Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (2007)

This would be the third Frogware Sherlock Holmes game under my belt, and you can really see how they have improved over the years. The gameplay & graphics are identical to that of Jack the Ripper, so see my review on that. It's still a simple point'n'click, best played in 1st Person. You don't play as Watson nearly as much in this game either.

The story of this game is a bit different from the other Holmes games. Our mystery this time around doesn't center on a suspicious murder & mental mind games, instead being more of an Indiana Jones style, globetrotting adventure. You are chasing a cult of evil doers across locations such as England, of course, Switzerland, Scotland, and my favorite, New Orleans. It was an interesting mash-up to see the sensible Sherlock & Watson in the Wild West-ish river town. And with the visit to Switzerland, we get a cameo of Holmesian villain, Moriarty. He's a vegetable prisoner when you find him, but I expected him to show back up as part of the mystery, but they seem to be saving him for a sequel.
The evil cult is a group that worships Cthulhu, which in all honesty, I never really got into the Cthulhu mythos. I feel Lovecraft is a bit overrated. As such, the story never really engaged me like Jack the Ripper's. One thing that hadn't yet been developed for this game was the deduction board where you could work out the possible solutions. instead we had these kinda crappy quizzes where I never knew what answer Sherlock was looking for. (Thank you walkthroughs).

All in all, I find this the weakest of the Sherlock games I've played. I wasn't able to follow the mystery that well and the ending was lackluster with some random guy we've never met, and I never found out what happened to the Maori servant. I didn't really care. The puzzles were still good at least.

I believe my original copy was first purchased in a Best Buy - packaged in one of those over-sized cardboard boxes with nice graphics printed all over it, yet a small CD jewel case inside.

The game is a simple point-and-click and I remember having difficulty solving the "clues", but still being able to complete the game. The graphics for the characters appeared very, very 2D, but the environments looked fine and the voice acting was great. Not really a game anyhow, more of a slightly-interactive animated story as there are lots & lots of cutscenes.

A nice way to pass the time and Frogwares is STILL making Sherlock Holmes games, so I recommend this version if you are a fan of the genre. If beautiful graphics are a must-have for you, find the remastered version on Steam.

Still have a burned copy of the game on CD, but I have long-since lost the activation key.