Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened Download PC

Upon arrival it is discovered that the Black Edelweiss Institute is a Swiss mental asylum headed by a gentleman named Dr Gygax. Holmes and Watson hatch a plan to gain access and investigate. Knowing that he is about to willingly fall into the hands of criminals, Holmes sends Watson away from the asylum. This is primarily for his own safety, but also so that Holmes still has a connection with the outside world should things go awry once inside the Institute. Donning a costume and assuming a false identity, Holmes enters and is quickly incarcerated. After escaping from his cell, he finds further proof of Dr. Gygax's involvement in serious criminal activities. Not only has the doctor been performing dangerous experiments on helpless victims in the asylum, he is also part of a cult awaiting the arrival of the 'One'. 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.

Their next stop is New Orleans, as the city was mentioned in a telegram to Gygax. There, Holmes and Watson are taunted and harassed by the local sheriff who recognises them and appears to have some connection to the cult. They soon hear about a local man known as Mr. Arneson and his servant, a young lad named Davy, both of whom have been missing for days. They find Davey, who is mute due to psychological trauma. After Watson treats him, Davy writes on a chalkboard a series of numbers, which Watson copies down. Holmes and Watson then rescue Arneson, who was about to be sacrificed by a crazed cult member, and manage to retrieve an ancient book.

Back in London, Holmes and Watson learn from the book about a mythical sea god who could be awakened by the sacrificing of persons representing the different nations. They also decipher Davy's numbers, which they find are co-ordinates pointing to Ardnamurchan Lighthouse on a Scottish coastline. Once at the lighthouse, Holmes and Watson have a final confrontation with the cultists and their leader Lord Rochester, whose fortune finances the sect. Holmes manages to stop the 'summoning', but a fierce storm appears, which Rochester assumes is the coming of Cthulhu. Despite Holmes' attempt to stop him, Rochester jumps to his death into the raging sea below.

Gameplay

The Awakened was the first Frogwares title to allow gameplay to take place in an entirely real-time 3D landscape and from a first-person perspective, losing the pre-rendered backgrounds of its predecessor. Like other Sherlock Holmes games by Frogwares it gives an open world environment in every location that can hide clues and interact with NPC. The inventory system saves all objects, documents and map locations for later use and can also be used to combine objects. All conversations with characters in the game are completed through linear cut scenes for which you cannot direct the subjects at any point. Some of these conversations are triggered merely by clicking on a character, while others require you to complete a series of tasks before they will happen on their own. While most of Holmes’ conclusions in the game come from gathering random clues found around the crime scenes, you will have the opportunity to take evidence back to Holmes’ famous 221 B Baker Street flat and examine it under a microscope or put it through chemical tests. You will also have puzzles to solve throughout the game like picking combination locks, deciphering cryptic messages and solving a clock puzzle to open a safe.

The game can be viewed from a first- or third-person perspective and it provides you with an icon to indicate what actions Holmes can take within his world like pick up or talk. Holmes can move around via the mouse or the keyboard and his movement is completely free within the 3D space. While the game does give you a fair amount of space to move around in each area, there are cases where Holmes must move to a new area screen or change his view of the street in order to move where you want him to, but in those cases, an icon will show a set of footprints to indicate the change.

Although the game had adopted a view popularized by the first-person shooter genre, it retains the point-and-click aspect of most adventure games, giving the player the ability to complete the game using the mouse alone.

Reception

The game received mixed reviews, receiving a metascore of 72 out of 100, collated from 28 critics, and 7.2 from users at Metacritic. The first four Sherlock Holmes titles from Frogwares—Mummy, Silver Earring, The Awakened and Nemesis—totaled roughly 1.5 million global sales by February 2009.

GameSpot said "An engaging story, logical puzzles, and nice visuals combine to make The Awakened a great adventure game", adding that the only negative aspect of it is that you can't skip cutscenes.

Awards

The game earned GameSpot's "Best Use of a License" award in 2007. It was also nominated for GameSpot's and IGN's "Best PC Adventure Game of 2007" awards.

In 2011, Adventure Gamers named The Awakened the 80th-best adventure game ever released.