Developer Frogwares today announced Sherlock Holmes The Awakened as its next project. Described as a “full remake and substantial rewrite” of their 2006 game which bears the same name, the title follows the famed detective and his companion, John Watson, as they investigate a kidnapping case that soon sees them dealing with a cult dedicated to the eldritch god Cthulhu.
Sherlock Holmes The Awakened will not reuse any assets or code from the original game, instead being built from the ground up in Unreal Engine 4. Developer Frogwares had to pivot from a different project to this remake as a result of the Russian invasion, which began in late February, and the impact it had on the team.
The remake will make use of a mixture of new assets and others repurposed from Sherlock Holmes Chapter One. It will also rewrite the story to feature a younger version of Sherlock who’s only recently met John Watson, while the original’s Cthulhu storyline remains intact.
Here is a list of major changes you can expect, as provided by the developer:
- All new graphics and assets made in Unreal Engine 4
- New and redone animations
- Full cutscene overhauls
- Additional investigation gameplay mechanics
- Rewriting the story to connect with the case from The Awakened to a younger Sherlock
- Amplifying the story behind how Watson and Holmes came to be so close
- Minor story rewrites to the cases
- Additional side quests
- New English voice-over recordings and translations into multiple languages
- UI overhaul
- Change to contemporary 3rd person perspective camera
- Additional quality of life features
Sherlock Holmes The Awakened’s remake will take players through 4 different locations – Victorian London, a Swiss psych ward, the New Orleans bayous, and the Scottish Highlands – which they can explore while trying to discern reality from the supernatural.
“We have the bulk of the content, new features, and storyline all mapped out and locked in. But we have rewritten the original story a fair bit and plan to use all-new voice acting so we need to now record and also translate all this from scratch,” Comms Lead Sergey Oganesyan noted.
“As the plan is to launch the game on five platforms we will also need extensive QA time and resources. And lastly, the team has additional features and enhancement ideas that we would like to consider adding if we were to have additional resources.”
To this extent, the developer will take the crowdfunding approach for the remake, with a Kickstarter campaign being planned to go soon.
Fans who want to support the project can chip in, grabbing themselves a copy of the game and potentially other goodies.
Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is slated to launch on PC, PS4, PS5, XB1, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch, but does not currently have a release date.
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