benefits from this scaled-down approach. There are a few more open areas to explore but they are tighter and more dense than the sprawling and empty streets of Cordona in Chapter One. Investigating and gathering clues is just as engaging as before, though I did miss the less linear conclusions of the previous games' cases. I certainly did not miss the clunky combat and action sequences of the previous titles, which are thankfully missing in this remake.

As I hinted before, the story is wild in all the best ways. This story does a much better job at presenting a young and conflicted Sherlock than Chapter One, pushing him to the absolute limit. I found John Watson especially endearing, and I hope we get to see more of this version of the character.

By bringing this new, young Sherlock Holmes back to his roots, Frogwares has produced my favorite Sherlock Holmes game since 2014's Crimes and Punishments. I have no idea how they'll continue the story from here given where things ended in The Awakened, but I'm excited to find out.

It's pretty obvious that this is a downgrade compared to Chapter One but can you really blame them when they had 1 year to make it during the Ukrainian war well I can't because I am not a douchebag and it's pretty praiseworthy what they managed to pull off.
Don't really like some of the story changes like The Awakened being the first big case of the detective couple and being directly tied with the ending of Chapter One but the overall story is still intact and the changes don't bother me that much. The only change that I really dislike is the removal of Moriarty and his destiny after the The Final Problem but this being like the continuation of the origin story I can understand the removal.
The greatest addition of the remake was the Cthulhu inspired visions and puzzles that forced you to think outside the box to solve the puzzles but there were to few across the whole playthrough (I think there were 3-4 such visions).
Some of the old puzzles were removed as far as I remember but the new formula of puzzles were a nice inclusion (I don't think it's fair to complain that some clues were not so obviously hidden but I think this is a sight/skill issue). I will not say anything about the "final boss puzzle".
All in all, I guess this is a pretty standard Sherlock Frogwares game that can be played by the fans but somehow I feel that the magic of the original was lost in the translation. Maybe we'll see a strong comeback after the war with a remake of Sherlock Holmes Versus Arsène Lupin or Versus Jack the Ripper in the future .

The Game Is Afoot.

Frogwares treats us all with a remake of their own 2007 game, and as someone who had not played the original, this was a treat.

The ever looming atmosphere of a dark and gloomy London and slow tension building string ensembles lend to create a truly creepy and haunting atmosphere. It's nice to see the combat from Chapter One wasn't prominent here and the focus was solely on story telling and detective work.

A mildly underwhelming final act doesn't do much to drag this game down as yet again Frogwares delivers yet another gem in their Sherlock catalogue.

They are FINALLY locking into a groove with these games. For better or worse the investigations would get pretty complicated. Sometimes it was a simple overthought and others it was a bad mechanic or unexplained gameplay. Usually the story was enough to carry through all this. But the latest Chapter One really took a step backwards with a poor story and bad gameplay.

The Awakened ties together the studio's Lovecraftian Sinking City game (now a franchise?) with the classic Sherlock Holmes tales making for a fittingly haunting case. Sherlock's own mind palace is no longer safe and he and John have to thwart some real evil. The way they set the mood is great. And the story and characters were a lot more interesting than Sinking City too. It still had its moments where you would wander in circles wondering what to do next. But I rate this highly to signal a real step forward in these games. Looking forward to Sinking City 2!

I liked The Awakened for the most part, but I understand some of its criticisms. I don’t believe it did a good job of introducing its mechanics, so as a new player to the Sherlock Holmes series I was completely lost in the beginning. The more I played, though, the more I understood how to piece together scenes and tie in evidence; eventually it was a non-issue.

Now, I didn’t expect a horror experience but rather a detective game with horror elements, and that’s what it was. I enjoyed following the trail of a cult, the supernatural left ambiguous, sanity and the loss of it prevalent in true Lovecraft fashion. It wasn't packed with action or anything like that, but a slow burn of attempting to unravel a mystery. It's just a shame I didn't much care for the ending.

I'm a big fan of Frogwares' games, and I wery wait this game, but... something going wrong.
Oh, right, game isn't so bad: it has wounderful graphic, I mean, Frogwares really made theyr nice style, uniting a lot of realistic small parts and saving old game-style. But cause of it graphic is overloaded and not all compucters can withstand all cutscenes. Also new characters style is nice, and new characters' characters are natural better than previos. Gameplay is similiar with "Sherlock Holmes: chapter one", and it's pluse, cause "new" game style is more interesting. But we haven't open-world, which was in "Chapter one", just pair cases from Microft & and pair streets - and it's all. Also new cutscenes (SPOILER, this game is a remake) pleasantly surprised me like gamer.
But there are some problems, like a deleted scene with a very important character for other games in the series, and, honestly, gameplay's time is very much shortened: we lost some funny mini-games from 'canonicaly' game.

This is the only Sherlock Holmes game i've played. And I really thought I would enjoy it more.
I just love Cthulhu based games/movies. But Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is just "boring". The gameplay is so painfully slow, the "mindgames" in which you have to put hints into order are not fun. I got to a point where is just checked walkthroughs because the game and my brain where not compatible. For example I thought "yeah use this hint. It makes sense." but the games wants another hint instead. And this happened all the time.
Therefor it robbed almost all the fun I had with the setting.

I can understand why these games have their community. But Sherlock Holmes games are not for me.

A very solid game which is especially amazing if you remember that the developer's country is in a war right now.

I would have loved to know how much more scope the game would have gotten if the had had more time and resources.

This doesn't mean this game is bad or lacks anything - I just wish there was more of it bc I really liked it.

It is a very straightforward game and I enjoyed it a lot!

Just a shame the next one will be something completely different. I would have liked to spend more time with their version of the character.

Quite a step down from the previous game chapter one but understandably so. This was created in less than a year and done so in Ukraine whilst the Russian Invasion was just starting according to splash cards in the game itself.
With that in mind it’s very impressive what has been done here with this remake of an older Sherlock game with a heavy Lovecraft influenced story that is amazingly also a sequel to the very straight laced chapter one!
It’s a very stripped back game and a shorter, linear experience this time around. The awakened goes to some nice varied locations but you won’t have much to do in these environments compared to what came before. Some of the story felt a bit disjointed and you can see where cuts were made in order to move things along. Which is my main bugbear with the game. I found it to be quite abrupt in places and it didn’t serve the bigger mystery which felt very uneven.
The core of the game is still intact where you investigate a scene and draw your conclusion but there’s a change in that there’s no more ambiguity in whodunnit as there is only one right answer this time around and there’s no penalty to getting it wrong. The conclusion of the game was also unsatisfying as it ended in a tedious puzzle boss fight with qtes.
I’ll leave it there as I don’t want to be too harsh on the game. I genuinely hope this developer can come back stronger with the more of what they were trying to do in chapter one and leave the lovecraft/sinking city stuff behind.

Frogware, die kriegsgebeutelte Firma aus der Ukraine, meldet sich mit einem neuen Spiel aus ihrer beliebten Sherlock Holmes Reihe zurück. Bei The Awakened handelt es sich jedoch nicht um einen vollwertigen neuen Teil, sondern um ein Remake des gleichnahmigen Lovecraft Crossovers aus dem Jahre 2006. "Remake" ist hier das Stichwort, denn bis auf die Grundgeschichte über mehrere Vermisstenfälle, welche den Meisterdetektiv auf die Spur eines unheimlichen Cthulhu Kults führt, handelt es sich um eine Neuinterpretation der Vorlage.
Grafisch wird dabei auf das Grundgerüst zurückgegriffen, welches die Entwickler im Vorgänger etabliert haben. Demnach baut The Awakened auf die Ereignisse aus Chapter One auf und erzählt die Geschichte des jungen Sherlock Holmes weiter. Der konsultierende Detektiv wohnt nach seinem Abenteuer in Cordona nun in seiner berühmten Wohnung der Baker Street 221b in London. Gemeinsam mit seinem neuen Mitbewohner, Dr. John H. Watson, macht sich Holmes langsam einen Namen und baut nebenbei eine tiefe Freundschaft zum Doktor auf.
Die Interaktion zwischen den beiden literarischen Helden ist eines der Highlights des Remakes. Mit den britischen Stimmen der beiden Figuren kommt richtiges Sherlock Holmes Feeling auf, da Watsons Gentleman Attitüde wunderbar im Zusammenspiel mit Sherlocks deduktiver Herangehensweise funktioniert. Es wird aber auch die tiefe Verbundenheit beider gut herausgestellt, da "Shelley" noch an seinen traumatischen Erlebnissen aus Chapter One zu knabbern hat und Watson seine Erlebnisse aus dem Afghanistankrieg noch nicht so richtig verarbeiten konnte.
Überhaupt kommt dem kriegserfahrenen Doktor verglichen mit den letzten Teilen eine größere Bedeutung zu. Sehr oft wird man in die Rolle John Watsons schlüpfen, um entweder Holmes Ermittlungsmethoden anzuwenden, oder in Zusammenarbeit mit Sherlock bestimmte Rätselpassagen zu bewältigen. Auf Gameplayseite ändert sich dadurch nicht viel, da beide Hauptfiguren sich gleich spielen. Nur die Dialoge laufen gemäß ihres Charakters ein wenig anders ab.
Wenn man den Vorgänger Chapter One ausgiebig gezockt hat, wird man eine gute Vorstellung vom allgemeinen Spielablauf im Nachfolger haben. Man führt Dialoge mit Zeugen oder Verdächtigen, hangelt sich von Hinweis zu Hinweis und kombiniert am Ende Beweise, um zu bestimmten Schlussfolgerungen zu kommen. Während neuere Elemente wie die spannende Rekonstruktion von Tatorten weiterhin präsent sind, wurden andere Ermittlungstechniken stärker zurückgefahren. Die Kombination von Hinweisen in den Archiven etwa kommt nur noch sehr selten vor und die Chemie Rätseleinlagen sind gar komplett gestrichen worden. Neu hinzugekommen ist lediglich ein Schlösserknacken Minispiel, das aber nicht allzu herausfordernd ist sowie auch nur in den ersten Kapiteln Verwendung findet.
Dieser Stillstand oder Rückgang im Gameplay hat einen Grund: Eine Open World wie sie Frogware mit Cordona in Chapter One so wunderbar als Kulisse zum Ermitteln aufgebaut hat, ist in der Remake Fortsetzung nicht mehr vorhanden. Stattdessen geht der neue Teil linearer vonstatten. So ist die düstere Lovecraft Handlung in 8 Kapitel unterteilt, die in sich geschlossene Abschnitte beherbergt. Zum Erkunden laden diese aber nicht unbedingt ein, da sie zum Einen klein ausfallen, und zum Anderen keine Nebenbeschäftigungen wie optionale Fälle anbieten. Es sei denn, man hat die etwas teurere Deluxe Edition mit dem "Das Flüstern der Träume" Pack erworben. Dann bekommt man zusätzliche Quests geboten, die innerhalb mancher Kapitel stattfinden, aber nicht wie noch in Chapter One im Journal klar und verständlich ausgewiesen sind. Durch das Fehlen der Open World verliert The Awakened sehr vom Spielgefühl eines Detektivs, der von einem Fall zum Nächsten huscht und in den Archiven des örtlichen Polizeireviers oder dem hiesigen Zeitungsarchiv Hinweise zusammenfügt. Dafür bekommt man mit London, einer Anstalt in der Schweiz oder den Sümpfen Louisianas abwechslungsreichere Schauplätze und generell eine kompaktere Geschichte geboten.
Denn obwohl sich die Handlung um den Cthulhu Mythos langsam aufbaut, entfaltet sie ab der Mitte den typischen lovecraft'schen Wahnsinn, der den Werken des Horrorautors anhaftet. Besonders anhand des logisch denkenden Meisterdetektivs wird dieser Aspekt fesselnd herausgestellt, da Holmes die außerweltlichen Begebenheiten nur schwer fassen kann. Wünschenswert wäre es gewesen, wenn die Entwickler den langsam anheimfallenden Wahnsinn zu einem Gameplayelement gemacht hätten. Indem man beispielsweise Erscheinungen zu sehen bekommt, die nicht wirklich da sind, aber für eine konstante gruselige Stimmung sorgen. Trotz der Lovecraft Anleihen ist The Awakened nämlich kein richtiges Horrorspiel. Atmosphärisch dicht designt sind die verschiedenen Gebiete dennoch. Gerade der Abschnitt im düsteren Bayou Lousianas sticht da heraus.
Technisch haben die ukrainischen Entwickler ordentliche Arbeit geleistet. Außer zwei Abstürzen und manchen Pop-Ins sind mir keine groben Schnitzer untergekommen. Angesichts der prekären Situation, in welcher sich Frogware aufgrund des Krieges befindet, kann man das durchaus honorieren. Die Gesichtsanimationen könnten noch mit mehr Emotionen gefüllt werden, da sie immer noch etwas steif wirken. Ansonsten wird das Sherlock Holmes/Lovecraft Crossover von der Präsentation her wie gewohnt perfekt eingefangen.
Lohnt sich The Awakened für Kenner der Vorgänger? Für ein Remake ist Frogware ein gelungenes Remake gelungen, das liebevoll mit dem Material Arthur Conan Doyles sowie H. P. Lovecrafts umgeht. Darüber hinaus bekommt man eine angepasste Geschichte des Originals geboten, die wunderbar auf Chapter One aufbaut und diese um die aufkeimende Freundschaft zwischen Holmes sowie Watson erweitert. Was das Gameplay mit den verschiedenen Ermittlungstätigkeiten angeht, muss man jedoch deutliche Abstriche in Kauf nehmen. Wenn man sich eine konsequente Weiterentwicklung der Open-World aus Chapter One gewünscht hat, wird man eher enttäuscht werden. Bedenkt man aber, dass die Entwickler aufgrund der unsicheren Lage in ihrem Land bereits im Vorfeld angekündigt hatten, einen "kleineren" Teil als Nächstes im Holmes Universum anzugehen, ist ihnen immer noch ein gelungener Ableger gelungen.
Aus diesem Grund darf demnächst wieder auf ein Chapter Two hoffen. Dann vielleicht mit einem London als Open-World, das den inneren Detektiv wieder zum Leben erweckt.
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Frogware, the war-torn ukrainian company, is back with a new game in their popular Sherlock Holmes series. However, The Awakened is not a fully fledged new part, but a remake of the Lovecraft crossover of the same name from 2006. "Remake" is the keyword here, because apart from the basic story about several cases of missing people, which track down the master detective of a sinister Cthulhu cult, it is a reinterpretation of the template.
Graphically, the basic framework that the developers established in the predecessor is used. Accordingly, The Awakened builds on the events of Chapter One and continues the story of the young Sherlock Holmes. Following his adventure in Cordona, the consulting detective is now residing in his famous flat at 221b Baker Street in London. Along with his new roommate, Dr. John H. Watson, Holmes slowly makes a name for himself and develops a deep friendship with the doctor along the way.
The interaction between the two literary heroes is one of the highlights of the remake. With the British voices of the two characters, a real Sherlock Holmes feeling comes up, as Watson's gentlemanly attitude works wonderfully in combination with Sherlock's deductive approach. But the deep bond between the two is also well emphasized, since "Shelley" still has to nibble on his traumatic experiences from Chapter One and Watson hasn't really been able to process his experiences from the Afghan war yet.
In general, the war-experienced doctor is of greater importance compared to the last parts. Very often you will slip into the role of John Watson in order to either use Holmes' investigative methods or to cope with certain puzzle passages in cooperation with Sherlock. This doesn't change much on the gameplay side, since both main characters play the same way. Only the dialogues run a little differently according to their character.
If you have played the predecessor Chapter One extensively, you will have a good idea of the general gameplay in the successor. You conduct dialogues with witnesses or suspects, work your way from clue to clue and combine evidence at the end to come to certain conclusions. While newer elements such as thrilling crime scene reconstructions remain present, other investigative techniques have been scaled back more sharply. The combination of clues in the archives, for example, only occurs very rarely and the chemistry puzzle inserts have even been completely deleted. The only new addition is a lockpicking mini-game, which is not too challenging and only used in the first chapters.
There is a reason for this stagnation or decline in gameplay: An open world such as Frogware built so wonderfully with Cordona in Chapter One as a backdrop for investigation is no longer available in the remake sequel. Instead, the new part is more linear. The gloomy Lovecraft plot is divided into 8 chapters, which house self-contained sections. However, they do not necessarily invite you to explore them, since they are small on the one hand and do not offer any side activities such as optional cases on the other. Unless you bought the slightly more expensive Deluxe Edition with the "The Whispers of Dreams" pack. Then you get offered additional quests that take place within some chapters, but are not clearly and understandably shown in the journal like in Chapter One. The lack of an open world greatly robs The Awakened of the feel of a detective scurrying from one case to the next, piecing together clues in the archives of the local police station or the local newspaper archive. On the other hand, with London, an institution in Switzerland or the swamps of Louisiana, you get more varied locations and a generally more compact story.
Because although the plot of the Cthulhu myth slowly builds up, from the middle it unfolds the typical lovecraftian madness that is inherent in the works of the horror author. This aspect is highlighted in a particularly captivating way by the logically thinking master detective, since Holmes finds it difficult to comprehend the otherworldly events. It would have been desirable if the developers had made the slowly falling madness a gameplay element. For example, by seeing apparitions that aren't really there but create a constant spooky mood. Despite the Lovecraft leanings, The Awakened isn't really a horror game. The various areas are nevertheless atmospherically densely designed. The section in the gloomy Bayou of Louisiana in particular stands out.
Technically, the Ukrainian developers have done a decent job. Apart from two crashes and a few pop-ins, I didn't encounter any major blunders. In view of the precarious situation in which Frogware finds itself due to the war, this can definitely be honored. The facial animations could still be filled with more emotion as they still seem a bit stiff. Otherwise, the Sherlock Holmes/Lovecraft crossover is perfectly captured as usual in terms of presentation.
Is The Awakened worthwhile for connoisseurs of the predecessors? For a remake, Frogware has managed a successful job that lovingly deals with the material of Arthur Conan Doyle and H. P. Lovecraft. There's also an adapted story from the original that builds beautifully on Chapter One and expands on the budding friendship between Holmes and Watson. As far as the gameplay with the various investigative activities is concerned, however, you have to accept significant cuts. If you wanted a consistent further development of the open world from Chapter One, you will be disappointed. But if you consider that the developers had already announced in advance that they would tackle a "smaller" part in the Holmes universe due to the uncertain situation in their country, they still managed to create a good offshoot.
For this reason, we can hope for a Chapter Two again soon. Then maybe with a London as an open world that brings the inner detective back to life.