After a day of hands-on gumshoeing, we turn our magnifying glass to Frogwares' crossover adventure title.

Decrypting codes, solving riddles, and recovering stolen items are all standard affair for the World's Greatest Detective. But human sacrifices? Sadistic cults? Octopus-headed demigods? A tad less frequent, you might say. It may not be canonical, but Holmes encounters each of these horrors in Frogwares' third iteration of its Holmes series, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened.

Merging two of fiction's time-honored universes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works combine with Lovecraft's "Call of Cthulu" mythos in The Awakened. It's Cthulu's influence that intrudes upon Holmes' realm -- when you begin the game, Dr. Watson endures a nightmare that foreshadows events to come, but otherwise it seems like an average day for Sherlock, not one about to be undermined by forces unknown. Holmes is running morning errands: there's a pair of books on hold for him down the street at Barnes Bookstore. Exiting the humble confines of 221B Baker St. in first-person, you encounter a newspaper boy on the curb beckoning for passers-by to buy the latest edition. Guiding Holmes with the shooter-derived keyboard and mouse configuration, you approach the boy and click engage a dialogue.

The speech is scripted, meaning you won't choose your questions, but the newsie hands-off one of the dailies and mentions the latest story about a Scandinavian princess. The periodical, holding a handful of readable articles (including one about the coming alignment of stars) is logged in the documents area of your menu, and the line-for-line conversation with the boy now appears under "dialogues" for future inspection. Proceeding at a calm pace down the cobblestone streets (or jogging, with the caps lock key), you turn the corner into Barnes' shop, and the vendor chats you up a bit as Holmes pulls off two books, one on underwater life, and another called "The Desperate Pirate."

Returning back to town, Watson directs you over to Captain Stenwick's home. The statesman's Maori manservant has gone missing, and after a few detailed inquiries to Stenwick and a police officer, Holmes is free to scan the premises. Around back, you enter a workshed, noticing a strange, wavy glyph etched into the dirt floor. Hovering the magnifying glass with the mouse, Holmes also examines a fire pit until he eyes a ball-shaped lump of rock among the ashes. A tap of the mouse button adds it to the inventory, and Holmes notes aloud that he should inspect the item further back at Baker Street.

Turning to leave, Holmes spot some footprints, too. Extending some measuring tape across the mud with a quick click and drag, Holmes can tell the foot's a size seven, but also sees the right shoe is missing a nail. From this, Holmes' initial hypothesis that the servant was abducted is confirmed: the Maori didn't have shoes. Back at Baker, you'll turn to Holmes' chemistry set to analyze the rugged ball you found in the firepit. Cracking it open with the help of some forceps, then lighting the contents on a burner at his desk, Holmes can tell that opium is the mystery substance. A microscope also reveals that a patch of cloth found around Stenwick's estate is of Indian origin. Not native to England, both items point to the nearby dock, and Holmes taxis with Watson to the wharf to investigate further.