Sherlock Holmes The Awakened, the latest adventure from Frogwares, has a distinctly Lovecraftian new trailer.
Do you remember the old Arthur Conan Doyle story where Holmes and Watson encountered eldritch terrors from beyond space? The time when the sleuth and his faithful sidekick experienced slippery, inexplicable things wont to induce madness?
Probably not, because we just made it up. Or rather, Ukrainian developer Frogwares did. Upcoming adventure remake Sherlock Holmes The Awakened, due next month, mixes two of the studio’s favourite subjects: Conan Doyle’s detective and the weird fiction of HP Lovecraft.
Sherlock Holmes The Awakened sees its title hero (and Watson, naturally) take a trip to New Orleans, where they come face to face with the horrors of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, which means secret societies, strange rituals, and supernatural beings with hard-to-pronounce names. The Awakened is a remake of Frogwares’ own game of the same name, first released in 2008.
The developer has evidently given the remake a major overhaul, and not just visually – The Awakened will also have some fairly major story changes, including a greater emphasis on Watson.
“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,” said lead narrative designer Antonina Melnykova in a press release. “And so we’ve given much more of a spotlight to Watson here than before. He has a totally unique storyline from the original game, he is playable in parts of the game, and the new ending of the game is very much influenced by him as much as Sherlock.”
The Awakened is also being brought more into line with 2021’s Sherlock Holmes Chapter One, in which Frogwares dropped in on Holmes when he was still a fresh-faced 21 year-old.
Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is out on 11 April for just about every console and computer box imaginable – specifically, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, Nintendo Switch, and the Atari Dagon.