Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Boring"

No offense to Sherlock Holmes fans but, I have to compare it with the few games of the genre that I've played. As a pure adventure game, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened offers less imagination than The Longest Journey and Syberia, and as a 3D puzzle solving game, less engaging than Indigo Prophecy. I think even the Gabriel Knight franchise has done better. The world of old England and America is bland in this game, even with accurate and picturesque settings, as you can sense that it's a game on budget.

At first, the puzzles seem fitting of a Sherlock Holmes case, with the occasional need for a little lab science time. It's intriguing initially, for a non-fan of the novel, but then the hints to the puzzles get more vague (I'm not really the observant type, thus depending on guides), and then the solutions become a bit far-fetched sometimes. Well, some are really informative, now I know what else lemons are good for other than in tea!

Graphically, I'm only impressed with the facial textures, but the rest of the 3D models are bland. There are also stability issues, especially with the water particles. The music distorts obviously also. The story is deliciously dark and intriguing actually, but is marred by poor production value.

KingLim