[Dylan_Dog]

I've been a huge fan of BS series ever since I played the first one almost a decade ago. BS3 was also good (as a whole) with some question marks here and there when it came to character control and puzzle logic.

Today I purchased BS4 for 70 AUD bucks and the guy at the counter told me that it's awesome. After playing for about 3 hours, here is what I found:

- Voice dialogue skips
- Character movement terrible (some walking hot spots simply don't work, character gets stuck all the time, movements sometimes accelerate giving the character a very unrealistic feel)
- Inconsistencies with hot spots (some change cursor while others don't)
- Again, question mark over some puzzles/problems

As a result of above problems, things like audio and graphics are completely overshadowed, although they aren't much different from BS3.

I've only played for 3 hours and haven't nearly finished the game, however, I feel that the only thing that's making me play is the story (and BS always had great storylines); from a consumer point of view though this is bad, because I just wanna get through the game (and its playability) as quickly as possible just so I can see the story develop. Inevitably I will be dissatisfied with the product due to its poor playing value, as I could've purchased many other great games on the market at the moment for 70 bucks and got my money's worth. Luckily EB has breat refund policy.

All this, by the way, is coming from a BS fan who purchased all 3 previous games.

[smulan]

I found BS4 to be nearly or as good and entertaining as BS1 and better than 2 and 3.

The dialogue is the best of any BS, witty, funny. Good voiceacting as always in BS, Saxon has never been better. The puzzles are the best of any BS, highly entertaining and varied. Good clean effective graphics. Good interface.

Of course it has its flaws. The story is rather weak but anyhow efficient for it´s purpose, that is the vehicle for delivering dialogue and puzzles.

The betatesting has been very bad or none, the bugs and difficulties to get it running properly on a clearly listed and supported system are numerous, just read the forumposts.

[Yixian]

Originally Posted by smulan

I found BS4 to be nearly or as good and entertaining as BS1

[smulan]

Perhaps you could also explain the picture?

[Yixian]

I never thought I'd hear anyone say that :O

[Jackal]

I'm not sure if this applies to smulan, but we have lots of non-native English speakers here, so you shouldn't assume that everyone will know English expressions.

Anyway, suggesting something will happen "when pigs fly" means that it will never happen.

DD, I certainly share some of your sentiments about the game, but you do get used to some of the quirks as you go along, and I found the game really picked up about five hours in, so don't write it off just yet.

[smulan]

Originally Posted by Jackal

Anyway, suggesting something will happen "when pigs fly" means that it will never happen.

Thankyou Jackal, I must have missed that one during the english lessons. I suppose that means Yixian does not agree with my opinion of BS4, pity she/he couldn´t be more explicit.

[Mr_Orange]

Yixian hasn't agreed or dissagreed with your opinion. He just states that he didnt think anyone would have that opinion. Hence your statement being likened to pigs flying (not a common occurance).

[Hammerite]

Originally Posted by smulan

I found BS4 to be nearly or as good and entertaining as BS1 and better than 2 and 3.

i agree!
btw, yixian: have you playd it yet?

[Siedler]

Yes, it's my least favourite BS game. Graphics aside, I didn't like the plot, Nico's voice-acting nor the awful ending. I got the feeling they were in rush making this game.

[Ariel Type]

The only notable downside of BS4 is its plot, wich is far too undeveloped and cliche. But characters, dialog, puzzles, interface and atmosphere at all are so much better then in the third installment, and the game is 3 or 4 times longer.. But yeah, let's give it a kick for its technical flaws. There were so many great adventures recently..

Originally Posted by Ariel Type

The only notable downside of BS4 is its plot, wich is far too undeveloped and cliche. But characters, dialog, puzzles, interface and atmosphere at all are so much better then in the third installment, and the game is 3 or 4 times longer.. But yeah, let's give it a kick for its technical flaws. There were so many great adventures recently..

What I find sad about Broken Sword 4 is that so few of the good old guys who made Broken Sword 1, 2 and 3 great, worked on this title. The game has many good sides, but it's sad to see Revolution Software giving up on making the games themself, and rather out-source the projects to other companies.

There are not many good small companies that really focus on what the fan wants anymore, and got a expert team who knows what makes a game great. Revolution Software had that, unfortunately they have let go a lot of the experts. Practically just Charles left. I see the small to medium sized game programming companies fall one after one these days, and that's sad - no matter how good game the people who they out-source the project to may make. It just reminds me too much of Hollywood. Everything is so expensive, and got a big budget and they are forced to make movies for the masses. Those who don't like what the masses likes just won't get any movies to watch from them.

The world needs small companies who are interested in making what not only the masses like, but what smaller groups like too. What I am worried about when I see companies like Revolution Software starts out-sourcing entire games, especially when I see things here and there in that game that just don't fit with the earlier games, is that they will decide to stop making adventure games. Adventure games are not what the masses want. The masses want console based action games.

What's a good thing, is that it looks like a lot of new and interesting companies are being borned from those companies that fall. I see a lot of new and interesting companies being borned these days, and those companies are interested in meeting the consumers needs, and are interested in thinking in new areas. The big companies just keep spitting out the same old stuff... stuff I saw and got bored of 1000 times before. It's still sad to see Revolution Software deciding to throw in the towel and turn into a brand selling company, only interested in developing and not programming the games(the dirty work).

I am worried the next we will see is that Revolution Software turns into a brand that is sold on games. Like with Sierra and 3DRealms now: just make us look through it, and people will buy a lot more copies because we stamp "Made by Sierra" on it.

Earlier Revolution Software was not just a name, or a brand. But it was a quality stamp. You knew the people who sat and did the games worked on it until it was perfect(almost), before they released it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think old Revolution Software with the classical staff, who did the entire production themself, would have released a game with gameplay faults(such as hotspots not working, too small hotspots, impossible to find where you should press to talk to a person... etc...)

But all in all, I still think it's a good game, much better than the average adventure game in my eyes. But I do worry about the future for adventure games, though. I know people will always love adventure games, but the question is how many companies are interested in investing money in making them. Especially bugs are very sensitive in this way. Suddenly a lot of people decides: heck, why buy Broken Sword 5? the 4th was full of bugs. Suddenly the next game sells less... and suddenly the company making the adventure game says "We can't keep on like this. We must make other kinds of games."

[2GooD]

Well, I don't think BS4 was that bad.

I wholeheartedly agree with Adventure Gamers review about the rushed ending and I would really prefered the plot to fully circle around searching for historical artifacts and uncovering ancient conspiracies. Now that was replaced by George's obsession of Anna Maria. Ok, she sure is more attractive than Nico if you ask me, but I digress...

The only technical issue that really annoyed me was a location with steam. It made the game really slow on my computer. Come to think of it, pathfinding could have been better.

Oh, and I liked the "hacking" challenges even though it seemed ridicously unrealistic for its purpose.

What else can I say... the notes on the PDA could have been better organized. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling...

[Aurebesh]

Originally Posted by 2GooD

What else can I say... the notes on the PDA could have been better organized. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling...

I was wondering, did anyone find a way to do it without the mouse wheel? If not, it means the game is unplayable unless you have a mouse with a wheel...

[smulan]

Originally Posted by Aurebesh

I was wondering, did anyone find a way to do it without the mouse wheel?

click and drag will do it

[Blad3]

Stories don't get more contrieved or abrupt than the beginning and the ending of BS4. Dialogue is amateurish at best. These things ruin the game for me. I like some of the acting, however. 3/10

[Dylan_Dog]

Just finished the game. Story and characters saved the day in the end, so I ended up playing the game all the way through and enjoying it a little bit. However, not worth 70 bucks I payed for. I can see it going to a discount 30-40 dollar mark in couple of months time.

Ending was the biggest rip-off in the end. That, together with horrible annoying controls and sound problems, destroyed what would've been a great game.

[Evolution825]

Originally Posted by Jackal

I'm not sure if this applies to smulan, but we have lots of non-native English speakers here, so you shouldn't assume that everyone will know English expressions.

Anyway, suggesting something will happen "when pigs fly" means that it will never happen.

DD, I certainly share some of your sentiments about the game, but you do get used to some of the quirks as you go along, and I found the game really picked up about five hours in, so don't write it off just yet.

First off: I was never exactly a BS4 fan. The hotspot placement annoyed me like hell, but the dialogue was pretty good.
Second: Pigs may some day fly depending on the evolutionary process

Originally Posted by Evolution825

First off: I was never exactly a BS4 fan. The hotspot placement annoyed me like hell, but the dialogue was pretty good.
Second: Pigs may some day fly depending on the evolutionary process

When I hear this expression I think of that Simpsons episode, lol.

Burns: I think I'll donate $100 000 to the orphanage
Smither: Really?
Burns: Sure, when the pigs can fly! mu-haha
[switches to us seeing Homer running after a pig on a tray]
[pig get stuck in a pipe and gets blown out, so it looks like it's flying in front of Burns window]
Smither: Will you donate those money now?
Burns: Nah, I rather not

I agree with you about Broken Sword 4. At least on Broken Sword 1 and 2 the hotspots were easy to spot. I also didn't have to hunt for everybodys head just to talk with them. I could press anywhere on them. If there were more elements to something, you usually just had to interact with the main part of it(like a door with a hatch in it on BS2. Sure, you can look at the hatch, but you have to interact with the door to get any future in the game). But yeah, good dialogs and other nice aspects to the game. It's why those small things annoyed me so much, because those small things I complain about shouldn't have taken too long time to fix up. Just something as simple as adding the BS3 way of interacting as an option(such as Warcraft 2 did - Do you want to use Warcraft 1 or 2 style mouse?) would have helped a lot. I kept hunting for an "interact" button on the keyboard, but I always ended up having to use the mouse. That's what I thought they meant when they said we could pick if we wanted to play with the mouse or with the keyboard. Instead they forced me to use both in a weird way that just didn't feel natural.

Last, In Broken Sword 3 he moved in a very unnatural way that I have never experienced before in an adventure game. Usually the guy will walk down when you push the down button, and up when you push up button... etc... but here(BS3 and BS4) it would depend on which way you were walking already on where he would go. I wish they had added an option for using "classic keyboard" instead of just that kind of keyboard. I never really felt comfortable with having to think about where I am walking now before deciding which button to press.

[JemyM]

I have played a few "chapters" now and I have no problems with BS4. It's a "classic" point and click adventure, fun characters, nice plot, and the graphics is among the better I have seen in an adventuregame.

I have ran into a few bugs that forced me to replay and turn settings to default, but since I save often that did not waste me any time.

I am happy theese games are still coming and I will surely be early out for BS5.