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DustyShinigami · 09-08-2010, 08:29 AM

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut

Positives:

+ Beautiful hand drawn 2D graphics, which are full of colour and detail. The new scenes look great and are up to the same standard/quality as the old ones. Animations are generally good, the new character portraits look good in the sense that they match the look of the 2D sprites/characters, and the redone/redrawn conversation topics and inventory items also look great.
+ A fantastic, memorable – and at times atmospheric – music score by Barrington Pheloung. The extra pieces composed especially for the Director’s Cut blend in quite well with his original score for the game.
+ A really engrossing and well told/written story that grips from the start and pulls you in. A story that’s full of mystery, intrigue, conspiracy, fact and fiction. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way, and the story is aided by a great cast of likeable and believable characters. George Stobbart and Nico Collard are two of the best, likeable and memorable characters in an adventure game. The additional Nico sections are a nice look at her side of the story and are interesting to play for the first time.
+ Voice acting is solid, believable and handled professionally. Along with the great voice acting and top-notch script, the game is also witty and humorous at times. Thankfully the new Nico in the Director’s Cut is much better than the last Nico from The Angel of Death.
+ Apart from the odd few, puzzles are logical and exist to drive the story forward. The new first-person perspective puzzles are a nice addition. The difficulty of them seems to be about right. They look daunting at first, but they’re never overly complicated, and clues tend to be available via the new notebook or an inventory item.
+ The slightly modified interface is good. A little blue blip appears over interactable objects when you move the mouse nearby, there’s a spanner icon at the bottom left of the screen for the menu, a satchel for the inventory/inventory items, a notebook that George and Nico use to note down events that have happened during the game (along with hints), and a question mark for the new hint system that’s been added.
+ I’m not sure if it only applies to the PC version, but using certain objects on certain characters will unlock parts of the comic. Once they’re unlocked, each part can be accessed from the left hand side of the main menu. Plus, once the game has finished, you can read a few pages of a ‘thank you’ note from Charles Cecil accompanied by photos.

Negatives:

- The Director’s Cut is an inferior edition of Broken Sword 1. There’s sooooo much content missing and altered that it feels incomplete. For example: even though new dialogue has been added to the game, a lot of it doesn’t sound all that great compared to the original dialogue, as re-recorded lines between George and Nico sound like they’re being delivered a bit too quickly, and some of the new dialogue doesn’t really add much anyway. And even though new dialogue has been added, there’s an awful lot that’s missing.
Missing dialogue isn’t the only problem though. A lot of hotspots are missing, making the game feel simpler, linear and too easy; some puzzles have been simplified or they’re missing; and death scenes have been removed completely – taking away some of the suspense – as well as blood. Even a lot of Barrington Pheloung’s score feels missing. This is because the more familiar pieces keep replaying throughout the course of the game – even in places where they never used to. For example: the music Lady Piermont plays in the Hotel Ubu starts playing whilst talking to the flower seller. Or Nico’s theme plays once you’ve uncovered new information or solved a puzzle in the likes of Ireland or Syria. Sound effects have the same 'added and missing' problem too. Some of the new effects are good, but again, there are too many that have been removed. And finally, a lot of the time character’s mouths don’t move with the words and animations are missing frames. As a result, it makes their animations look and feel sluggish and choppy.
- Character portraits add nothing to the game. These should’ve just been kept for the Nintendo DS version to accompany the subtitles, but when there’s speech they’re pointless. The character’s faces animate, sure, but their mouths don’t move along with the words. It’s odd because they do right at the very beginning of the game. To me, these portraits would’ve been fine if they did throughout the whole game.
- The new Nico sections add nothing to the overall story.
- One or two characters have been re-voiced and don’t sound as good as before.
- The new ‘hi-res’ cut-scenes and new voiceovers don’t blend in with the old ones.
- The game (or possibly just the new Nico sections) only runs at about 20-25FPS making the 2D sprites and mouse pointer feel a bit slow and clunky.
- Some minor bugs are present. One affected my saved game stats, which it thankfully rectified itself. My overall game completion jumped from 30-40% done all the way to 4000% My overall time I’d spent on the game stayed at 0:00 as well. And another one involved character sprites not facing the right way when talking to characters.
- The only gripe I have with the interface is that inventory items now have to be dragged-and-dropped. In the original, it was just a simple matter of clicking on an item and then clicking on the object you wanted to use it on; much simpler. The whole drag-and-drop thing made it a bit frustrating during the chess puzzle as it seemed like my mouse commands weren’t responding. In that particular case, you have to hold the left mouse button down a second or two longer than you would an inventory item.
- Some conversation topics kept coming back when I visited and spoke to a particular character again.
- Instead of having the option to double click on an exit to quickly get to the next screen, the game automatically fades to the next screen just by a single click. I suppose for a lot of people that's a good thing as it cuts out all the walking, but personally, I'm not too keen on it. I don't mind George walking from point A to point B. The double click option would've been better I think.
- The new ending looks, sounds, and feels out of place; there’s also no end credits either.

Overall:

A nice revisit to the game - ideal for newcomers I suppose - but inferior to the fantastic original.

09-08-2010, 08:29 AM	#1379
DustyShinigami The Quiet One Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Staffordshire, UK Posts: 1,986	Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut Positives: + Beautiful hand drawn 2D graphics, which are full of colour and detail. The new scenes look great and are up to the same standard/quality as the old ones. Animations are generally good, the new character portraits look good in the sense that they match the look of the 2D sprites/characters, and the redone/redrawn conversation topics and inventory items also look great. + A fantastic, memorable – and at times atmospheric – music score by Barrington Pheloung. The extra pieces composed especially for the Director’s Cut blend in quite well with his original score for the game. + A really engrossing and well told/written story that grips from the start and pulls you in. A story that’s full of mystery, intrigue, conspiracy, fact and fiction. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way, and the story is aided by a great cast of likeable and believable characters. George Stobbart and Nico Collard are two of the best, likeable and memorable characters in an adventure game. The additional Nico sections are a nice look at her side of the story and are interesting to play for the first time. + Voice acting is solid, believable and handled professionally. Along with the great voice acting and top-notch script, the game is also witty and humorous at times. Thankfully the new Nico in the Director’s Cut is much better than the last Nico from The Angel of Death. + Apart from the odd few, puzzles are logical and exist to drive the story forward. The new first-person perspective puzzles are a nice addition. The difficulty of them seems to be about right. They look daunting at first, but they’re never overly complicated, and clues tend to be available via the new notebook or an inventory item. + The slightly modified interface is good. A little blue blip appears over interactable objects when you move the mouse nearby, there’s a spanner icon at the bottom left of the screen for the menu, a satchel for the inventory/inventory items, a notebook that George and Nico use to note down events that have happened during the game (along with hints), and a question mark for the new hint system that’s been added. + I’m not sure if it only applies to the PC version, but using certain objects on certain characters will unlock parts of the comic. Once they’re unlocked, each part can be accessed from the left hand side of the main menu. Plus, once the game has finished, you can read a few pages of a ‘thank you’ note from Charles Cecil accompanied by photos. Negatives: - The Director’s Cut is an inferior edition of Broken Sword 1. There’s sooooo much content missing and altered that it feels incomplete. For example: even though new dialogue has been added to the game, a lot of it doesn’t sound all that great compared to the original dialogue, as re-recorded lines between George and Nico sound like they’re being delivered a bit too quickly, and some of the new dialogue doesn’t really add much anyway. And even though new dialogue has been added, there’s an awful lot that’s missing. Missing dialogue isn’t the only problem though. A lot of hotspots are missing, making the game feel simpler, linear and too easy; some puzzles have been simplified or they’re missing; and death scenes have been removed completely – taking away some of the suspense – as well as blood. Even a lot of Barrington Pheloung’s score feels missing. This is because the more familiar pieces keep replaying throughout the course of the game – even in places where they never used to. For example: the music Lady Piermont plays in the Hotel Ubu starts playing whilst talking to the flower seller. Or Nico’s theme plays once you’ve uncovered new information or solved a puzzle in the likes of Ireland or Syria. Sound effects have the same 'added and missing' problem too. Some of the new effects are good, but again, there are too many that have been removed. And finally, a lot of the time character’s mouths don’t move with the words and animations are missing frames. As a result, it makes their animations look and feel sluggish and choppy. - Character portraits add nothing to the game. These should’ve just been kept for the Nintendo DS version to accompany the subtitles, but when there’s speech they’re pointless. The character’s faces animate, sure, but their mouths don’t move along with the words. It’s odd because they do right at the very beginning of the game. To me, these portraits would’ve been fine if they did throughout the whole game. - The new Nico sections add nothing to the overall story. - One or two characters have been re-voiced and don’t sound as good as before. - The new ‘hi-res’ cut-scenes and new voiceovers don’t blend in with the old ones. - The game (or possibly just the new Nico sections) only runs at about 20-25FPS making the 2D sprites and mouse pointer feel a bit slow and clunky. - Some minor bugs are present. One affected my saved game stats, which it thankfully rectified itself. My overall game completion jumped from 30-40% done all the way to 4000% My overall time I’d spent on the game stayed at 0:00 as well. And another one involved character sprites not facing the right way when talking to characters. - The only gripe I have with the interface is that inventory items now have to be dragged-and-dropped. In the original, it was just a simple matter of clicking on an item and then clicking on the object you wanted to use it on; much simpler. The whole drag-and-drop thing made it a bit frustrating during the chess puzzle as it seemed like my mouse commands weren’t responding. In that particular case, you have to hold the left mouse button down a second or two longer than you would an inventory item. - Some conversation topics kept coming back when I visited and spoke to a particular character again. - Instead of having the option to double click on an exit to quickly get to the next screen, the game automatically fades to the next screen just by a single click. I suppose for a lot of people that's a good thing as it cuts out all the walking, but personally, I'm not too keen on it. I don't mind George walking from point A to point B. The double click option would've been better I think. - The new ending looks, sounds, and feels out of place; there’s also no end credits either. Overall: A nice revisit to the game - ideal for newcomers I suppose - but inferior to the fantastic original. __________________ Now Playing: Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut (DS and iPhone), DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil, Hotel Dusk: Room 215, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All, Silent Hill - HD Collection Recently Completed: Max Payne, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne Next: Bayonetta, Devil May Cry - HD Collection, Max Payne 3, Metal Gear Solid - HD Collection, Silent Hill: Downpour Last edited by DustyShinigami; 09-08-2010 at 09:52 AM.