Who says games don't deserve a second chance?
I abandoned Awakened few years ago because it hadn't much appealed to me, but now, in truth motivated with the Remastered Edition, i've managed to finish it and enjoyed it.
I was surprised to find that the story is much closer to a classic SH mystery than "Lupin" and "Jack the Ripper", even though one can assume that Cthulhu doesn't have its place in the Holmesian universe. Actually, it was still a detective mystery, occasionally breaking into horror and even comedy as a nice change of pace. I chuckled several times, like when Holmes and Watson are discussing things.
But what surprised me the most were the puzzles - Awakened might not be the hardest, smartest, most creative... but variety of obstacles is astounding - you have everything from inventory and logic puzzles, quizzes, to even a relaxing action chase. Though inventory puzzles are rudimentary (because we're not carrying that many objects), Myst-like problems are very well done, like opening the temple door or the notorious "clock" puzzle. I know there are mixed feelings on "quizzes", but i found them fascinating for the reason they make you feel like you're "the one" solving the mystery, and also get you more immersed into game world, because you'll need to go through all of your documents, dialogues... And Remastered Edition comes with a hints which are nicely done like UHS files.
It's not a perfect game - side characters are under-developed, some scenes and twists are not that convincing, 221B is a sterile place, Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade are nowhere to be found, streets are empty and dull, Watson could use more of his remarks... but overall impression was above average. Design of locations is still nice, especially of those in New Orleans. Hot-spot feature helps a lot, even though 3rd person is for the most of the part useless. It's a shame vs Ripper was dumbed down compared to this, so i'm hoping things to improve with Testament.
