Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars

Comments

1. Skycraft says:

   December 18, 2009 at 9:24 am

   I was a big fan of the adventure games so popular on PCs in the 90′s but somehow completely missed the Broken Sword franchise. When I learned of this game I was excited to return to this all but extinct game style but unsure of how it would work on the Wii. My concern was unfounded. This is a wonderful, highly entertaining game; perfectly suited to the Wii’s unique controller.

   For anyone not familiar with the genera it’s definitely not standard console game fair. Game play is based on methodical exploration, puzzle solving and a fair deal of reading/listening to non-player characters for hints and clues. The best way to explain it is to say it’s exactly like a good mystery novel that gives you control over the protagonist.

   The graphics are wonderful; beautifully rendered, slightly fanciful, visions of Paris, highly reminiscent of Don Bluth’s style of animation. In this day and age of hyper-realism it’s very refreshing to play a game that takes it’s own direction graphically. The Wii’s sometimes mocked hardware limitations seems to be encouraging this kind of innovation and I, for one, appreciate it greately.

   The Wii is considered a bastion for casual gamers, and this title proves the concept. You don’t need lightning quick reflexes, or years of twitch-response training to hop in and play. Surprisingly, this makes a great family/party game. At a gathering of friends, four of us in our late 20′s-early 30′s — and only one Wii remote we had a great time working collaboratively to solve the puzzles and explore the various locals. Rather than take advantage of the built in multi-player option, we found one Wii remote got passed around quite a bit.

   If I could say anything negative about this game it is the one constant strike against any game of this type. While I haven’t played it though to the end yet, I imagine, given the highly linear story-driven narrative, there will be almost no replay value. Or, rather, it will have the same replay value as any good mystery novel has re-read value.

   Despite that, I think it’s well worth the purchase price, if only to send a clear message that more games of this quality greatly desired.
   Rating: 5 / 7
2. Book Lover says:

   December 18, 2009 at 8:56 am

   I’ve just finished playing Broken Sword and loved the game. I never played it on a PC so this Wii version was my first introduction to the game (which I guess is a classic). I enjoy games with little or no fighting and lots of exploring and puzzles so this was perfect for my tastes. The story was interesting and kept me looking forward to seeing what came next.

   The hint system was good and I used it in the beginning a bit and then when I got really stuck (in hindsight, I wish I had used it less in the beginning of the game). One of the cons of the game for me was that sometimes you had to do something non-intuitive to figure out a puzzle (like talk to a specific person a 6th time after looking at a specific object, etc.) But once I got the hang of that and with the help of an occasional hint, it was fine. The Wii controls are great for exploring although on some of the puzzles that involved precisely moving things they took some getting used to.

   I only recently purchased a Wii and this was one of my first games. I enjoyed it so much that it has sent me on a quest to find similar titles that include this type game-play. Which leads me to my other con…I felt the game went by too quickly. I spent a lot of time looking around and felt I was taking my time with it but it was over before I knew it and there is little replay value as the puzzles are all figured out. I would have liked a longer game for the money. As the title of my review states, I am anxious for a sequel and hope that it includes more areas to explore and maybe some non-linear story lines to increase the replay value.

   In sum, I gave it 5 stars as I couldn’t wait to play it every time I had some free time, enjoyed the story and puzzles, and was sad when I finished it. If you like a lot of action, this game isn’t for you. But if you like point-and-click type adventures and puzzles, I think you will really enjoy Broken Sword.
   
   Rating: 5 / 7
3. M. Coleman says:

   December 18, 2009 at 7:44 am

   I was about a third through this game (according to it) when it crashed on me with some sort of assertion failure. I guess it’s kind of interesting that they bothered to include an assertion mechanism, but quite annoying that it crashed, from my perspective as a player.

   The game unfortunately is somewhat tedious. Much of it consists of holding up various objects to various characters, who mostly have very boring ways of saying “nothing to see here”. This is not on a par with the adventure elements of Zelda Wind Waker, for example.
   Rating: 2 / 7
4. Bob Ramapo says:

   December 18, 2009 at 6:27 am

   Good game. The hints provided are really beneficial when you get stuck. The plot is quite interesting.
   Rating: 5 / 7