Darryl Woodford

In my continuing, academic , study of computer games, I am trying the new Sherlock Holmes adventure game, “The Awakened”. There is great attention to detail, in an attempt to engross the player in a super-realistic environment, so that they can put themselves in the position of Holmes (or Watson, more on this in a moment).

There are three massive realism killers though:

• Switching characters. A pet peeve of mine in both literature and computer games. Asking you to take on a second, completely different, personality in a short period of time rapidly drops any sense of engrossment you may have in the environment.
• Your partner. In an otherwise great environment, where ships were moving along the harbour, and other background effects were noticeable, I tried walking backwards, only to notice that not only does Dr Watson not follow as you walk, he snaps into position as soon as you move outside of a ~120 degree range. Rotate the camera and one second he’s half way back along the path, the next he’s 2 steps behind you. Really, with all the technology out there, getting him to follow 2 steps behind as you move shouldn’t be difficult, or much man power.
• People. Where on earth are all the people? Walking along Baker Street in the middle of the day and there’s one of the irregulars selling newspapers (there for an ulterior reason, selling a newspaper and acting as an informant), but where’s the rest of London? The only characters in the game are those you need to interact with. Virtual World’s manage to have lots of active characters, not all related to your mission.. surely it’s not beyond reason to have some people in suits and top hats strolling about London?