Zaynab Khuder draws on the universal recognisability of a household name to detail the successes of some of her favourite virtual games; Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One (2021) and Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (2023).
Whether or not you grew up reading Arthur Conan Doyle’s collection of stories following the adventures of Sherlock Holmes & Dr John Watson or indulged in the well-loved Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal of Sherlock in the BBC series, everybody, and I mean everybody, knows who Sherlock Holmes is. Genius, self-proclaimed consulting detective, morally questionable (and arguably, kind of sexy?). He has made his mark as one of the most iconic characters in literature and popular culture. He’s even been adopted into our vernacular. I mean, who doesn’t love a good “no shit, Sherlock” as opposed to the boring, old, “thank you, Captain Obvious?” There’s even an Oxford definition of the term No shit, Sherlock, expressing: “phrase of shit: said humorously to express the view that someone is stating something that is completely obvious.”
Iconic and subjective (is it, really?) attractiveness aside, Sherlock Holmes is widely loved, and with all that popularity comes a resounding number of adaptations. And although nothing beats the original (and nothing could possibly be worse than Henry Cavill’s Sherlock, ugh), I find myself becoming increasingly fond of the underrated Frogwares Sherlock Holmes games, specifically Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One (2021) and Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (2023). Before the release of these two games, Frogwares had released The Testament of Sherlock Holmes (2012), Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishment (2014) and Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter (2016), all of which are notable games in their own right. But I’ve found that Chapter One and The Awakened have resonated with me in such uniquely, profound ways.
What separates Chapter One and The Awakened from all the other usual Sherlock games and adaptations is that we’re given a special look into the formative years of Sherlock Holmes. Chapter One takes place in the fictional Mediterranean Island of Cordona, where a 21-year-old Sherlock visits his childhood home and discovers that there may have been more to the death of his mother than he initially thought. Depending on your desired taste in gameplay (because of course, everything is subjective and gamers love to hate and whine), this game will not initially appeal to the gamers who don’t tend to go for story-driven games or gameplay. The combat in Chapter One is okay, to say the least. It's nothing special; if anything, it's actually quite irrelevant and there is the option to skip or disable it entirely. Which is great, if you’re not into that sort of thing. But doing so in some situations may exclude certain cut-scenes vital to the storyline. Gameplay-wise, there are flaws, as with everything. Oftentimes you're left wondering in an open-world map trying to figure out how to trigger the next step in the game. Nothing a quick Google search can’t fix if you let your pride become wounded enough. But if you’ve played any other Frogwares Sherlock game, it's not too different. In both games, you still analyse crime scenes, search the archives for information and use the analysis table to examine substances, and you still get to pin clues and evidence with one another to formulate a conclusion to your cases. But it’s definitely a tad different stylistically than the most recent game before it, Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter (which is great, by the way). Alex Jordan, who also voices Sherlock in The Devil’s Daughter, makes a comeback to voice young Holmes in both games and in my opinion, does a great job because oftentimes, voice acting can make or break a character. While Chapter One offers more in terms of gameplay, with its “Cordona Stories” and side cases, it definitely is an acquired taste. Acquired in the context of, if you share a love of Sherlock Holmes, just as I do, then it's a game worth playing. But, regardless of your tastes in gameplay, both Chapter One and The Awakened provide an enjoyable gaming and story experience. While Chapter One is relatively open-world, The Awakened is not, not entirely at least.
There aren’t many side cases in The Awakened, which is an aspect that makes me favour Chapter One a little bit more. Although you’re able to purchase extra DLCs for both games, in terms of gameplay, Chapter One definitely lets you veer off and lose yourself in more side cases that deviate from the actual main storyline. In Chapter One, you switch between playing a young Sherlock and his friend Jon, who is in many ways alluded to be similar to Dr John Watson, but Jon plays a more significant role in unravelling Sherlock’s deeply buried childhood trauma. Watson’s character only becomes present towards the end of the game after you’ve finished the main story to set up the next game, The Awakened, which is a remake of the 2007 game of the same title. In The Awakened, you also have the ability to switch between playing Holmes and Watson, depending on where you are in the story.
Besides playing as a young Sherlock and exploring the different facets of his past in Chapter One, what really drew me to the game was how personal it felt. Both games, in their own respective ways, left me feeling empty and contemplative. Chapter One is encapsulated with such a rawness that it's almost therapeutic when we watch Sherlock unravel his traumas after unconsciously avoiding them and having the people around him (Jon and Mycroft) dismiss his search for the truth. Without giving too much away, this story digs its teeth into the flesh of struggles that we try to bury in our adulthood. However, if you think the pain stops there, The Awakened does nothing less to reassure us that Sherlock is fine and well, and in many ways, it's very real. The Awakened isn’t set too long after the events of Chapter One, so Sherlock’s early adulthood still lingers within him. Of course, Watson now plays a more significant role in the game as a companion and partner to Holmes, aiding him not only in his cases but coming to terms with the tragic events of the game.
When faced with the abrupt ending of The Awakened, there’s that feeling of emptiness again. But instead of sitting with the idea that Sherlock can now move on from his childhood trauma, we’re left to soak in the spiral of more trauma that ensued throughout the game. Ultimately, both these games are in my opinion worth checking out. Not just for the lovers of Holmes (no shit, Sherlock, ha ha!) but for anybody who values the experience of story-telling in an interactive setting. I’m by no means an objective reviewer, it’s without a doubt that I very clearly like almost anything to do with Sherlock Holmes (not you, Henry Cavill) but I do hope that if you took away anything from this, it’s to give it a try. Both games are available to play on the Playstation 4 & 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S and X and Steam, for all the people who have a PC for some lame reason.
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