The appeal of games where the player has to look for clues and solve crimes is as strong as ever, and a new release could help to bring this genre back into the spotlight. Fans of true crime stories, or those who just want to flex their detective muscles, would do well to keep an eye on some of the upcoming releases this year. One notable entry to consider is Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, so let’s see what we know so far about this sleuthing experience and what we can expect from it.

The Details of the New Game

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened was originally released in 2008 for Windows PCs, to positive reviews. Set at the end of the 19th century, it features the famous detective handling his first major case as he tries to find out what happened to a missing person. However, all is not as it seems as Holmes and Watson delve deeper and find that a sinister cult is involved with the disappearances, with allusions to the Cthulu mythos scattered throughout.
To unravel the mystery, Sherlock travels from London to a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland and then onto New Orleans, and then finally to the Scottish Highlands. The recently released version is a remake of this original that is available across a variety of consoles as well as being brought up to date for Windows users.

Popular Sherlock Holmes Games to Date

This list by ScreenRant puts the original The Awakened in fifth place on its list of the best Sherlock Holmes games. 2021’s Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is at the top of the list thanks to its open-world structure and strong, character-driven story, followed by Sherlock Holmes: Crime and Punishments from 2014. There seems to be no sign of developers running out of ideas for turning Holmes’ stories into video games.

The detective has also made it into the world of casino games, as we can see by looking at new online casinos in Pennsylvania. Sites like Caesars, BetMGM, and FanDuel are all listed here as giving welcome bonuses to new players. Among the other benefits mentioned is the fact that new slots are regularly released, joining existing games such as Holmes Reel Detective and Sherlock’s Casebook. These are games of chance where no crime-solving skills are needed.

Other New Games in This Genre

The recent release of Murderous Muses by D’Avekki Studios gives players the chance to try a different kind of crime-solving game. In this case, you play a security guard trying to work out who killed the artist Mordechai Grey by studying six portraits that the artist painted of the key suspects. You need to solve puzzles and bring the portraits to life to try and solve this crime before your night shift is over.

Process of Elimination by NIS America is another new game where you need to try and stop the Quartering Duke, who has caused chaos by killing over 100 people. To stop him, you play Wato Hojo, who is recruited to the Detective Alliance and taken to a mysterious, remote island. You need to turn to a group of more experienced detectives to help in order to unmask the criminal.

The popularity of crime-solving games, and true crime as a genre in itself, should ensure that we continue to see new Sherlock Holmes games, as this fictional detective shows no sign of losing his appeal. However, the emergence of alternative games with imaginative approaches to this genre means that we can expect more new ways of tracking down criminal masterminds by piecing together the evidence.

NCS
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