Sherlock Holmes The Awakened remake announced for PC and consoles
Frogwares has revealed that its next title will be a “full remake and substantial rewrite” of the 2006 crossover between Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft titled Sherlock Holmes The Awakened.
The remake follows a young Sherlock Holmes and his new sidekick, John Watson, as they take on their first big case. What starts as a simple missing person case “quickly spirals into a web of conspiracies by a nefarious cult that worships the eldritch god Cthulhu and are attempting to bring about an ancient prophecy.”
Frogwares notes that no assets or code from the original game are being used in this new title, with the entire remake being rebuilt from the ground up for Unreal Engine 4. There will also be new animations, full cutscene overhauls, new investigation gameplay mechanics, a UI overhaul, and more.
As for the “substantial rewrite” part, lead narrative designer Antonina Melnykova explains that the remake is shifting the original timeline from a mature Holmes and Watson to a continuation of the young Sherlock story.
“Most notably we’re shifting the timeline so it’s Sherlock, a few years after the events that took place on Cordona. Watson is at his side but they are just acquaintances at this point and this is their first major case together. Much of the character interactions and lines are being rewritten to reflect this,” Melnykova said. “We’re making some changes to the stories in the cases as well as some entirely new side quests. The story of how the bond between Holmes and Watson could have formed is being amplified in the writing now as well as changes to the ending to line up with all this and the psychological impact the events would have on both of them.”
The developer also announced that a Kickstarter campaign for the game will be going live soon to “help secure the game’s final production funds.” According to Sergey Oganesyan, comms lead at Frogwares, crowdfunding is being used due to the uncertainty caused by the ongoing war.
“Through crowdfunding, we can secure all these needs and also safeguard the overall funding of the game, knowing full well we now have the guaranteed means to finish the game and handle any hurdles we could face as this war evolves,” Oganesyan said. “This safety net will allow us to put our team’s needs and safety first as we adapt further without derailing the entire development and funding.”
Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
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