With less than three weeks left before launch, Frogwares published a new Sherlock Holmes The Awakened trailer focused on the birth of the Sherlock-Watson dynamic duo.
Antonina Melnykova, Lead Narrative Designer on Sherlock Holmes The Awakened, explained:
One of the biggest changes we made narrative wise in this remake is how the young Holmes and Watson relationship plays out. It’s our creative take on what horrors the two could have encountered in their first major case that would then go on to solidify their famous bond. And so we’ve given much more of a spotlight to Watson here than before. He has a totally unique storyline compared to the original game, he is playable in parts of the game, and the new ending is very much influenced by him as much as by Sherlock.
Since Sherlock is dealing with Eldritch gods, monsters, cults, and the questioning of his very existence, Watson often acts as an anchor to stop Sherlock drifting too far into insanity. But we couldn’t just have it feel like Watson is this one-dimensional safety net with no character or flaws of his own. So this new version of the story is as much about them as two people as it is about unfathomable Lovecraftian monstrosities.
As mentioned by Melnykova, Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is a remake of the 2008 game that Frogwares decided to rework as a natural continuation of the origin story seen in Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One. That game, just like The Sinking City, had open world environments. The same won’t be true about this remake for very practical reasons: Frogwares is, as you may be aware of, based in Ukraine, which means they’ve been facing tremendous hardships for over a year now. The studio talked about them on multiple occasions, including an exclusive interview with Wccftech.
As such, the scope of Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is more limited, and the funding came after a successful Kickstarter campaign. The game also suffered a small delay recently, again due to the difficulties engendered by the war, but it is now very close to its new launch date of April 11th on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and Nintendo Switch.
Wccftech’s Francesco De Meo checked out a preview build and said:
At the end of the day, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened will probably not be as huge a step forward for the series as Chapter one, but no one should have expected any different. Considering what Frogwares has been going through with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it’s almost a miracle that they have managed to work on yet another title in such difficult times. There may be some surprises and twists in the final release, but even if they won’t be there, the game is set out to be another solid entry in a franchise that has grown a lot over the years and certainly won’t be damaged by a safer new entry.
