After having us teased his projectthe Ukrainian studio Frogwares reveals that it will ultimately be a remake of their Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened originally released in 2006. In order to raise more funds for the development, the developers are also launching a Kickstarter campaign.
Back to basics for Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened Remake sees a young Sherlock tackle his first major investigation alongside his newly known sidekick, John Watson. What appears to be a simple missing person case quickly turns into a web of conspiracies by a nefarious cult that worships the eldritch god Cthulhu and attempts to fulfill an ancient prophecy. During his investigations, our detective will juggle between four locations: London, a Swiss psychiatric institute, the bayous of New Orleans and the Highlands of Scotland.
The studio explains that the idea of continuing the arc of young Sherlock was a lifelong desire since the supernatural elements, the Lovecraftian cosmic horror and the gameplay married rather well. It is also an opportunity for the developers to offer their vision of the relationship between Sherlock and Watson by telling what generated such a strong bond between the two men. A screenplay element that they deliberately set aside in Sherlock Holmes : Chapter One.
Frogware explains to us that making this remake was planned at a certain point but not necessarily at this precise timing. Indeed, we recall that the studio is still suffering the consequences of the war in Ukraine. For them, embarking on this kind of project (where the content and game mechanics are more or less in place) allows them some stability in these uncertain times., something that we can obviously perfectly understand. It is not a question of doing something sloppy either since this remake will still benefit from a major overhaul work according to what we are told today.
so here’s the changes planned for this remake :
- New graphics and assets created under Unreal Engine 4.
- New and reworked animations.
- A complete overhaul of cutscenes.
- Additional investigation game mechanics.
- Rewriting history to rally the case of The Awakened to a younger Sherlock.
- Amplifying the story to tell how Watson and Holmes became so close.
- The annex history rewritten in the different cases.
- Additional side quests.
- New English voiceover recordings and translations into multiple languages.
- A redesign of the interface.
- Switch to third person camera.
- Additional features that improve playing comfort.
Normally, the studio would have funded the development of the game through sales of the previous one, but due to current circumstances, Frogwares is forced to secure its situation and working conditions through crowdfunding. The Kickstarter campaign will be launched soon.
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened Remake will be released on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch and PC at an unknown date.
