To be honest, I’m not the biggest Sherlock Holmes fan. No matter how many books, movies, TV shows, or games I’ve read, I’ve never been hooked on this famous detective. However, with many adventures his games his fans regularly share their love for his Frogsware-made series of games, Sherlock has always been intrigued by his Holmes games. Therefore, I wanted to play “Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened One” if I had the chance. A complete remake of the 2007 game, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened One successfully welcomes people into the world of Sherlock Holmes. It’s a bit of a mixed experience, but it ultimately falls apart on the Nintendo Switch.
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened features a concept that is truly unique for a Sherlock Holmes game. A famous detective investigates the Cthulhu Mythos in one of his most bizarre cases imaginable. Holmes investigates what he believes to be just a routine murder and encounters a mysterious cult and conspiracy that will awaken a dark cosmic god with the apocalypse. In Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, you don’t just have to collect evidence, you have to piece it together. An example of this is at the beginning of the game. After examining the local bookseller and uncovering various clues, you must determine if he is simply a workaholic or involved in a conspiracy against the detectives. I won’t spoil how the first case ends, but I was impressed with how the interpretation of the evidence affected how certain events unfolded. I was struck by the intellectual and moral testing of these cases.
The overall story is a bit hit and miss. Everything about the Cthulhu mythos is really cool and it keeps me captivated. The other cases Holmes takes on feel protracted and, frankly, boring and unsatisfying. The pacing of Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is by far the biggest issue. I’ve grown to love this game as much as I’ve explored the mysteries surrounding the cult and the Cthulhu mythos. But as soon as you went down the path of exploring more about cults and Cthulhu, the game randomly pulled you away from it and asked you to return to the more “normal”, i.e. boring Sherlock Holmes detective case. . I have absolutely no idea why this is happening and it has always been a problem.
Ultimately, the biggest problem with Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is that it runs really badly on the Nintendo Switch. It doesn’t hurt the game, but it almost always looks and plays poorly. Let’s just say that most of the characters and environments are pretty blurry and don’t look great. The game is constantly trying to render that environment, causing frequent pop-ins that break the immersion. Add to that a very noticeable low framerate, and the Switch experience works well, albeit very poorly.
Is Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened worth playing on Switch? Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is a fantastic adventure game that puts a unique supernatural twist on Sherlock his Holmes. The game is at its best when it’s focused on the supernatural story, and at its most boring when you want to do anything else. The overall Switch port is very poor, with poor graphics, constant rendering issues, and low framerates ruining the experience. Switch-owning Sherlock Holmes aficionados of his might find some fun here, but for those who don’t, perhaps a more enjoyable adventure than picking up Sherlock Holmes: Awakened. I may seek it out and look elsewhere.
