Join The Community
GamesRadar+ Verdict
Pros
- +
Occasionally quite pretty
- +
3D environments
- +
Reading the books instead
Cons
- -
Gameplay is disjointed
- -
Scouring every screen for a clue
- -
Voice acting blows
Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.
Take a look at the Penumbra tech demo from indie developers, Frictional Games. It’s taken many of the important principles of the old-fashioned adventure, and applied them to a 3D, first-person world, with all the lighting fancies and finely balanced physics you could hope for. In other news, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened has taken an old-fashioned adventure, and crammed it into a 3D, first-person world, with, er, some lights, and otherworldly physics, for seemingly no reason. Funny thing, perspective.
Holmes and Watson, played alternately, are investigating the mysterious disappearance of immigrant workers in 19th century London. But the narrative is so disjointed that it’s necessary for Holmes to give Watson an awful comprehension test at the end of a chapter.
