The fourth (and final?) in the Broken Sword series
Written: Jan 29 '07 (Updated Mar 16 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good puzzles, great atmosphere, interesting characters
Cons: Some glitches and inconsistencies, poor dialogue in places, specs too high for my system!
The Bottom Line: Broken Sword: The Angel of Death is a pretty solid adventure game though it left me a little disappointed.
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| captaind's Full Review: Broken Sword 4 : The Angel of Death for PC |
Broken Sword: The Angel of Death is the fourth and presumably final (though the third was supposedly final as well so you never know) instalment in the popular “Broken Sword” series of adventure games. As with the earlier games, this one has you playing the role of George Stobbart, who seems destined for a quiet life until every so often he is plunged into a mysterious world of ancient artefacts, mysterious symbolism, damsels in distress, people trying to kill him, and more often than not an incarnation of the Knights Templar.
The first two games in the series were traditional 2D point and click games, the first dealing primarily with a plot by modern-day Templars; the second involving Inca’s and human sacrifices. The second was different in that you could play two main characters, the other one being the irritating French journalist Nico, with whom George is occasionally in love (or something). The third game had something different again, with a 3D world and keyboard controls, with a distinct puzzle element a la Sokoban. Finally this third one breaks from the keyboard control (though you can still move with the cursor keys), giving back mouse control, full 3D environment, and eradicating the crate pushing puzzles while adding a new puzzle element. Each game has tried to do something unique while keeping the same general themes.
-- The following paragraph contains a spoiler for the third game, ”Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon” --
With the first two games the mystical elements are more of a cover for the real operations, but in the third game we have George actually battling a dragon at the end. This made the whole thing seem a bit silly and out of character for the series.
-- End of spoiler for “Sleeping Dragon” --
In this fourth game, we start off with the rather outlandish claim that the “Angel of Death” plague in the time of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt actually being an ancient weapon that the scholarly Moses recreated. (I’ve seen supposed explanations for all the ten plagues, though if they’d all happened just at the right time like hat it would have been far more miraculous than the more straightforward explanation of God causing them!) Still, this is just a game, and the manuscript that the beautiful blonde (followed by obligatory thugs) is carrying may lead to this exact “treasure”. At any rate, you won’t actually meet this relic until later in the game, so let’s concentrate on the beginning.
We start in the brokers office that George works in with his business partner, hoping for nothing more than a really boring life. In comes blonde mentioned above, followed by thugs also mentioned above. The first order of the day is to escape (if you can’t work it out this section is actually walked through in the accompanying manual), then decide on things like taking the job. The interface is mouse driven with the cursor changing if it’s over an interactable object. Right-clicking reveals if there is more than one possible action. Altogether there are 16 commands, though this isn’t quite as extensive as it might seem because it includes movement commands such as crawl on ledge / get off ledge, etc. Moving the cursor to the top of the screen brings up the inventory (which includes Anna Marie, the distressed damsel, who you can ask to help you with things using her icon), while hitting Escape brings up the menu for options and loading / saving the game. The interface works reasonably well although moving, either via cursor keys or mouse, is less than satisfactory due to the frequent changes in perspective that make you end up travelling in unexpected directions. The mouse cursor movement is also quite jerky on my system because the game is so technically demanding.
The reason for that is the very high system specs required – 1.4GHz CPU, 256Mb RAM, nVidia GeForce 6200 / 128Mb 3D card with Shader model 1.1, and DirectX 9.0C (which is included on disc.) Also please note that the game I have is on DVD-ROM – I’m not certain that a CD-ROM is / will be available. On my system (2.4GHz CPU, 768Mb RAM, nVidia GeForce 5500 FX (256Mb) with latest DirectX and nVidia drivers) the game often crawls. The only way to get it to run at a decent speed is to have it on the minimum resolution (800x600), minimum detail level (low) and no anti-aliasing. Even then it’s pretty slow at times. The maximum resolution is 1280*1024, High detail level, x4 anti-aliasing. This puts the game beyond the scope of many gamers who would otherwise be interested in the game. It does look good even at the lowest specs though, and if you have a system that can cope with it at the highest resolution and detail settings, you will have a really lovely looking game. The environmental effects are very impressive.
Where Angel of Death does excel is in the atmosphere it creates. This is largely due to the graphics but also the way the plot unfurls. Unfortunately the dialogue often comes across as stilted, especially Anna Marie’s. The voice acting is on the whole superb, and the sound effects very atmospheric. The music is really good but used somewhat awkwardly; in my opinion they would have done better to have a constant background track at a lower level than the speech and FX. (These levels are of course adjustable.) The music comes in out of the blue and disappears again for no apparent reason when you’re playing the game, though it’s used effectively in the cut scenes.
The puzzles in the game are pretty well balanced, offering a challenge without making you want to resort to a walkthrough on a regular basis. There is another element of the game that comes via your PDA. You can keep notes on it and use it as a phone, but a bit into the game you’ll be given a dongle that lets you hack into servers and mainframes with it at key points into the game. This is done via a puzzle game very similar to an old Spectrum game I remember called “Deflektor” (yes it had a K in it…), whereby you need to use mirrors etc to get a beam of light (or in this case the connection) from one point to another. You also need to guide it through waypoints along the way and avoid nodes that detect your hacking attempt. This feature of the game is well implemented and I enjoyed solving the puzzles, and the fact that it broke up the exploration part of the game a bit. Some die-hard traditionalists will grumble, but they might not play the game anyway as it’s 2D :-D
Humour isn’t as important to these games as the LucasArts adventure games like Monkey Island, but it is there. Sometimes it doesn’t quite work but usually it adds to the game. There are plenty of outlandish characters to talk to in the game and some interesting or just plain bizarre conversations. Some familiar characters from earlier in the series are here though you won’t bump into them immediately. There are a few problems with continuity as far as some of the dialogues and actions go, which may or may not be addressed in future patches for the game.
I would have enjoyed the game more if it had run a bit smoother on my system but overall it’s still a good adventure game. Unfortunately there are enough bugs and problems with it for me to feel it’s the weakest in the Broken Sword series. Mainly
recommended to those with a high-end PC and have enjoyed the previous Broken Sword games.
(Thanks to Kjell1979 for adding this game to the Epinions Database for me.)
Age rating: 12+
(There is a sign to indicate some profanity in the game but, having now completed it, I can honestly say I don't remember any at all.)
The game took us a little over 18 hours to complete with minimal looking up hints on the internet. (If you do get stuck, here's a truly excellent wlakthrough - http://guides.gamepressure.com/brokenswordtheangelofdeath/guide.asp?ID=1505 I don't like walkthroughs much myself but at least you only need to look at what you need to get you headed in the right direction!! It seems there are few places offering just "hints" these days unless you're prepared to crawl through message boards...)
The plot got progressively sillier and ended up being a cross between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Da Vinci Code - and somehow ends up being even less credible than either of them!
The Broken Sword Series
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars
Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror (still my favourite of the series)
Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon
See also: The Captain’s Top 100 Computer / Video Games of All Time
Recommended:
Yes
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