#sherlock holmes chapter one gameplay

[shelma32entertainment]

Shelma32 Plays : Sherlock Holmes - Chapter One | PS5 | #05

#shelma32 #youtube #lets play sherlock holmes #youtube lets play #shelma32 gaming #lets play #sherlock holmes chapter one gameplay #shelma32 plays sherlock holmes #sherlock holmes chapter one #sherlock holmes game

[elionwriter]

Sherlock Holmes the Awakened: a Review

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

Sorry, sorry, sorry, but I just NEED to talk about this game! I have been a Frogwares Holmes fan since the very beginning and 'The Awakened' was always among my favourite titles. Not to mention one of the games that had scared the wits out of me. So I have to speak about the Remake now.

First and foremost, I think it needs to be reiterated that this game was made DURING THE FU****G INVASION OF UKRAINE! During such dark times, the team kept working on this. I would have supported this game even just for this reason alone.

Now, let's be honest: Frogwares never had the most marvelous graphics nor the most polished of gameplays and this entry is not an exception. I still feel the map system is a bit difficult to navigate (I may be an idiot, but I had the same issue with Chapter 1) but I really appreciated the added help the game gives you when you're recreating a scene, letting you know which passage you got wrong. Last game I found myself changing everything trying to hit the right combination so I really liked this fix.

This needs to be said: the game doesn't feel under any shape or form a product for a new fan. Everything from dialogues to game mechanics sort of take for granted that you've at least played 'chapter one'. Honestly? I'm ok with this, I hate having to always go through nearly identical tutorial stages for games I know inside out (like Pokémon) and I believe that most of not all people who are going to get this game ARE old fans!

I wasn't originally a big fan of the new Holmes and Watson models when the last game came out but....I dunno, they have grown on me. I find myself liking them now for, I suppose, no other reason than 'they are very expressive' and 'I've gotten used to them'. I think it's gotten to the point that these might be my favourite models of the two to date. Please ignore how fickle I am! (In honesty, just to draw a similar parallel, when Roger Craig Smith was first announced as Sonic's voice I hated it and now he's my fav Sonic v. actor)

This game has something.....compared to its predecessor, that makes it less scary. I can't really put my finger on it, but I distinctly remember the feeling of claustrophobia building in me when I was in the Black Edelweiss. Or the sheer jumpscare I got when the sacrificed American detective on the altar had tentacles coming out of it and severing his head making it roll to the ground. I remember almost not wanting to paddle the rowboat under the tree of hanging men in the Bayou. I remember how viscerally sick I felt at the lighthouse by all the gore and blood depicted. This time round.....I just didn't. I'm honestly not sure why this didn't hit me nearly as hard as its 2006 predecessor did!

And talking about comparisons, one thing I'm a bit disappointed they didn't grab the chance to do in this remake was fix the loose ends that were left hanging in the 2006 version. I mean....they still abandoned completely the search for that one Maori servant, what happened to all the people they managed to rescue? Who hired the private American detective that was killed? Why give out the cheap pendants? I know I'm a bit dumb and need extra explaining than what is necessarily needed but...I can't be the only one right? Sometimes you want to be told just a bit more.

Now, getting into the really good bits, that make all of it worth it!

'Chapter One' acted as a 'de facto' reboot of the Frogwares Holmes series, and I honestly think that was for the best. I don't really see where they could have gone with things after 'Devil's Daughter' and their Holmes had changed too much to be the same guy from 'The Silver Earring'...let alone Watson. But like this? They have a fresh, clean slate to start off from and they can rebuild the two mains' relashionship and lore from the ground up in a more strictly consequential manner. And the way they are doing it? I think it's state of the art!

The fact that they poke fun at themselves on certain points like Watson stating: "What about when you used to roll up only one of your sleeves? Did you get bored halfway through?!" I think the Devs themselves realized this was a cringe design choice and I like that they said so out loud.

The meta-conversation they wrote in towards the end, 'because yes, this HAS Happened before and the story still has the same outcome', is brilliant. I don't think I've ever seen another remake that acknowledges that it is a remake, and in the general madness that is mounting in the narrative this makes perfect sense! It adds one more layer of horror and inexplicable to the tale. The villain's warning 'that the Final Problem is coming and Sherlock will fall in the abyss too' is such a powerful way to use Canon. The prophecy is only made more real and dreadful by the fact that this person is aware of what has already happen in a similar but different scenario!

Also, not them using that one quote from 'The Valley of Fear' novel which happens to be one of my all time favourites!

I say, Watson,’ he whispered, ‘would you be afraid to sleep in the same room as a lunatic, a man with softening of the brain, an idiot whose mind has lost its grip?’ ‘Not in the least,’ I answered in astonishment. 'Ah, that’s lucky,’ he said, and not another word would he utter.

I think the thing that has most benefited from the Remake is Watson's character. Compared to the 2006 version, this Watson is a truly compelling character in his own right and this time round he's not just along for the ride. In this version, you simply cannot imagine how Holmes would have done it on his own. Watson was in every way a key component to the solution of the problem and the reason why Holmes didn't drown in madness. That point is driven home by Rochester asking 'How did you defeat me?' and Holmes answering 'I made a friend!'

Much of the narrative in the game was focused on Holmes truly learning to accept Watson's friendship and him as a person when he was still clinging so much to his old imaginary friend. You can see how, at first, Holmes refuses to be honest with the Doctor about what he thinks and feels and it's only as they move forward in the adventure that they both open up to each other. You can see as the adventure progresses that Holmes shifts his desperate cries from 'Jon' to 'Watson' to 'John' and the Doctor goes more and more often from 'Holmes' to 'Sherlock'. Mycroft also points this out when he says that Sherlock 'went from one Jon to another'. But this one, John Watson, is real and there to stay. In the context of a story that happens mostly in the detective's mind, Watson's friendship is really what turns the situation around!

I could add of little tid bits which were so random and on the nose that somehow worked, like the possessed 'Heidi' doll or the fact that you had to actually 'Kill Holmes' with the booby traps instead of avoiding them.

Also, "The director Guygax was randomly killed.....by a doll?!????!?!?! Yeah, let's just walk out of here no questions asked. That's too deep a wormhole even for this f***d up Adventure to go down. I'm sure nobody is gonna ask us questions, suspect or stop us as we go out the main doors!" 😃 -Holmes, probably.

So, yeah, I loved this game despite it not being perfect and my love and support goes to Frogwares more that ever!

#sherlock Holmes the awakened #sherlock holmes chapter one #sherlock holmes #john watson #frogwares holmes #sherlock holmes devil's daughter #holmes x watson #sherlock x john #sherlock and jon #jon #mycroft holmes #chtulhu #eldrich horror #lovecrafian

[rachelkaser]

Thoughts On . . . Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened Remake

Frogwares’ remake of Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is one of the most unsung game releases of 2023. So let’s take a quick look at the new features of the title and how they compare with the original.

If you’re unaware, Frogwares is a studio based in Ukraine, a country currently repelling a Russian invasion. The devs have repeatedly addressed their struggles and yet they launched it anyway. For that reason, I feel it would be inappropriate to score The Awakened. I make an effort in all my reviews to respect the developers who’ve put in the work to make the game I’m playing, even if I’m not a fan of the game itself. But making a game during an actual and presently-occurring war is another matter entirely.

That being said, I think The Awakened Remake merits examination, even if I don’t want to review it. If nothing else, the game is a fascinating glimpse into the evolving story of point-and-click adventure games and their place in the greater gaming landscape. It’s also instructive to compare the two different Holmeses, to see how the character changes with several years of pop culture reshaping.

Second Awakening

The Awakened Remake feels like the culmination of Frogwares’ attempts to evolve its signature adventure game series from a post-Syberia form to a post-Telltale form. In the Dark Ages (a.k.a. the early aughts), adventure games adhered almost religiously to the Grim Fandango style: Third-person clicking navigation with viewpoints fixed in what I call “security camera” position. The Awakened (the original, that is), began the transition away from that to first-person exploration -- the Myst style, if you will.

The series continued to experiment with different stories and gameplay types. It vacillated between first- and third-person, tested new detection mechanics, and even dipped into true crime with the audacious Jack the Ripper recreation. The series rebooted with The Devil’s Daughter (though it retained at least a few story details unique to the previous game series). I’m not sure whether Chapter One and The Awakened Remake are set in the same continuity, though the retention of the new voice cast would suggest so.

Now here we are in 2023, and what does a Sherlock Holmes adventure game look like? It’s a third-person exploration title with an over-the-shoulder camera and the environments are a series of contained maps. In other words, it looks like several of Telltale’s later titles, or Dontnod’s. That’s not a bad thing . . . it’s just an observation of how the medium has evolved and Frogwares’ Holmes along with it.

The Awakened remake is also a microcosm of Sherlock Holmes’ . . . let us say “changeable” position in pop culture. The Holmes of the original Awakened was more of a Jeremy Brett-style depiction, hewing close to the source material’s dry wit and intense focus. The Holmes of the remake, on the other hand is -- being blunt -- young, hot, and mentally unwell. It’s not really to my taste, I’m not gonna lie. It’s clear the impetus for this comes from BBC Sherlock, which I despise. But the remake Holmes has an earnest gumption I’ve never seen in the character before -- it’s a choice, and not one I dislike.

Lovecraft’s Walking Tour

One of the benefits of remaking Awakened is that Frogwares has a chance to elevate a game that, through a combination of underpowered graphics and muddy art design, never had a chance to serve Lovecraftian horror as it’s meant to be served. And for the most part, they did -- there’s a creeping sense of wrongness on the periphery of most scenes, at least when you play as Holmes, a feeling that something isn’t quite right.

That’s the essence of Lovecraftian horror, in my opinion, this sense that something’s wrong, but there’s no way for your tiny human brain to understand what. One of the reasons I enjoy both iterations of this game is because Sherlock Holmes is the type of person who would absolutely refuse to accept there’s something his brain can’t comprehend. That makes him uniquely vulnerable to being overwhelmed by that sensation. Watson’s POV is more grounded and reliable by comparison.

The locations are mostly similar to what they were in the original, though the asylum section is much shorter and cuts out a subplot foreshadowing the arrival of one Moriarty. New Orleans serves a nice slice of Southern Gothic horror to balance out the traditional European Gothic elsewhere in the game. It’s a bit of a shame that Frogware’s didn’t correct one particular oversight: For a game based on Lovecraft’s work, we never go to New England, Lovecraft Country itself.

As far as gameplay goes, I only have one major complaint: This game desperately needs an auto-run option. Or at the very least, the sprint button needs to be sticky -- meaning, you press it once and the characters run until you press it again. Having to hold down a button to get them to get a jog on feels archaic, especially since the environments are much bigger than in your average adventure game.

Our next case, Watson?

Point-and-click adventure games will never be to everyone’s taste, no matter how much a developer might wish to court a bigger audience. Aiming for the Walking Dead/Life is Strange is a wise choice of direction for the Frogwares’ series if it’s going to capture any mainstream appeal while retaining its identity. That is to say: This is a good remake and I like where Frogwares is going with its new series.

Assuming the new series will follow the old, we’re looking at a remake of Sherlock Holmes vs Arsene Lupin next. Sherlock Holmes, tormented lad that he is in the new series, definitely deserves a lighthearted chase with a gentleman thief, so I’m looking forward to what Frogwares does next. My best wishes to them!

#sherlock holmes the awakened #midweek madness #sherlock holmes #frogwares #frogwares sherlock #frogwares watson

[sygneth]

hi hello. i just need to send an ask to someone about how Frogwares Remakes Holmes is afraid of water to the point of passing out in it, and how if I were writing a sherlock holmes/cthulhu mythos crossover i would definitely play with that concept more. can you imagine how he must have felt during the swamp chapter

YES!! I have been thinking about this definitely too much... I know this is mainly for gameplay reasons but I 100% agree it has so much potential! (Btw, I love the concept itself. It makes Holmes seem so... simply human. I think Frogwares did such a great job on Holmes' portrayal in general, they didn't go into the "cold detached logician without emotions" trope and I am SO HAPPY they didn't. This Holmes is nearly 1:1 how I see canon!Holmes, and he is so human in it. And small details like this, they just give depth to the character, and I think this is a great use of the fact that here in fact we see Holmes as he is, with all the aspects that Watson would obviously omit in the stories.... Yeah, I wouldn't miss an opportunity to write an epiphany on a great reading of Holmes)

And the swamps.... I don't think I can even imagine. Honestly, I think it would be great if they addressed that somehow in this part, even Watson asking Holmes if he is alright, would be something.

(And if I am not mistaken, the only locations when there is enough water to make his pass out are the ones where Watson is with us? So I always imagine Watson pulling Holmes out of it, and I was almost disappointed that he didn't even comment on that.)

This is one mess of an answer but! What I mean to say is I am totally with you on this, I love this aspect of the game and I only wish they played with it a little bit more

#asks #northeasternwind #sherlock holmes #frogwares holmes #sherlock holmes the awakened #huh this is what happens when you give me an opportunity to discuss SH media.... essays instead of a normal answer #thank you for the ask #i love when people smack me with their theories/thoughts/ideas on my fav media (/gen)

[kyndaris]

A Great Detective's Beginning

I think I've said before that Sherlock Holmes is a character I greatly admire. Ever since reading about his adventures in a huge omnibus collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work, I wanted to emulate the great detective in all things with a doctor companion by my side. The art of observation was something I attempted to train my younger self in by studying the fingers of a stranger or the scuffs on their shoes for just a hint of what it might tell me about their life.

Unfortunately, it's not every day one stumbles on a murder. Second, it's not like many a policeman would allow a random civilian to take part in their investigations. Life, it seems, is unlike the world of my many stories. A shame, really. I feel like I would have been an excellent sidekick to the great Sherlock Holmes.

Since my childhood dream is but an impossibility, playing as Sherlock Holmes in a series of video games has become the next best thing for someone like me.

Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One released in 2021 and was developed by Frogwares, a video game developer headquartered in Ukraine. Over the years, I've played many a game that they've churned out. While the quality is middling at best - given the studio straddles the line of indie developer and triple-A studio - there is something endearing about their games that keep me coming back for more. Jankiness be damned!

Chapter One is set in Sherlock's younger years before he meets his erstwhile companion, Dr John Watson. While the game demonstrates that Sherlock has always had a special talent for deduction, there is an uncertainty to the character that we meet as he ponders the best way to utilise the truth. For example, one of the latter cases involved handing over incriminating evidence of a leading political leader of Cordona to better the lives of all African refugees. True, Sherlock could publish the information and see another corrupt politician fall, but doing so would not serve to benefit many an individual. Nor would it see restitution to the victim.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Chapter One centres on Sherlock visitng the island of Cordona, a fictional island that feels like it borrows elements from Cyprus and Malta's history. Our not-quite-great detective arrives to visit his mother's, Violet Holmes, grave. Upon immediately disembarking, he is embroiled in one mystery of another sparked by a challenge from his companion, Jon.

The Jon that stars in Chapter One is no doctor, however. Rather, he is Sherlock's imaginary friend. Because of this, Frogwares is able to incorporate their janky gameplay for narrative purposes, such as the teleporting John Watson from the good old days, the vanishing and clipping of Jon as he fades in and out of existence, or the fact that he is able to walk up walls.

He's not real to the people of Cordona and is a figment of Sherlock's imagination.

This plays into the story of the game as well, culminating in a showdown as Sherlock reckons with a traumatic event from the past. While I didn't like the choices that eventuated - agreeing with many people on Reddit that the logic Sherlock incorporated in his assessment of what had happened to his mother when he was ten was a little harsh - I did very much being given the opportunity to take a peek at a Sherlock before the one many of us fans see in his first novel appearance: A Study in Scarlet.

From a gameplay perspective, Chapter One incorporated many elements from the previous games including the mind palace and the connecting of clues to make deductions. Though 221b Baker Street didn't exist, Sherlock was able to make use of the archives in the city of Cordona and seemingly carried a box of chemicals with him to deduce whatever strange fluid he stumbled upon. This streamlined a lot of the gameplay from older games and also made sense from a story narrative.

My main issue, of course, was failing to take into consideration elements of the environment or character writing/ behaviour when making my deductions to certain cases and allowing my own biases to shine through. For example, the very first case. I very much wanted it to be the prone-to-anger partner, who acted like a rich entitled arsehole.

Alas, it was the poor spirit medium.

The other cases didn't have such clear cut culprits, with many open to interpretation. Fortunately, there were three major side quests that were able to fill the void left open by the need to have a very obvious antagonist - leading up to Sherlock wowing them with his deductive prowess before breaking down.

This added additional flavour to the island of Cordona, even as it worried me that so many murders or accidental manslaughter could be happening in and around the island.

Still, as a mystery nut, I very much appreciated how much of these cases Frogwares scattered throughout the game and probably would have preferred some more if I'm being perfectly honest.

Then, of course, there were the combat elements Frogwares included in their game. While previous titles didn't have as much action sequences beyond a few quick-time action button presses, here, Sherlock was facing off against various thugs. Most of these involved stunning them by shooting at weakpoints (such as their hat or a molotov cocktail strapped to their back) before rushing forward to knock them out.

While these encounters added a little spice to the usual 'go here' and 'search for clues' aspect of the game, these elements did also become quite repetitive due to how little these elements changed from encounter to encounter.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Chapter One much more than I did Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong solely because of how open the game world was and how much it tickled the itch I had to deduct the events of what happened. While I appreciated Jon's commentary of my greatness, I was also aggrieved when certain things I did, which felt logical at the time, were gated by how the game wished for Sherlock to proceed with a certain clue or piece of information.

In the end, though Chapter One still made me feel like I knew what I was doing. And honestly, that's probably the only real way to make a consulting detective of a modern-day 30 year-old woman who grew up reading tales of Victorian England and obsessing over the BBC version of Sherlock in the year of 2010, starring the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.

#video games #sherlock holmes: chapter one #detective #island of cordona #221b #john watson #sherlock holmes #mycroft holmes #frogwares

[mejomonster]

Sherlock holmes the awakened opens amd sherlock is a nightmare roommate. But in his defense, watson did say he was lazy before moving in, so based on that you wouldnt really know if john does chores or just leaves the house a mess. So if sherlock Makes it a mess and likes it left that way i suppose lazy could be a positive to him. But my god sherlock u cant just eat a roommates leftovers! People have fought and moved out over that kind of stuff ToT that was his dinner ToT

Anyway. Plot wise i like that our first case is about if a bookstore owner is ordinary or an assassin. And how you can to a degree try to frame him as an assassin for a little while. Its a nice shout out to how in Chapter One young sherlock very much could be wrong or not totally sure which conclusion is right, and how even though in theory hes wiser now... his own personality can still lead to drawing the wrong conclusions if he doesnt keep in mind his own tendencies and the limitations of making conclusions (that until proven deeply, there may be multiple right seeming options). Its a good lesson too gameplay wise if the game will let us be wrong later. But mostly i think its just a nice parallel from younger to now somewhat wiser sherlock, who gets lost in fantasy (lile young sherlock and jon) at times. And if the mystery IS going to be truly supernatural, then the idea of questioning whats real or fantasy in the bookstore owner case is a great intro to much more high stakes and daunting questions later.

#sherlock holmes the awakened #lb #its a nice little establishing scene

[jigensass]

Please Frogwares I am begging you

All these Easter Eggs cannot be leading up to nothing. You cannot be giving me the biggest cock tease of my life right now. If you are able to remake one more game in your Sherlock catalog.

PLEASE LET IT BE THIS ONE.

Spoilers for Sherlock Holmes the Awakened

There is a character who you have to same whose last name is Arsenson.

Say that really fast.

Frogwares aka the Ukrainian gigachads despite their hardships over the past year, managed to make a remake of one of their really old games, Sherlock Lovecraft, in one year with Kickstarter money.

It is a lot less dense than Chapter One, but given that this is a remake and due to circumstances, the game is really good so far in terms of story and honing in on the detective part of the gameplay (but thank God they got rid of those combat sections).

If there is a game that they need to remake from their ancient collection next it is Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis aka Sherlock vs. Lupin. (I will give $500 to the Kickstarter if you guys can get Tony Oliver to do a shitty French accent)

#sherlock holmes the awakened #spoilers #arsene lupin

[anniacal]

Octopath Traveler 2 is Finished

So, we just beat Octopath Traveler 2, and there are SO many thoughts to run through. As a start, this is the only sequel we've ever seen that is OBJECTIVELY better than the original game. Everything you may have enjoyed about the Octopath concept is enhanced and iterated upon, and most of the original criticisms are mostly or completely gone. The day/night system may be the most involved use of a day/night concept in any game. SO MUCH revolves around this system in story, theming, and of course gameplay.

So we decided to choose Castti, the Apothecary as our protagonist. We started with Ophelia in the first game, and it was enjoyable having a healer as a protagonist. At face value, Castti appealed to us more than Temenos, the Cleric.

This was our introduction to the new mechanic of this game: Latent Power. It's your standard JRPG "take damage and do good thing to fill gauge" mechanic, and they're specifically tailored to each character. They are as follows: Ochette - Choice of 1 of 3 super moves

Castti - Concoct without using any materials

Throné - Perform a second action within the same turn

Osvald - Transform a multi-hit spell into a single-hit spell with increased damage.

Partitio - Instantly gain a full 5 BP

Agnea - Transform a single-target attack or buff into a multi-target

Temenos - Make every hit for that turn reduce the enemy's shield points towards a break, regardless of the attack type

Hikari - Choice of 1 of 3 super moves (very different from Ochette's)

Several base class move-sets have been altered to fuse previous skills and create more options overall. For example, Apothecary's single heal and single revive skills have been combined into one skill. Scholar by far got the biggest buff. All hit counts of each element are contained in the same 3 skills with 2 other skills enhancing them to 2 or 3 hits. The divine skill in Octopath 1 also became Osvald's latent power in 2. This opens up room for 2 brand new skills: Elemental Barrage and Stroke of Genius, both providing Scholars with way more versatility.

(Images taken from the Octopath Fandom Wiki)

The 8 individual main stories (Octopaths if you will) are way more interesting and less predictable than their original counterparts. None of them have the original game's predictable 4 act structure with 3 McGuffins to take/kill/find. The premises and introductions of the Paths alone are a huge upgrade. As an example, compare Ophelia to Temenos, the Clerics of each game. Ophelia's premise is simply a pilgrimage to various churches with some heresy sprinkled in along the way. Temenos' on the other hand, involves a whole Sherlock-Holmes-esque murder mystery led by a cleric who prioritizes doubt, scoffs at others' claims of his supposed heresy, and provides fascinating insight on the nature of being religious, all with a healthy dose of sass.

The other major criticism that was thankfully averted was the lack of party interaction. A JRPG party barely interacting with each other is frankly a baffling decision. The original 8 Travelers didn't so much as have a voice-acted line addressing any other Traveler. Octopath 2 resolves this issue in several ways, most obviously with inter-battle banter similar to Xenoblade. It's amazing how much these details make the party feel so much more like a group of friends. It's so nice to hear Agnea say "Great job, Osvald!" when Osvald breaks an enemy, or Castti shout "Ochette!" when Ochette gets hit for a massive chunk of damage right before Castti's turn. They didn't stop there, however. They also introduced more main story content in the form of "Crossed Paths".

The Crossed Paths involve certain duos having a chapter between the 2 of them with all that tasty party interaction you've been craving. Sadly, there are only 4 storylines of crossed paths, but frankly, this 100-hour experience is packed as is. We didn't really crave more party interaction by the end of it all.

Overall, this was a fabulous experience. Way better than the 1st game, and easily our favorite game of 2023. We will be eagerly anticipating a potential Octopath 3.

#octopath traveler 2 #Octopath 2 #ot2

[shelma32entertainment]

Shelma32 Plays : Sherlock Holmes - Chapter One | PS5 | #02

#shelma32 #shelma32 lets play #shelma32 plays sherlock holmes #sherlock holmes chapter one gameplay #lets play sherlock holmes chapter one #sherlock holmes chapter one

[hey-sherry]

Picking out the new stuff from the Kickstarter page!

The Awakened is set a few years after the events of our latest game, Sherlock Holmes Chapter One. Holmes and Watson are merely roommates renting a flat at 221B Baker street. It’s the events of this adventure that will turn them into the iconic crime-solving duo of best friends, and it’s the only story that Watson will never reveal to the public - the world will be better off being ignorant of what really transpired. 

WHEN I TELL YOU I SNORTED AT THE “MERELY ROOMMATES” LINE

[...] we are rewriting the story to be a direct continuation of our young Sherlock history, diving into the key events in his formative years that could have led him to become the flawed and broken genius we all know so well.

So he will be McLosing It and I CANNOT WAIIITTT

We are also treating this game as the first real case Sherlock undertakes with Watson and making story changes to be more reflective of how such a harrowing endeavor could bring them closer together.  Put simply, this is not a just remaster. It is a full-scale remake where the only assets from the original game we are using are the general case plots. 

Awesome! + removes my worry that we’d get a repeat of the 2006 asylum level...

Along the way, you’ll encounter gruesome details about the cult and truths that no mortal should ever be privy to. Sherlock's involvement in this investigation will begin to test and break his mind. 

EHEHEHEEE YES

Another key feature that will make a comeback is the Deduction Board \ Mind Palace. It will allow you to piece your evidence together to reveal the possible motives and whereabouts of your next suspect or clue. The chaotic feel and design of the Deduction Board will reflect Sherlock's decaying mental state, as seen below. Afterall, it’s hard to piece your thoughts when you’re losing your mind.

That looks heckin’ cool! Sherlock losing his mind yes please

The insanity puzzles are based on two main pillars: Lovecraftian atmosphere of hopelessness and fear of the unknown as well as otherworldly environments. Solving those puzzles will require experimentation and outside-of-the-box thinking. 

I really missed puzzles in SHCO so this sounds really really good!

Sherlock’s appearance will mirror his mental state - the more it deteriorates, the more exhausted and raggedy he will look. 

Ah heck, now I have to play well and use my noggin’ to have him shave?? Boooo! :P

We have decided to go with a semi-open world structure because of the war. These are extreme circumstances and we simply cannot afford to get dragged into the whirlpool of design and optimization problems tied to open-world maps. Shifting to a semi-open-world approach will help us focus on a tighter narrative and gameplay mechanics. 

The circumstances are unfortunate but I love this change! The open world was a weak point in SHCO, not only because it was so empty, but because of the really bad framerates and how washed out the lighting looked. The game was stellar in closed off areas, though. Semi-open world solves all of these problems.

The Awakened is being built on our established principle of creating gameplay that has as little hand-holding as possible. In short, the game will never blatantly tell you what to do next. 

Loves it <3

#sherlock holmes chapter one #sherlock holmes #sherlock holmes the awakened #news #frogwares #john watson #shaking screaming crying

[dundunny]

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened

And within the same day, I beat another game. When my friend watched me playing, he commented how he recently read the breadth of the works and could not recall any scene in which Holmes walked on invisible rocks in a nightmare world, and that is because this game is melded with Lovecraft. It starts with Holmes and Watson investigating a missing servant and ends up with a cult set on resurrecting Cthulu. I think Chapter One remains as the studio's magnum opus, partially because The Awakened is actually a remake, and judging from the wikipedia article, they remained rather faithful to the original. Chapter One was pretty open world and there were tons of investigations to the point I felt I was stumbling upon a new one every block, whereas this has a linear and relatively short plot. I haven't played the original 2007 game so I can't say how they've updated the gameplay or clues, but I would put this on par with Chapter One in terms of difficulty. I didn't like how they dealt with the mind palace with the neurons dealing with small issues. I prefer all the clues laid out at once to show the overall picture, but I guess this game was just one case (as opposed to Crime and Punishment and The Devil's Daughter having a different case each chapter), so we would be left with one mind palace screen the entire time. There was also a lot of Watson action in this installment, and he wasn't a pain in the ass like in The Devil's Daughter so that was pleasant.

I'm willing to cut them all the slack in the world though because the developers reside in Kiev. I supported the Kickstarter for this and occasionally they would send apologetic emails about delays due to cut power from airstrikes and I'm like... it's OK. You're OK.

One interesting note is, judging from the wikipedia article, The Awakened deviates significantly from the original in chapter III, when the pair travel to the insane asylum. For one, Watson was supposed to be waiting on the outside whereas here he stays as a guest doctor and provides pivotal help in Holmes' plan. For two, the wikipedia article states, "Holmes unexpectedly discovers that his nemesis Moriarty is a patient, though a weakened shadow of his former self having survived the fall at Reichenbach. Using Moriarty as a distraction, Holmes extricates himself from the asylum." That is very different from what I played. Moriarty wasn't there at all. I'm bringing this up because of an interesting sidequest. In Chapter One, you can solve a bunch of crimes organized by this individual named "M," whom the player can easily deduce is Moriaty. In The Awakened, Mycroft asks Watson to investigate an agent of his, who is found dead and an M is written in his notebook in different handwriting. Upon reporting this to Mycroft, he immediately orders Watson to forget about everything and do not mention it to anyone, again hinting Moriaty. Considering this remake The Awakening takes place immediately after Chapter One, I'm wondering if the studio is leading us somewhere with this and there'll be another addition in the series where Holmes and Moriaty go head to head.

I did like playing it, but it's my least favorite in the series just because I'm not a big horror fan. I still say go for it, but I would recommend playing Chapter One first because they make lots of references to it, particularly when Mycroft talks about Sherlock's mental illness. (I wonder if that was in the original? They hadn't made Sherlock's dissociative disorders with Jon yet in this universe.) Just as I finished it, I saw they released The Testament of Sherlock Holmes on PSN, so I guess I gotta get that next. After, you know, Diablo IV, Tears of the Kingdom, and Final Fantasy XVI. Too many games released this year, man. Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario RPG is coming out later too.

#sherlock holmes #sherlock holmes the awakened #frogwares

[scientistofdeduction]

I went back to Sherlock Holmes the Awakened today and played through the whole thing in one go (if you have a guide with you to help keep you from running aimlessly around 2008 empty weird environments (no hate I enjoy them), it can take like 4 hours).

The remake comes out on the 11th and this had me even more excited for it. I’d never played beyond Switzerland (I prefer the other games in the series) so it was very cool to see the finale of the game and imagine how Frogwares will update. Really really loved the chase through New Orleans-I hope they do that in the new one and give it justice with what they’re capable of now.

But what really struck me playing through the asylum and comparing it to my experiences in the remake demo was just how much change was put into the remake. A lot of the same beats and characters were there, and some locations where adapted. But a lot was reworked, most impressively in terms of investigative gameplay AND in terms of spooky horror elements. I’m not a horror fan but I can appreciate how it is (I can’t handle horror but I love the Resi games), and the remake was a necessary step up.

Also also the original had a Moriarty cameo (it takes place after Reichenbach and the big man survived the fall). It sets up the later Testament of Sherlock Holmes game. I wonder if the remake will include our foul foe in a different way as post reichenbach isn’t when this new game takes place… or will it drop him entirely, and keep him saved for his own adventure or something - personally I hope for this. I think Holmes stories that can stand on their own without Moriarty are kind of the best.

We are so close to game release day. My plan is to play through the main story of chapter one before then and then be fully prepared.

#Sherlock Holmes #the awakened #Sherlock Holmes the awakened #frogwares #Frogwares Holmes #Frogwares Sherlock Holmes #my posts

[cursedsappho]

U should play Sherlock Holmes Chapter One before Awakened for the full impact of the emotional trauma (and also because in terms of breadth of gameplay Chapter One is grander, not having been built while under active bombardment from soviet artillery)

Aaaaah thank you!

I was actually wondering about this and if it was important to play both in order, I will!

#ask

[r2y9s-notartblog]

Hi R! I notice that you reblog a lot of mystery games and I was wondering, which ones are your favorites? ☺️

so the only mystery type games i've really been obsessed with lately are the ace attorney games and the frogwares sherlock holmes games haha but lemme see if i can remember some other ones that i like. (this actually turned out to be a bit long so lemme put it under a cut lmao)

Murdered: Soul Suspect is a short and sweet fun one I played where you're the ghost of a detective trying to solve your own murder. Very supernatural and takes place in Salem, Massachusetts and even touches on the witch trials a little.

Darkside Detective (there are 2 games in this series!) is an AMAZING 2D pixel art detective pointy click indie game that's hilarious and full of fun paranormal mysteries and quirky characters. The banter between Detective McQueen and his investigative partner Officer Dooley is also hilarious I love their relationship so much. Also every case is about 1 hour long and the devs Spooky Doorway specifically wanted to make episodes that busy people could pick up and finish in about one sitting. Like reading one chapter a night of a good book.

If you're going to go through the frogwares Sherlock Holmes games, I very much recommend the The Awakened (BOTH the 2008 and 2023 versions), The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, and Sherlock Holmes Crimes and Punishments. Lately, I've been replaying Sherlock Holmes Chapter One, and while it's probably not the best iteration of Sherlock Holmes that I've seen canonwise, as an investigation game on it's own I love the characters and the story. it's open world and you play as a sassy and overconfident young Sherlock who investigates mysteries on an island he grew up on in his youth with his equally sassy childhood friend Jon (not watson).

speaking of frogwares, i've got The Sinking City lined up to play next on my To Play list and i've played the first 15 mins of it and I absolutely love it. It's in the same style of gameplay as Sherlock Holmes Chapter One but you play as a disheveled PI who is also a wwi navy veteran invited to a city that is literally sinking slowly into the sea to try to discover the cause of his nightmares that are weirdly similar to the nightmares that the citizens of this sinking city also are being plagued with. if u like the cthulu mythos aesthetic this might be a fun game for you. (Don't buy it off steam. if it has the Nacon name on it don't get it. Frogwares is the one ur looking for and afaik it's only on the consoles rn.)

to go back a little further, i have fond memories of Trace Memory and Time Hollow which both came out for the nintendo DS and i played those for HOURS. So if u can find an emu those are some good choices too. Both also pointy click sorta games, but both made full use of the DS touch screen and even the console itself as a way to solve puzzles.

idk if you were asking for a whole list of mystery game recs but here are some of my favs and thank you so much for the ask! i love word vomitting about my favorite games :)

#replies #anon #thank you so much for this ask #it's not often i get a chance to talk about my favorite games #or games in general haha #r recs #tldr play darkside detective that's my most favorite outside of aa and frogwares lmao

[kyndaris]

Hello Madness, My Old Friend

From Octopath Traveler 2, I decided to keep with the theme of hidden cults and try my hand at the remake Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened. With only a few short weeks before my trip overseas, I didn't want to get sucked into a lengthy role-playing game and leave it unfinished while I was overseas. Which was why I chose to play games that wouldn't take too long but could still tell a compelling story. So, after enjoying the new direction of Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, I was eager to see what Frogwares would do to change of their first Sherlock Holmes games. Coupled with my obsession with the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Cthulhu mythos, my excitement was tangible.

Unfortunately, The Awakened did not live up to the lofty expectations set by the predecessor. Still, given the developer is headquartered in Ukraine and the game entered production soon after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I can forgive its many foibles.

Besides, Frogwares has never been a triple-A studio.

As such, I struggled with the stripped back gameplay and the jankiness of the game models. There were also several moments when the lighting, especially for hats, looked terribly strange and pulled me from the scene.

Faults aside, there were also many elements I loved about the game. Namely the story and the callbacks to Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One. This, more than anything else, made the two games feel connected. What's more, the backstory in Chapter One also felt conducive to the descent into madness that was Sherlock's story arc throughout the game. Yes, I would have liked some more backstory on the ultimate villain, with perhaps a nice tantalising story connection to our characters beyond a reference to the previous game of the same title, but alas.

Now, if you've ever played a Frogware Sherlock Holmes game, there isn't many surprises. In fact, I felt there were fewer instances for minigames. Gone is the combat and chemical mixing introduced in Chapter One. Sherlock is wholly dependent on the power of investigation and the occasional use of his extensive archives (which he seems to carry with him). This meant the story flowed better as Sherlock and John traipsed to several corners of the world in order to unravel the mystery of a missing Maori servant in the employ of the bullish Captain Stenwick.

It isn't long before Sherlock and John stumble upon their first major clue: The Black Edelweiss Institute. There, they unravel the mystery of the mental institution, including how the previous director was disposed and taken over by the distasteful Professor Gygax who brutalises the patients and uses the Institute as a cover to procure sacrifices for an unknown ritual.

Despite a brief encounter with the unknowable, Sherlock and Holmes find letters pointing them to New Orleans. So, off they trot across the Atlantic where they learn details about an auction selling precious black opals and journey into the bayou to save Mr Arneson, a local man. There, they retrieve an ancient book.

Returning to London, the local bookseller is manages to decipher the unknown language, which points to a mythical sea god that looks very much like everyone's favourite eldritch being. With the help of maps at the bookstore, Watson is able to pinpoint the location for this grand ritual. Everything culminates in a 'battle' atop a lighthouse on the Scottish coastline, with the duo putting a stop to the summoning of Cthulhu to our plane of existence.

Riveting stuff, I must say! Although, as I've stated before, it would have been interesting to have had some more focus on the villain and their underlying motivations. Still, the relationship between Sherlock and John was compelling. Especially as they were still finding their feet as flatmates at 221B Baker Street and had yet to establish the strong rapport they would come to develop in the latter games.

As I've stated above, the gameplay itself isn't as good as its predecessor. No longer are there multiple cases to solve. The Awakened is primarily focused on the one major mystery of a disappearing manservant, which dovetails into a world of secret cults and their attempts to ritual summon something beyond human ken. Of course, in so saying, the case does come to a proper conclusion instead of leaving it open-ended to the player. No longer did I have to ponder if I made the right choice when it came to the cases Sherlock closed as I interpreted the evidence to their logical conclusions.

And because of this the game is also much shorter.

I finished The Awakened in only a few short hours and Howlongtobeat.com seems to indicate it's about 9 hours at most. That isn't to say short games are bad, and I'm thankful I didn't have to pay an exorbitant amount for it.

Another gripe I had were the mechanics themselves, such as the map not providing an indicator for where Sherlock was located. Thankfully, though, each of the sets were quite insular and there wasn't any significant fear one would get lost. Although, I'm sure if I had my direction challenged friends play, they might still lose their way.

Yet, I must confess I was still hoping for a meatier experience. Time will tell what the next Sherlock Holmes game will be or if there might be any new changes implemented to the pre-existing formula. I, for one, would be keen to see a slew of quality investigative games for my favourite detective. But for now, I will continue to wait even as madness beckons to me.

#video games #sherlock holmes: the awakened #sherlock holmes #john watson #cthulhu #eldritch beings

[mejomonster]

Ill stop being a broken record soon (about sherlock chapter one anyway - im just starting the next game and WILL be blathering about it lol)

If you do want to play a be-sherlock simulator? Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is worth checking out. Or if, like me, you like detective games generally (i recommend Judgement by the way if thats your vibe), id also say pick this up because the freedom to make wrong deductions and decide outcomes is quite the unique choice and its interesting to see. Many detective games can give you a case to solve (and as a story nerd id like to solve them thoroughly and correctly). And they'll hold your hand to some extent because u generally do Need to solve the cases to continue the game. Now, SHCO does to an extent hold your hand, with the typical gameplay tools and by providing eventual paths To Progress the cases in some direction depending on how many clues you find and deductions you put together in the mind palace. But because most of the cases have areas you can be wrong and progress, or pick from multiple viable options to decide what happened, and just the fact you decide the final outcome for that accused... fascinating. It means the case writing is interesting enough you do guess to yourself who did it, and regularly change your guess based on evidence, and theres no obvious BAM for sure guess (in contrast simpler detective shows like some cdramas i love often have easy to guess perpetrators once you learn the writing pattern). When i saw this game's reviews, people seemed mixed on this particular feature of the game. Since it means theres many points where you feel either theres no True perpetrator and the game changes it, or you feel theres no power to determine the Truth.

But i think... partly thats the point. Verner (lol) wont shut up about his opinion of many things possibly mattering more than the truth, and in true frustrating fashion you are JUST as aggravated as Sherlock is by the difficulty in Absolutely being sure of the Truth. And that frustration, and experience, is hammered home in the very final decision of the game: deciding the answer to the main question you started this journey for. You can pick any of the answers. You'll get its own ending. Sherlock will be certain he deduced the truth. Or at least, as certain as you Or him can be... when any 4 of those scenarios might be the truth as far as you can tell. Sherlock's shaken, and maybe he isn't convinced of the truth being certain any more than you are... but he does DECIDE on an answer to live with. He is unsure whats true, but picks one of many possible truths and gives himself closure with it. A very relatable though painful experience pretty much everyone does in life at some point.

And i think thats a big reason they designed so many cases that way. Its not that the game's whole story is unfirm, or the cases stories are inconsequential. No. Its just that the point is in the meaning you take from a world you can never fully completely be sure of, how you pick what to base your life on when you can only be sure of your own reasoning. But no mattwr how much you wish to control life by understanding it, you can never fully understand it, never fully know everything. Ambiguity is part of life and life is impossible to fully control. The cases are like that so you feel like Sherlock, trying desperately to nail down a firm reliable truth to make sense of a messy stressful uncontrollable world.

So like. From a story perspective? The choice serves the game's themes and point well.

From a detective game perspective? Its very fun if ur trying to feel like a detective, to get some stories where you actually turn over your guesses and contemplate and feel you need to really delve in the clues thoughtfully, if u want to draw the best conclusions u can.

#lb #sherlock holmes chapter one #now.... lowkey do i think there are Right answers to the cases? possibly #i suspect the writers of the game did know the real perpetrators and circumstances of each case. and if u find ALL evidence and read closely #u may even be able to pin down for SURE the truth of some cases #(for example: some character portraits are for SURE wrong or right based on evidence or contradicting disproving evidence) #but at the same time... i think the writers of the game did Not intend to make it possible to know for certain. because #the point IS to feel like sherlock. and so the writing cant let u be Sure. because sherlock isnt #(.... i personally think i may have nailed down the true scenario of what happened to violet #but at the same time? i think ALL scenarios are biased by sherlocks guilt ridden fearful interpretation #so to him theyre ALL true. and none are Unbiased versions so theyre all not perfectly true.