Peanut butter and Chocolate. Two great tastes that go well together? That is essentially the question asked by this recent computer game, which mashes up the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and H. P. Lovecraft; combining the mythos of Sherlock Holmes with that of Cthulhu.
This is not the first time such a mixture has been attempted. There is an anthology entitled "Shadows over Baker Street" that was based on the same premise. From the reviews, the book is a rather mixed bag, which seldom scares the reade, nor delights them with clever reasonings and deductions. A pity.
The Awakened is also a mixed bag, as have been most Cthulhu-based video games,(for example, Call of Cthulhu: The Dark Corners of the Earth, which, despite what the title might seem to imply, did *not* try to combine Lovecraft with Patrick O'Brien.) Certainly, the graphics were not as polished as Dark Corners; but where that game's protagonist lacked any personality, this game has the familiar duo of Holmes and Watson. And what is the point of the horror genre if it is not the invasion of the familiar by something dreadful?
The other flaw of Dark Corners, I felt, was that it was based on one of Lovecraft's most famous stories ("The Shadow Over Innsmouth"). I already knew all the paces of the game beforehand. The Awakened is an original story, (albeit with certain necessary resemblances to "The Call of Cthulhu").
Does this make The Awakened a great game? No. Granted, the storyline itself was all right, and had some fairly creepy moments (my favorite is fairly early in the game, when you come across your first human sacrifice. You're in a dim and musty basement, and your lantern only shines so far into the gloom, and walking forward the scene emerges from the darkness: a tentacled stone idol, a blood-stained altar, and a corpse left in a bad way. The game is afoot!). But these aren't enough to save it for anyone who is not either a Sherlock Holmes fan, a Cthulhu-mythos fan, or both.
The game was released in 2007, but the graphics look as though they're from 2003. The camera work in the cinematics is all of that slow, meaningless panning and zooming that CGI is fond of, which causes unnatural pauses in the dialog as we wait for the shot to end(see early Veggie Tales videos if you're not sure what I mean). The character movements are stiff and stilted, although admittedly that may have something to do with the fact that the game takes place in England. Furthermore, there are *dozens* of clipping problems throughout the game and even (most damnably) in the cinematics! Sometimes, this can be creepy. Strange green lights hover in the corners of some of the buildings. Holmes, threatening a hoodlum with a sword in a cinematic near the end of the game, actually passes the blade through the man's head two or three times. Is the man a ghost? No, just a clipping problem.
The game is essentially an Inventory Puzzle game, which means that you go around picking things up and then finding places to use them later: this is not a genre that has seen a fresh use since before the turn of the century, and the Awakened does not revolutionize the mechanics whatsoever. This leads to some frustrating times; for example, at one point in the game you must fill a bucket with water to put out some flames. Unfortunately, despite the fact that you are right next to the ocean, and also near several pools of water, the game wants you to fill the bucket with the water in a specific barrel, which you have to find. No other water will do, apparently.
There are other problems with the game's implementation of its central mechanic: many of the puzzles, even if you have all of the ingredients in your inventory, the game will simply not allow you to solve if you are trying to solve them out of the order it desires. For example, in the New Orleans section of the game, going out into the swamp results in Holmes and Watson being attacked by thousands of mosquitoes. They retreat. On a piece of paper somewhere you find that lemon juice is a good deterrent for mosquitoes. So then, when I found a lemon tree sitting on a nearby balcony, it seemed reasonable enough to assume that I could just pick the lemons and head out into the swamp. But, no. The game won't let me pick the lemons until later on -- Holmes gives me some line about "I have no use for that now." Despite the fact that we were just down in the swamp, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. In several parts of the game I ended up having to use an online walkthrough just because *I* knew how to solve a puzzle, but I didn't know what hoops the *game* wanted me to jump through before it would let me beat it. (Another example: one of the inmates at an asylum you visit keeps talking about how they've taken away her "Matilda". Seeing a doll on a table in another room, it seemed elementary to me that the doll was Matilda, so I tried to pick up the doll and take it to the woman. Alas! The game would not let me until I had spoken to several other people, and accomplished several other unrelated tasks.)
That is, of course, another problem with the game. Sherlock Holmes is not, and never has been, MacGuyver; but from the way the game has you constantly jury-rigging solutions to your problems using everyday household items, you'd think he was. The game is rarely a whodunnit, and mostly a "combine this thigh bone with that strip of sail and the alcohol from the bootlegger's still to make a rudimentary torch. Now how can I make some fire?" ordeal. Inventory Puzzle games are notorious for this sort of thing, and Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened falls into the same rut for...well, for most of the game.
All of this I pretty much expected when I got the game in the first place. Quite obviously, I did not acquire the game for its mechanics, but for its novelty and subject matter. I don't expect anyone who is not a fanboy of either Lovecraft or Doyle to either play or, doing so, to enjoy Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened. My friend Sam will admit to enduring countless hours of terrible game play in the name of Star Trek, and so I myself must admit that the appeal of this game probably extends to no one else but me (in my group of friends). Still, like me, you're probably happy just knowing that such a game exists. To stay happy, I'd recommend the rest of you avoid playing it.
Bottom Line: **1/2
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