Does a good job of portraying ficition's best detective but misses the mark with no side-quests or random play.
As you progress through the story by fact-finding (listening or reading testimonials by witnesses) and collecting clues to lead you to various locations such as the Scottish coast, the Swiss Alps and Louisiana including a lot of the darker, underground areas for exploration, you can appreciate the isolation and horror when crossing the aftermath of violent crimes committed by cult members. The scenery and sounds of the game are done well enough to lead you to believe that the cult just might be successful in awakening the Sleeping One and that they must be stopped.
Because of its linearity (finding the clues in the same locations and making the correct deductions when Holmes asks Watson certain questions that you must type the answer to unlock the next level), there aren't any real strategies, surprises or challenges when replaying the game. What would have made this an excellent game is to allow the player to solve three or four random cases in a much more populated London before venturing further into the main storyline, and to also have a few branching quests along the way to allow some variety before arriving at the end of the adventure. Also, there is no feeling of Holmes or Watson risking their lives as there is no easy way to get killed. There are a few instances if Holmes gets caught when trying to sneak around on certain levels, the game ends but that is about it when confronting all the other potential dangers.
If you like pretty simple to moderate difficulty in puzzles and brain teasers that the game presents, with a good ambiance of isolation, darkness and some horror with a fairly linear path to solving the game, then the Awakened is a good choice. If you prefer a more challenging adventure game with branching quests, a longer playtime with variable clue-finding and puzzles on each play, with an element of mortal danger to your character, then you may want to pass this one up.