And within the same day, I beat Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened. When Devin watched me playing, he commented how he recently read the breadth of the works and could not recall any scene in which Holmes walked on invisible rocks in a nightmare world, and that is because this game is melded with Lovecraft. It starts with Holmes and Watson investigating a missing servant and ends up with a cult set on ressurecting Cthulu. I think Chapter One remains as the studio's magnum opus, partially because The Awakened is actually a remake, and judging from the wikipedia article, they remained rather faithful to the original. Chapter One was pretty open world and there were tons of investigations to the point I felt I was stumbling upon a new one every block, whereas this has a linear and relatively short plot. I haven't played the original 2007 game so I can't say how they've updated the gameplay or clues, but I would put this on par with Chapter One in terms of difficulty. I didn't like how they dealt with the mind palace with the neurons dealing with small issues. I prefer all the clues laid out at once to show the overall picture, but I guess this game was just one case (as opposed to Crime and Punishment and The Devil's Daughter having a different case each chapter), so we would be left with one mind palace screen the entire time. There was also a lot of Watson action in this installment, and he wasn't a pain in the ass like in The Devil's Daughter so that was pleasant.

I'm willing to cut them all the slack in the world though because the developers reside in Kiev. I supported the Kickstarter for this and occasionally they would send apologetic emails about delays due to cut power from airstrikes and I'm like... it's OK. You're OK.

One interesting note is, judging from the wikipedia article, The Awakened deviates significantly from the original in chapter III, when the pair travel to the insane asylum. For one, Watson was supposed to be waiting on the outside whereas here he stays as a guest doctor and provides pivotal help in Holmes' plan. For two, the wikipedia article states, "Holmes unexpectedly discovers that his nemesis Moriarty is a patient, though a weakened shadow of his former self having survived the fall at Reichenbach. Using Moriarty as a distraction, Holmes extricates himself from the asylum." That is very different from what I played. Moriarty wasn't there at all. I'm bringing this up because of an interesting sidequest. In Chapter One, you can solve a bunch of crimes organized by this individual named "M," whom the player can easily deduce is Moriaty. In The Awakened, Mycroft asks Watson to investigate an agent of his, who is found dead and an M is written in his notebook in different handwriting. Upon reporting this to Mycroft, he immediately orders Watson to forget about everything and do not mention it to anyone, again hinting Moriaty. Considering this remake The Awakening takes place immediately after Chapter One, I'm wondering if the studio is leading us somewhere with this and there'll be another addition in the series where Holmes and Moriaty go head to head.

I did like playing it, but it's my least favorite in the series just because I'm not a big horror fan. I still say go for it, but I would recommend playing Chapter One first because they make lots of references to it, particularly when Mycroft talks about Sherlock's mental illness. (I wonder if that was in the original? They didn't made Sherlock's dissociative disorders with Jon yet.) Just as I finished it, I saw they released The Testament of Sherlock Holmes on PSN, so I guess I gotta get that next. After, you know, Diablo IV, Tears of the Kingdom, and Final Fantasy XVI. Too many games released this year, man. Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario RPG is coming out later too.

Just platinumed Hogwarts Legacy. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the quality; usually games based off of movies or books tend not to be great, but the studio actually threw it quite a lot of effort behind this, and while I wouldn't say it's amazing it's very well done. The premise is the player is attending late 1800s Hogwarts, so the only characters from the books are the ghosts and Phineas Nigellus Black. No explanation is given as to why you're suddenly starting school as a fifth year, your background, or why you specifically can do magic no one else can, because it is first and foremost a fantasy, that you yourself are there.

There would be several things I would change about it though, starting from fighting. Although the battle system is streamlined, and fun, it's easy and you overlevel fairly quickly. I wasn't even trying to go out of my way to do sidequests or anything, but I found myself several levels above any enemy I was fighting. Even those equal to me weren't too much of an issue. That also may be due to the lack of variety in enemies--there's only seven types--so you learn the attack pattern for all of them early on. There are less spells than you'd expect as well, so although you can switch up your combos, you don't really need to.

The second is the map. There isn't one. You have a minimap, but what I would like to see is the whole fucking thing please. Literally when you click on "map" in the menu, an image of the castle pops up. That doesn't help me. I know, I know, it's hard to render a map with a layout like Hogwarts when there aren't any solid stories, but you could've rendered the interior of the whole thing and allowed to player to zoom in and out.

The third is the map itself. It is huge because they were mimicking the Scottish highlands. I've said it many times, I appreciate a large map but you really don't need it. I'm willing to let it slide in this case because I think the developers wanted wide room for flying on your broom or animals, which... yeah, that was pretty epic. However, if you are going to make it this large, you need rewards for exploration. I'll keep throwing Breath of the Wild out as an example because Nintendo did do a great job. In that game, wandering gave you shrines, Korok seeds, or even random sidequests. Here, there are Merlin trials peppered around the map, but the treasure vaults didn't feel like a reward because after the first few hours of play time the treasure was always shitty.

The fourth is sometimes shit didn't make any sense. If you didn't go to Hogsmeade with Sebestian, it's weird how he sacrificed himself in the library for you. Or if you did it the other way around, then it's odd how Natty is really into taking out Harrow consdering she wouldn't've been in the Three Broomsticks. Or like why does Ollivander think his missing wand has anything to do with your missing pages. That's poor writing that with a bit of polishing would've been resolved. Also, explain that shit hovering over the Pensieve is a locket because no one could tell and it comes out of left field how characters are talking about this locket.

There are other small complaints, like how it can get glitchy (but often in a hilarious way), why are there giant spiders but Hagrid hasn't attended yet, how come there are random missions when I have to sneak out after hours but I do that all the time in regular gameplay, why did they only hire two voice actors for the player and then later digitally modified them, why does the menu have a pointer, how come there isn't a close Ravenclaw friend...

However I was pretty blown away by other aspects. I'll say time and time again I love environments and Hogwarts was a fucking delight. The developers took a large page from the movies, but there were plenty of unique areas. The first time I played I think I literally spent about three hours just wandering and staring at everything. The attention to detail was amazing. And it extended beyond Hogwarts. I mentioned before how large the map is, and going through Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest, standing on the buffs over the coast... It's a very visually attractive game and I felt like I was hiking back in Ireland.

The plot was actually pretty solid. Not amazing, but it was nice seeing how the choices in the past are affecting the present, and how everyone came together in the end. The characters are also interesting and memorable, even ones you just meet for one sidequest. I can still recall Arthur's unusual voice as he shares his treasure map with you, or Garreth experimenting with potions, or Nellie's enthusiasm for the Dedaelian keys, or Mr. Moon being an alcoholic, or Nerida trying to become an ambassador to the mermaids, or Imelda being a bitch. And I was always excited when the next chapter in Sebestian, Natty, or Poppy's storylines would pop up.

What was a great delight were the puzzles. Although not excessively hard, sometimes you really had to think and I feel it's something that a lot of video games aren't doing as much anymore. Sitting in front of a Merlin trial or standing in a treasure vault, contemplating what needed to be done, was something I haven't felt in a while.

The music was also lovely. The four dudes responsible, Chuck E. Myers, J. Scott Rakozy, Peter Murray, and Alexadner Horowitz really tried emulated Williams' style. There were moments of silence that seem prevelent in video games nowadays, but mostly they tried to keep it flowing.

If you're a Harry Potter fan, definitely play this. If you're not and haven't read the books/watched the movies, I still say it's enjoyable experience. There are plenty of features I didn't cover, like capturing animals or decorating your own room. Good job guys, you fulfilled all of my childhood fantasies.

Forgot to mention I also beat Spider-Man: Miles Morales. It's fun but short, imagine the first game but just one story arc instead of flowing from Kingpin to Mr. Negative to the Sinister Six, but what plot it does have is fun and enjoyable, especially the end scene after the final battle. If I had to complain, the premise is ridiculous: I don't care what the socioeconomic situation is like in Harlem, no one is going to let an untested power reactor be built in the middle of NYC. But the first game also leaned into that with "whipping up a quick vaccine" for Devil's Breath, so it's not like it was unprecedented.

However if I had to chose, I would say it was more fun to play the first installment, simply because of venom. The developers really shoehorned the player into using it as much as possible, making enemies that couldn't be hit unless you used it, whereas I feel the original game allowed greater variety, whether you enjoyed close combant, long-range, gadgets, sneaking, etc.

Minor complaint, but it was also weird to see Miles repping Harlem so much. Kid's from Brooklyn, and Brooklyn kids tend to not let go of their pride.

Overall, a nice quick game to play as we wait for the second game, which should come out later this year.