- ANIMATED GRAPHIC TYPE ADVENTURE
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Despite the ominous-sounding title, Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars is actually a colorfully animated adventure game that casts you as an American vacationing in Paris. But don't let cartoonish graphics fool you into thinking this is kiddie fare, as the game opens with a malevolent-looking clown bombing a café where you're sitting, leaving a man dead and many questions unanswered. Fancying himself to be a better detective than the local authorities, your nosy tourist dives headfirst into mystery and intrigue, hot on the trail of the killer clown.
Broken Sword uses a basic point-and-click interface, where moving a pointer around various onscreen hot spots allows different actions to be performed. Pointer movement is rather slow, and the use of a PlayStation mouse is highly recommended. Also sluggish is the load time when moving from scene to scene, which disrupts the game's pacing a bit.
Those willing to have patience will find Broken Sword to be a decent adventure game. Crisp graphics, smooth animation, and respectable voice acting help further the game's quirky plot, although the dialogue is downright hammy at times. --Joe Hon
Pros:
- Crisp graphics, smooth animation, respectable voice acting
- Good mystery game for would-be sleuths
- Slow pointer movement
- Annoying load time between scenes
GameSpot Review
Weaving a tale of murder, mystery, mayhem, and medieval history, Revolution Software has ported its popular PC title Circle of Blood to the PlayStation. The terrific storyline has been kept intact, with all its shadowy nuances of the occult and unexpected humor, but the game just isn't as fun to play as it was on the PC. You're George Stobbart, hapless American tourist in Paris drawn into a far-reaching world-domination plot by a bomb exploding in the quiet cafe where you're drinking coffee. You're called to be an unlikely and somewhat awkward hero as you cross the globe - from Spain to Syria to France to Ireland - in search of the truth and the reason behind a seemingly unconnected series of murders. The storyline is solid, laden with historical myth and mystery (the Knights Templar, central to the game, were known to exist in early medieval times, but no one knows what happened to them, if they still exist, where their treasure went, and so on). The story also introduces a handful of well-developed characters, including your accomplice, the sophisticated Parisian Nicole Collard, as well as the psychic police inspector Rosso and pub-lurking exaggerator Liam MacGuire. Puzzles fit well into the fabric of the game. Most are relevant and usually are solvable with a reasonable portion of wit and a slow mouse (stumpers can often be solved if you crawl the cursor over the screen very, very slowly and find that small object). Only one or two felt illogical or random, which in an adventure game with more than 25 puzzles or so, seems a reasonable ratio. The problem, however, is that the load times are terrible. Because this is an adventure game, it is necessary to move frequently between screens, and to have to wait and wait while the next screen loads is annoying. One puzzle requires that you use a wet object, but the place where you use the wet object is six screens away from where you wet it, so woe betide you if your object dries out before you can make use of it (it's guaranteed, by the way, to happen at least once). You have to backtrack six screens, waiting for each to load, wet the object, and trundle back through the same six screens to use it. Broken Sword takes far longer to play through than it should because it takes so long to put a solution into place. Likewise, load times destroy some cutscenes, particularly ones that cut from George's startled face to the action, to George, to the action. What was originally designed as a suspenseful back and forth is completely undermined by the slowness of moving from one image to the next. Finally, Circle of Blood was acclaimed for its superb graphics. Broken Sword retains the exotic locales and the crispness of background scenes - many of the team members worked on comic book cult hit Tank Girl - but it's more difficult now to see character faces clearly or in any kind of detail (and I played on a big TV). The graphics feel condensed and smushed when compared with the PC version, which also might explain why it can be so challenging to place the cursor in exactly the right place. Broken Sword is compatible with the PlayStation mouse and has an excellent original score and involving storyline peopled with curious and unusual characters. If only it wasn't so hard to physically get through it.--Moira Muldoon--Copyright © 1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Broken Sword,a masterpiece,
By "mojocarjo913" (Candy Land) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (Video Game)
Broken Sword,a game I tried at my cousins house.I think the game Broken Sword is an excellent game for anyone 13 and/or up.But it can also be for mature children who are 10.It dosen't have many curse words at all.I guess it's the thought of people dying that woulden't be appropriate for younger children.It also might be hard for younger children to understand the story.Well, now i'm going to tell you what the game is about.Your character is George Stobbard a tourist visiting Paris.Then while your having a drink at a cafe,a clown bombs the cafe and kills a man.You barely survive the blast.You want to get to the bottom of this.You ask witness's questions.Collect informaton of where he might be.And you try to get on the killers trail.You also collect clues along the way.Oh,and your on your own.The police stop looking for him and your on your own.Well,there is this girl who you meet,and she kind of gets involved.And you kind of like her.Well,you need to buy it to find out.It's a real entertaining game.I mean that's what video games are all about,am I right? It's really cheap too.The art is really cool too.It kind of looks like an adventure computer game.You know? Well i'm trying to say that it has like a flat not 3-D type art.It also has eery music,which is really cool.Well,I tottaly recommend it.Especially for people like me who like suspense and horror video games.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A solid adventure game gets a turn on the Playstation,
By
= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (Video Game)
Broken sword is an Adventure style game that follows the adventures of an American named George Stobbart in Paris. While at a café, he is nearly the victim of a bombing. Driven by irritation at the fact that he was nearly killed and that someone died as well as a sense of adventure, he begins a private investigation into the bombing. He is helped along by a young woman journalist named Nico.
What he finds is a conspiracy that stretches across Europe and holds within it, the secret of the lost treasure of the Templar knights. Review: I have played one of the sequels to this game and found it somewhat entertaining. When I found this game I thought it was worth giving it a try. I was wise to do so as Broken Sword is easily one of the more entertaining adventure games I have played in some time. It's not an entirely serious game and has some somewhat comic moments. But it has a decent plot for an adventure game and enough of a hook to make the player want to keep playing to the end. Graphics: As a game released in the late 90's in the middle end of the Playstation's lifecycle, Broken Sword is something of a throwback. It boasts hand drawn backgrounds for its various locations. The characters are cartoonish sprites rather than 3d renders. For this type of game, that is generally to be expected. The game boast various cut scenes as well. These are cartoon animations, somewhat cheesy in nature, but staying in the same style as the character animations in the game itself. Obviously, the Playstation graphics are not as nice as those found on the PC, given that the Playstation has a much lower resolution than the PC. This does hurt the game a bit I'd say, but certainly the game is par for the course in terms of this type of game on the system. Sound: Broken Sword is fully voiced. There are probably around 15 to 20 fully voiced characters. The major characters are well voice acted, though at times the sound quality seems a bit spotty. Music and sound effects are mediocre. This is not a strong point for this game. Gameplay: Gameplay in Broken Sword is traditional point and click adventure fare. This is actually the first time that I have played an adventure game on the Playstation. Given that it was designed for a point and click interface, it easily could have gone horribly wrong. It doesn't, but it does have its moments. Be sure to read the manual. It warns that the mouse cursor has three speeds, medium, which is the default speed, slow and fast. The game moves the cursor more quickly by skipping pixels on the screen, which is still far slower than a computer mouse. The slow and fast modes are activated by holding the shoulder buttons on the controller. I did not realize this at first. After dying in the game, I retraced my steps and for the life of me could not collect a critical object needed to advance. The cursor needed to be within a few pixels of the object to detect it. The default speed kept jumping over the item. It took a while to realize what was going on and use the shoulder buttons. This could be a potentially game breaking problem, though if players are aware, it's easy to overcome, though hunting the pixel will thus become more prominent. There are also some points in the game where quick action is required or the player will die. With a mouse, this would not be a problem, but with a controller, it can get tricky if you're unfamiliar with the controller or the game controls. Saving your game often becomes a necessity as these points are game enders. Thankfully, there are only a couple of them. As a side note, this game is compatible with the PlayStation mouse if you have one. I have no idea if a mouse works on the PS3. I didn't actually try that. Aside from the above, Broken Sword's puzzles are really not that difficult and for the most part, fairly logical. At only one point did I feel the need to use a walkthrough and I feel it was at the only point of the game where it wasn't clear that the action could be taken. I would say that this game is a medium level difficulty game. Story: The plot of Broken sword is standard conspiracy theory stuff twisted in with some amount of real history. The Templar Knights feature quite heavily. George Stobbart is a fun character with a dry wit and of course, Nico is appealing with her French accent. Players travel all over Europe looking for clues and meet characters that are unique and memorable. I seem to recall that this was the case with the other Broken Sword game I played. Characters were something developed quite heavily. Some things seems to come just a little too fast for my taste. I felt there should have been more build-up for the revelation of the conspiracy and also, for the romance between Nico and George. Bottom Line: Despite being 12 years old, Broken Sword remains a fun game and a nice diversion. The puzzles are really not that difficult, especially for experienced players, and the story is solid enough to keep a player's interest. Controller difficulties can be a problem at times, but forewarning can keep those to a minimum. Playtime probably would average 8 to 12 hours depending on player. 4 stars
3.0 out of 5 stars
Difficult and British,
By
= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (Video Game)
This game's biggest problem is the pointer is very slow moving around the screen, so i have to dock it a whole star just for that.
Now graphically this game is cool, sound is surprisingly doity and light. The challenges range in dificulty but it is very addictive once you have a decent tv to display it on. A sleeper hit for THQ, which is know for Smackdown, not Britishesque style hidden object- based puzzle games. Patience is a virtue and you will need it to beat this game. If you think your clever then play this game, possibly too difficult for most American based audiences that are used to Mario jumping around type games. Probably common to Big Fish gamers, hidden object style of thinking.
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