“Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened” – Every Chapter Ranked

I’ve recently finished playing “Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened” – the latest Frogwares Sherlock game – and it’s safe to say my opinions on it are mixed. Instead of a full-blown review, I thought it better to rank the game’s chapters individually.

There are eight chapters (not cases, like in “Crimes and Punishments”, but instalments in an overarching narrative) in The Awakened, and their quality varies to an unbelievable degree. I’ll try to explain why, but I might be forced to mention SPOILERS along the way!

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

Bad

8 – Chapter 8

The final chapter of The Awakened focuses predominantly on a spooky lighthouse, and straight out of the gate it’s the most disappointing location in the game – I was absolutely sure that the locked entrance would be a cool puzzle, only to be let down by a bog-standard search for a backdoor entrance!

Having Watson shuffle through the crowds of entranced people over and over again was annoying as hell, the ending was abrupt and answered nothing, and Holmes didn’t even solve the case! He was meant to find Stenwick’s worker Kimihia, but I guess the writers forgot about the very thing we set out to do in Chapter 1.

Meh

7 – Chapter 4

I was excited when Chapter 4 saw Holmes and Watson travel to New Orleans to continue the case, but I was extremely disappointed when the whole ordeal ended up being time-wasting filler.

Watson impersonates a guy and attends a pointless auction, we briefly meet Champagne – a character that isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things – and we cross paths with the evil sheriff … except you never properly face the sheriff again and he’s awkwardly written out of the story in Chapter 6.

6 – Chapter 7

Chapter 7 had absolutely nothing going for it – you return to Baker Street and lend the Necronomicon to the book vendor for him to translate it – so the developers had to come up with a benign Mycroft side mission to pass the time.

Finding out what happened to Mycroft’s spy is interesting enough, I suppose, and the Moriarty hints were decent, but this is supposed to be the penultimate chapter before solving the main case!

As a side note, how awesome would it have been if each chapter had an optional side case to explore? I was half-expecting the disappearing brother in Chapter 2 to be one such side quest, but that never panned out.

OK

5 – Chapter 6

Chapter 6 is a tale of two halves – the first part where you navigate through the Bayou made me want to unalive myself, but the second part once you reach the shore was much better.

It was great to explore the heart of the cultists’ headquarters, freaky rituals and all, and the Watson section where you come up with a makeshift anaesthetic was pretty fun.

Good

4 – Chapter 2

I wasn’t lying when I said my opinions on The Awakened were mixed – of the eight chapters, I’d only consider half of them to be at least “Good”.

I liked the initial exploration of the Docks in Chapter 2 (although, as I said before, I wish the disappearing brother was a side quest) but it was the first gruesome hints of the cult that really got me hooked. Sherlock Holmes and evil Cthulhu cultists, oh my!

Great

3 – Chapter 3

Chapter 3 focused on Holmes and Watson’s investigations inside the Edelweiss Institute in Switzerland, and I was immediately impressed by the switching perspectives and overall creepy vibe.

Both the Holmes and Watson sections are solid, and Watson’s part in particular had one of the maddest twists I’ve experienced in a while – so it’s a shame the revelation of the ex-director’s whereabouts came out of nowhere and was dropped immediately!

2 – Chapter 1

The Awakened opens with a harmless romp involving a missing Strand newspaper and a bookshop romance, and I found the whole thing to be incredibly charming.

The second part at Stenwick’s estate where you investigate the disappearance of Kimihia wasn’t as engaging, but I was still looking forward to the narrative we had in store.

1 – Chapter 5

Chapter 5 revolved around a tragedy within a New Orleans mansion, and to be honest I don’t think any of the other chapters come close to it.

The mansion massacre is equal parts mysterious, gruesome and intriguing, and the various puzzles and loose ends you had to solve made the experience enthralling from start to finish. If nothing else, I’m glad I played The Awakened for this chapter alone.

Aaaand that’s my list! You can check out some of my latest blog posts below: