Overview

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Review

Release Date: 1996
Platform: PC - Windows
Developer: Revolution
Publisher: Virgin Games

Reviewed by Andrew McClure on 2.8.2004

Review Rating: 5/10

User Rating: 8.33/10

When I wrote a review of the fantastic The Longest Journey I thought that I had hit the nail on the head. If I ever reviewed another Point and Click Adventure game than I would just follow the same formula, briefly mention the game play and focus on the most important element, the story. I still believe that holds true, Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars plays very similar to all the other Point and Click Adventure games you use various inventory items to solve puzzles while engaging other characters in conversation. No surprises there. Unfortunately there aren’t any surprises in the plot category either.

The visuals of Broken Sword are on the surface very nice. There’s a good amount of detail in the backgrounds, the animation is nice and plentiful but they just don’t say much. The game takes you all over the world from Paris to the Middle East to Ireland but its like flipping through a postcard book. It seems more like you’re a tourist than an adventurer.

Characters follow in the footsteps of the locales, stereotypes and cardboard cut-outs. If you asked anyone from Europe to draw a picture of the average American man you’d probably get something close to our hero, George Stobbart: he’s blonde, he wears t-shirt and jeans, and he’s from California. Unfortunately George never really gains any sort of personality to make up for his bland appearance. Now maybe that’s what Revolution Software was going for, a cipher for the player to enjoy the game. But after four hours of listening to George’s narration and dialogue a little bit of personality might’ve helped. The rest of the cast doesn’t fare well either though they usually fall into the category of terrible stereotype than annoying blandness.

I know what you’re thinking, “None of this matters if the story is good.” It’s too bad that Broken Sword’s plot doesn’t break the streak of mediocrity. The game starts out interestingly enough with George drinking coffee in a small café in Paris when suddenly he’s almost killed when a clown leaves a briefcase bomb inside, leaving one man dead. George, being the good protagonist that he is, decides to investigate. Outside he meets the plucky photographer Nico, who for all intents and purposes is the love interest though it’s kind of hard to swallow due to the lack of real contact between George and Nico: she spends 80% of the game back at her apartment while you go out adventuring. Heck even George and Nico seem awkward and embarrassed expressing their new found love at the end of the game (OMG SPOILERZ!!!11!). I’d hate to ruin any more of the twists and turns of Broken Sword but don’t worry you should be able to guess most of them yourself.

The final bullet in the Broken Sword is its lack of focus. There are times where it seems like it wants to be a dark, conspiracy based story of ancient horror ala the Gabriel Knight games. While other times it tries to imitate the manic comic insanity of the Monkey Island series. The two styles end of canceling each other. It’s hard to laugh at funny situations when there’s a chance of your character being shot and thrown into the river (which actually happens a lot so make sure you save often). On the other hand any sort of horror or tension that they try to build is hard to buy in a game where you have to procure a toilet brush so a Kebab salesman can clean his grill. Your time would be much better spent playing one of the games that Broken Sword oh so wants to be.

Box art