Those Templars Sure Cast Long Shadows...
Written: Aug 09 '04 (Updated Jan 31 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Style, atmosphere, complex and involving plot
Cons: Dodgy logic on some puzzles, few inventory objects
The Bottom Line: A fine graphical adventure game, worthy of a place in the collection of any fan of the genre.
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| captaind's Full Review: Microsoft BROKEN SWORD |
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars by Revolution Software is a pretty old game now available on the Sold Out Software budget label. Having heard many good things about it and intending to buy it for ages, this is obviously A Good Thing. (I’m not aware of the game having been released by Microsfot, and the screenshot is of the Sold Out version.
OVERVIEW
Broken Sword is a graphical adventure game that takes you across the world in a complex plot involving the Knights Templar… though you don’t find that out for a little while in the game (however, the blurb tells you this much so it’s not a spoiler – and the title of the game might also have given you a clue!). You play the role of George Stobart an American Tourist who at the start of the game is in a café when it gets blown up. You find out that the explosion has far wider implications and, since you seem to have no limit to available time and money, decide to find out what’s really going on. Part of the reason for this is Nico (Nicole), a French reporter with long legs whom you hope to rendezvous with. (Well, that’s the subtext I read into it…)
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Though Broken Sword is quite an old game it managed to look stylish rather than dated. It quickly became evident that the style was very different to that of classic adventure games such as Monkey Island – the focus is much more on story line and mood than humour, though there is still plenty of humour in the game. The number of places you can go initially is pretty limited, but that’s in common with most adventure games.
My first impression of the game was extremely bad – that’s not the games fault, however. Virgin Interact, in their inscrutable wisdom, decided to give this game what is undoubtedly the most annoying installer program I have ever seen. (I had a very good first impression of the game itself!)
INTERFACE
Gone are the verb commands and trying to work out how to use a particular object to get the desired effect. Broken Sword just gives you a mouse cursor. And… that’s it. When the cursor is over an object that can be used in some way, the cursor changes into an animation describing the action – so when you can pick something up, the cursor becomes a hand grabbing something, etc. Though this method feels a little restrictive at first, it is very simple to use and work very well once you get used to it. At all times if you right click on any object you are given a brief description of it.
Your inventory is displayed at the top of the screen and is always visible, which is very useful. When you have conversations you can choose any of your inventory objects to show them and talk about, or a list of icons representing characters / subjects will appear at the bottom of the screen. When you have exhausted that topic, the icon will disappear. This is similar to the conversation interface used in Discworld: Noir, but is superior in that it keeps track of what subjects are still relevant to talk about with each character. Like Discworld: Noir, however, there is a distinct dearth of inventory objects when compared to other adventure games.
DIFFICULTY
While many of the puzzles in the game are pretty easy, there are some real humdingers in it. Unfortunately there are also a few rather unfair and slightly illogical ones too, that you’re unlikely to work out and will need to resort to a walkthrough. In general the logic holds up though, and the difficulty is well balanced most of the time.
The game has many locations and will keep you going for a long time. Once you’ve completed it, however, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever go back to it.
AESTHETICS
Though not exactly stunning by today’s standards, the graphics still look good due to being incredibly detailed and well coloured – in fact the backgrounds often resemble oil paintings in style! The animation is also extremely good although at times a little jerky. The graphics are traditional two dimensional, but clever use of perspective and “walk behind” areas helps to give it considerable perceived depth.
The sound consists of moody music in the background, a few well-placed sound effects, and of course sampled speech. This is generally good quality and pretty consistent in volume (very occasionally the sample drifts below the comfortable hearing range with some characters), but quite often suffers from clipping. This is not a major problem as it seems to be confined to a few minor characters in the game, but it is slightly annoying.
OTHER COMMENTS
Along with the deliciously complex plot, there is a fair amount of humour thrown in. However, the humour only works marginally more than half the time – don’t expect to find yourself laughing riotously like when you played the first Monkey Island game. Still, it gives the game an added dimension. (The laughs pick up significantly once you reach Syria, for some reason...)
The characters in the game are pretty good, though they’re drawn (intentionally – I think!) from just about every national stereotype going – much of the humour is derived from these stereotypes. The politically-correct lobby probably wouldn’t like it, which is of course another point in its favour. The voice acting if top notch if rather cheesy in some places – hmm…. Make that most places.
There’s a tiny amount of material in the game that may be considered unsuitable for children, though it’s not the sort of game children are likely to play anyway. (Rated )
WILL YOU BE PLAYING IT IN 6 MONTHS' TIME?
Unless you’ve used a walkthrough or just given up on it, it’s quite possible. Then again, you may be a natural genius and just sail through it. (Probability 1:189330) If by some quirk of fate you are reading this and did complete the game easily… I don’t want to hear about it. It will only make me feel insecure…
OVERALL
It’s a very good game, but to me it doesn’t quite reach the brilliant level. You’ll certainly enjoy playing it and you won’t complete it quickly, and if you like adventure games and fancy yourself as a bit of a detective, it’s really a must-have in your game collection. But 5 stars? Nearly, but not quite.
Compatibility and GETTING THE DAMN THING TO WORK
Though it doesn’t claim to be compatible with Windows XP, I did not have any problems with it once I’d got it to recognise the DVD-ROM drive. Apparently (according to Sold Out’s technical support), the game has a problem recognising CD/DVD drives on computers with more than one drive. The game asks you to insert CD-1…. even though it is already in the CD drive. So they suggested putting the CD in the other drive (in my case the DVD). Unfortunately, this did not work. So much for technical support. Hopefully if you have just one drive, you will have no problems at all.
HOWEVER I then edited the setup.ini file to read E:\music etc instead of D:\. When I tried it again it worked fine. I’m sure this information will help if you can’t get it to work. It doesn’t seem to be a problem with XP users particularly.
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Final Ratings
Graphics: – 84% - very detailed and stylish, albeit a little dated
Sound: – 88% - good sound quality overall, but some clipping of speech samples
Playability: - 86% - simple to use though it feels a bit limited at time.
Longevity: - 81% - it'll have you playing for a long time...
Replay Value: - 64% - but you're unlikely to play it again once you've completed it.
Value For Money: - 83% - as a budget title it offers good value for money.
Overall Rating: - 82% - A very good adventure game, but not quite worthy an excellent rating, IMHO.
Related Links
You can get hold of Revolution’s older game Beneath A Steel Sky for FREE.
(To run it you also need the Virtual SCUMM Runtime Engine, which, like the game, can be downloaded from http://www.scummvm.org/downloads.php
The above are fairly hefty downloads, so be warned if you’re on dial-up access!
Revolution’s first game, Lure of the Temptress, is one I remember well (from the years when I still had my old Atari ST). It was indeed quite revolutionary at the time, since 1/ you had another character – Ratpouch – that you could give commands to and he’d carry out (pretty cool!), and 2/ conversations and other characters’ lives went on around you – they didn’t simply sit on a screen waiting for you to interact with them. For the first time you could actually try to “overhear” gossip that might give you useful clues.
Lure of the Temptress has now been released as Freeware by Revolution (and it’s only a 1.3Mb download…). Not sure how it would play today… if you want to find out, there’s one sure way!
English download: http://www.revolution.co.uk/lure_g/lure.zip
French download: http://www.revolution.co.uk/lure_g/lure_fr.zip
German download: http://www.revolution.co.uk/lure_g/lure_de.zip
*French and German versions have the manual included because the copy protection system is still present in the executable. This takes the download size up to 3.3Mb and 3.5Mb respectively.
The Revolution site says:
“Simply unzip to a directory and run the lure.exe
Although Lure of the Temptress is over 10 years old, compatibility is pretty good and you should find it runs ok. If it doesn’t, we don’t know why!”
Revolution’s homepage is: http://www.revolution.co.uk/index.php
It contains info on each game, hints and tips, tech support, links to buy the games, etc.
Related Reviews
The most similar game to Broken Sword that I’ve reviewed is undoubtedly Discworld Noir, which has a similar style of gameplay and method of dialogue handling. It’s well worth a look (especially if you’re a Discworld fan), although like Broken Sword, is has a couple of failings that prevented it from receiving a full five stars. (4 stars)
If you like detective games (as opposed to adventure games with elements of detective work) and in particular Law & Order, you might find Law & Order 2: Double Or Nothing to your taste. Personally I found it somewhat lacking, but I’m not a particular fan of either the genre or the series. (3 stars)
Another excellent game with detective elements is Bladerunner. It’s got quite a unique style but does have some similarities with the games already mentioned. It definitely helps if you like the film. (5 stars)
If, like me, you are generally more a fan of “classical” adventure games, I recommend the following:
Monkey Island Archives - containing Monkey Island 1, 2, and 3. (1 and 3 are timeless classics, 2 is a little disappointing.) (5 stars)
Escape from Monkey Island - the fourth game in the series went 3D, but despite the obvious graphical improvements over the earlier games, overall it was not as good as the first and third instalments. However it is still a very good game and the humour is as good as ever. (4 stars)
Grim Fandango - being dead has never been so much fun… in many ways similar to Escape from Monkey Island, but superior overall. (5 stars)
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My Top Ten Commercial Graphical Adventure Games
Recommended:
Yes
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