Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is a video game produced in Ukrainein Kiev to be precise, made entirely during the guerra and the Russian Invasion from independent production house Frogwares. released onApril 11, 2023Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened has become the reflection of what the Ukrainian population has had to suffer between bombs, killings and whole days spent in bunkers.
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, how the video game was born during the war
The new Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened video game from adventure game specialists, Frogwares, was created in just one year. It was developed entirely during the Ukrainian-Russian war. A new open world game was originally planned, but the studio decided to remake the title instead 2006which had received good reviews at the time.
After the start of the war, the studio needed a design that was feasible and could succeed under difficult conditions. The fact that the story was already predetermined by the original made it easier to implement. The developers have picked up additional €250,000 ($274,000) via crowdfunding and started work at the end of March 2022. One month after the war started.
The importance of serving the community
One of the consequences of war is that everything becomes unpredictable. Indeed the Frogwares studio had to close temporarily. This way, the employees could help who needed. How? Enlisting in the volunteer army or being part of humanitarian organizations, as he says Sergey Oganesyan, head of the studioduring the interview for Made For Minds.
But after a few weeks the studio reopened and employees in Ukraine and abroad started working again. A was developed hybrid model, with some programming and designing entirely from home and others in the office. The decision would depend on where they lived, how safe it was to get to work, and whether they had enough electricity to turn on their computers and charge their laptops.
Despite the reopening, it was important for Frogwares to keep updated video game lovers – and not only – of what was happening in their country through i social. Among the images shared on their accounts have been family photos and shots of destroyed buildings. And not only that, even men in camouflage and civilians holed up in air-raid shelters and underground shafts.
How the war affected Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
As was to be expected, the war had a huge influence on the developers and their video game Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, making it even more horror and dark.
History
The story begins in 1882. Holmeswho always has his friend by his side Dr.Watson, is a young detective and an excellent observer with intellectual superiority. Through clever questions and logical conclusions, he impresses a wealthy Londoner who hires him to find his missing servant.
Players take on the role of detective Sherlock Holmes. Their task is solve criminal cases through deductions and intelligence. With the help of the observations, documents and objects, as well as the statements of witnesses and suspects, the crime scenes are reconstructed and the perpetrators traced.
Where can you find the game
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened you can download the video game on the following on the following platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, XB1, Xbox Series X/S e Nintendo Switch.
The narration inspired by the Cthulhu myth of the author Lovecraft
The narrative of the video game begins in manner simple and straightforward, to gradually become fantastic, bizarre and even terrifying. Inspired by Cthulhu mythos created by US horror author HP Lovecraft (1890-1937), the world around Sherlock Holmes changes. Why the myth of Cthulhu? The latter is described in Lovecraft as an extraterrestrial deity with a face full of tentacles who is capable of plunging all of humanity into ruin.
As the game progresses, more and more mystical symbols and references to the deity of Cthulhu appear. Sherlock Holmes suddenly finds himself in places supernatural and has trouble understanding the mysterious twists and turns, causing him to begin to question his sanity.
Players have to keep calm and draw logical conclusions, which is not always as easy as it seems. The reason lies in the fact that there are many tracks and dead ends, traps that are difficult to overcome, to the point of becoming frustrating for the player, but also less boring in this way.
From Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened to real life: how video games become a vehicle for real emotions
In fact, the game represents a evolutionary lever in the life of the individual: it allows the strengthening of motor, cognitive and interpersonal skills. It is a fundamental activity in the process of building personal and social identity through learning the rules of being with the other. But also to the construction of different and new forms of interpersonal communication.
From the point of view of a psychological anthropology it is attributed to the game a magical dimension. This happens because from an early age the child can experience the sensation of being, in that sphere, the absolute master of himself, despite remaining conditioned by the restrictions of the adult world in all other spheres. Through the power of the game, the child builds a bridge to reality. Thus he can quickly pass from a life in which the adult chooses everything for him, to absolute freedom.
We can say that compared to video games, reality is too easy. They try us with voluntarily assumed obstacles that help us put our strengths to good use and make us experience an effort chosen by us and not suffered. Video gaming is an activity that we have chosen ourselves, a tiring compensatory activity that we have set ourselves to complete. And, apparently, fatigue (even virtual fatigue) makes man happy, provided it is not imposed by others and has no real consequences on survival. So, as long as it doesn’t cause real losses.
A game is a chance to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, on something we’re good at (or getting better at) and enjoys, beyond the content. When we play games we are engaged with great intensity. This puts us exactly in the mental and physical condition to generate all kinds of emotions. Play it makes us feel almighty in a context where we can be. But it also makes us feel helplessconfronting us with rules and dynamics dictated by the game that we cannot totally control.