Progress 9/29

I start out today ready to finish the chapter in Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened and just like with Gabriel Knight, I have come to realize that each chapter after the inital ones are now much longer than initially anticipated. Therefore, earning a checkmark will occur with a definitive story progression. After the last session that I played this game, where I started as Dr. Watson and then watched as Sherlock slipped in, in the disguise of the murdered detective we found in London, then busted out of my cell and started prowling around, I feel I am close to that progression. We'll see.

Last time around I drugged the male nurse guarding the laboratory. He's out for the count, but now I have to lurk about and find some clues as to why various foreigners were abducted to London and shipped here in crates. If anyone can figure it out, it's THIS GUY, while being Sherlock F%$^%! Holmes!

I go up a flight of stairs to poke around up there, and unlock a closet with a spoon! Holy Handy Smurf! Inside is a doctor's jacket, which I promptly steal, because I am the good guy, and as we've well established in this blog by now, good guys always steal stuff!

Now I can move around more freely, since I fit in better. Goody. I walk around and find a bunch of doors locked, but there is  huge open area with a bunch of birds inside a gigantic cage. A brunette is yelling at one of the other crazy dudes, Bauer, to stop. He's agitating the birds and he's got their seed. He wants to let them all out and fly around the place, that would cause the nurses to all stop their duties and havok would ensure. Hmm. That's a good point, crazy dude. Thanks for that.

Aww, she loves her birdies. Bah!

I need the key to the birdcage, but neither of these wackos seems to know where to get it. I go back downstairs, time to talk to some of the other residents of this evil nuthouse.

After some exploration, I find a woman named Gerta who is lamenting the loss of her friend Heidi, who abandoned her. So sorry! By the way, yer crazy!

I progress to the other end of the asylum. There are more nurses with whistles wandering about, so I have to be careful to avoid them. I get to the cell of a guy named Becker. He wants his medicine. Its made with those strange pink crystals I found in the laboratory. What's that, create a concoction at the direction of a crazy house patient with no actual medical degree? All right, I'll do it! Especially when Becker says he has some valuable information for me.

Becker wantsies his druggies.

I head back to the lab. I take the pink crystals. I need some water, there's a fountain up by the birds. I head up there and fill a cup with water, then deposit the pink crystals in there. Yeah! Becker's "medicine" is all ready to go. Maybe it'll turn him into Mr. Hyde and he'll bust out of the cell! We'll see.

Mmm-Mmm! Them's good drinking water

I give Becker the pink drink, and suddenly he's a lot more lucid than before. We have a chit-chat about the foreigners that were brought in. He wants to tell me more, but he's afraid that the guards will overhear and hurt us both. I need to get rid of them somehow for him to tell me more. Drats.
Becker tells me that crazy Gertrude may know how to open the bird cage, that the doll in the lab belongs to her. I kind of figured that one out already, but the game wouldn't let me pick the doll up earlier. Armed with this knowledge, I head back into the lab, and snag the weird looking doll. Hello Heidi!

All happy to be reunited with your icky doll.

Gertrude is very pleased to have Heidi back in her hands. She tells me that Heidi was taken from her as a punishment. A large guard took her to a private room and tried to make her do, uh, unsavory things, so Gertrude rewarded him by cutting off his head!

Nice!

The staff punished her for her murder by putting her in an isolated wing by herself, separating her from Heidi, and not letting her see the birds anymore. The woman who lives in the room now has the key for the birdcage, Gertrude tells me. She also tells me she was afraid the guard whose head she cut off might come back for her, so she stole the key to his room. Right. The room with the key for the bird cage! Heidi hid it in her belly, Gertrude says, and pulls the key out of the doll and hands it to me. Yes! Crazy people rule!

I head upstairs, and sneak into the right room, and after stealing random things off a desk which might be useful later, I find the key to the bird cage.

"Fly! Be Free!" -- Mork from Ork, to a carton of eggs.

I head into the aviary, and much to the delight of Bauer, I release the hounds! Well, the birds anyway. The nurse/guards all freak out and chase after the birds. The birds fly into the lobby and out into the streets. The nurses completely abandon their posts to try and retrieve them. HAHAHA! Stupid nurse/guards.

I head back down to see Becker.

He tells me that when they were first brought in, they tried to communicate but couldn't because they all had different dialects. Becker was sure that none of them were crazy or in need of being institutionalized. Weirdly, about a week after they were brought in, they were all speaking the same language, and saying the same thing, some kind of chant or something.

AH HAH! Culty-Cult brainwashing is it? Okay then. I promise Becker I will rescue him as soon as possible, since he's a prisoner here too and clearly not insane. I make that promise because I'm Sherlock F$^&! Holmes!

This is a story progression checkmark. Time to move on.

The Scoreboard: Round Three! 43 Down! Only 5 games to go until we're onto Round 4.

MIND TEASERS: COMPLETE
Chess Titans - 3
Gabriel Knight - 3
Mahjong Titans - 3
Sherlock Holmes - 3
Spider Solitaire - 3
World Series of Poker - 3

STRATEGY: 5 of 6 defeated
Civilization 4 - 3
Gladius - 3
Master of Orion: 3
Space Empires - 2
Suikoden Tactics - 3
World of Mixed Martial Arts - 3

SHOOTER: COMPLETE
Crysis - 3
Fallout 3 - 3
Killzone - 3
Medal Of Honor - European Assault: 3
Ring of Red - 3
Star Wars Battlefront - 3

PURE ACTION: COMPLETE
Devil May Cry - 3
God of War - 3
Gran Turismo 3 -  3
Madden Football - 3
Soul Reaver 2 - 3
Soul Caliber - 3

SWORD SLASHERS - 5 of 6 defeated
Champions: Return to Arms - 3
Dark Cloud - 3
Drakengard - 3
.Hack Infection - 3
 Oblivion: Elder Scrolls - 2
Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams - 3

EPIC - FANTASY - 5 of 6 defeated
Dragon's Age Origin - 2
Dragon's Quest 8 - 3
Final Fantasy 12 - 3
Suikoden 3 - 3
Suikoden 4 - 3
Suikoden 5 - 3

EPIC - OTHER GENRES 5 of 6 defeated
Kingdom Hearts - 3
Marvel Ultimate Alliance - 3
Mercenaries - 2 (Super Long Ace Mission!)
Rogue Galaxy - 3
Star Ocean - 3
Xenosaga - 3

ROCKSTAR MISSION BASED 5 of 6
Assassin's Creed - 2
GTA: Liberty City Stories - 3
Hulk: Ultimate Destruction - 3
Manhunt 2 - 3
The Warriors - 3
Urbz - 3

GAMES THAT GOT THE BOOT DUE TO SUCKAGE

STRATEGY
1) Europa Universalis III

SWORD SLASHERS
1) Shadows of Rome

SHOOTERS
1) Freedom Fighters

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