[Terramax]

BROKEN SWORD: SHADOW OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLER

We seem to take the phrase ‘Adventure Game’ for granted these days. However, now might be a good time to break down what this genre means. ‘Adventure’ refers to a journey or quest, usually beyond what an average citizen in this world is likely, and lucky enough to experience.

With the whole world conquered, and only 1 in every couple of billion likely to shoot off into space, the only chance many of us have to reaching an adventure of our own, is to follow the protagonists in the world of movies and computer games.

So when you open up you’re newly bought ‘adventure game’ only to find that it’s a 1st person game requiring you to stalk lonely in a lowly lit mansion in the middle of nowhere, you may be disorientated as to why the game has been filed under this genre.

So what do publishers and gamers need to do to understand the true term of ‘adventure game’?

They play Broken Sword: Shadow of the Knights Templer.

STORY

George Stobbart, a young professional American, is touring Europe. Stopping at a small café at the end of a quiet road in Paris on a beautiful sunny day, a clown (damn those clowns) enters the café, switches a man’ suitcase for an accordion that proceeds to exploding, destroying the café, killing an old man, and leaving nothing but a handful of obscure clues in its wake. As Stobbart picks himself up from the wreckage, he proclaims “the busy streets of Paris continue around me, but the explosion would change my life forever”. It would be safe to say the story I was about to witness would change mine as well.

It quickly becomes apparent that the police are in no situation to be solving the case any time soon. And so Stobbart takes it upon himself to crack the case. Soon acquainted and aided with the hardheaded French freelance journalist Nico, Stobbart tracks the killer from various parts of the world, including Spain and Syria. And it soon becomes apparent that the man in the café’s death is just a single jigsaw piece in the overall picture of an elaborate plot of something dating back to the historical Knights Templer centuries ago.

The game is followed by Stobbart’ narration. Throughout, the dialog is mature, funny and clever. This is one of the best scripts you will ever come across in a game. Not once does the script miss a beat or misplace. However, my only slight problem was the stereotypes pointed at various countries. The French are often seen obtuse, British visually humorous and Syrians slightly uncivilized. However, this isn’t emphasised much and really they are there as a better indication that our hero is meeting exotic people from around the world.

MECHANICS

Broken Sword has possibly the most definitive interface an adventure could have. The left mouse button is pressed to use or talk, the right button to look. To get onto the items menu simply move the mouse to the top of the screen [OR WAS IT BOTTOM? if you remember I could edit this] and left click the item and place item on person or item. The escape button is used for the title menu screen (to save, load, etc).

GRAPHICS

Broken Sword is a cartoon graphic adventure. But before accusing Broken Sword of being more of a children’s game, I can assure you this game, both in terms of narrative and visuals, is mature beyond that of, say, Monkey Island.

The great thing about cartoon animation in games of the mid – late 90’s is their distinctive yet timeless quality. Despite pixilated around the edges, drawings are crisp, detailed, atmospheric and compliment the story and locations perfectly.

Throughout adventure game history, games before have felt secluded due to their lesser graphical engines. Games since Broken Sword have been restricting due to their narrative – even games such as Still Life. ‘Shadow of the Templer, however, has score after score after score of brightly lit, colourful, vibrant and spacious locations throughout that emphasis the sheer ambition of this game. That granted, there are a few occasions where the picture is just too detailed, and it takes a little pixel hunting to get to the exact spot of an item. However, Revolution games has pined an almost perfect balance of detail that neither relies on usable items lighting up on the screen like a sore thumb but not too obscure to find as to spend ages finding.

Characters blend in equally as well, characters may seem a little expressionless because of their small size, however, Stobbart’ narration of various characters reactions are even better than visuals – “He gave me a cold, shocked stare as if I’d just farted at a funeral”.

SOUND

The music in Broken Sword perfectly fitted like a hand in a glove. Adventurous as it is film quality orchestra, violins, drums, synthesiser and flutes. The music is more a compliment to the game rather than standing out as separate. When either we, the gamer, or Stobbart is feeling anxiety, we are indicated it by the music. When action or the need to make pace occurs, we hear it in the rushing violin chords. Never dull, never depressing, there is a blissful eminence throughout. Music is minimalist at times, but the more so, the more rewarding it is (which is more than what I can say for the sequel, which uses music far too often).

The voice acting is superb throughout. There is always a feel of interaction, and never does a character feel offbeat, under or over performed. Characters that are meant to be sinister are made sinister, comical ones are comical, and etc. This is one aspect of the Gameboy Advance, which basically disallows itself to be bothered with. There are no voices.

VERDICT

Broken Sword is a landmark game in the adventure field. This is a quality game which is just as playable and enjoyable now as it was back then, and will be decades on. You will come back to this game again and again over time to revisit those beautiful landscapes and memorable characters. And even though it is not essential to play the first to play the others in the series, it is seriously advised.

Broken Sword is also a mammoth game to complete. Switching between two discs, this is everything epic a game of this ambition needs. This game is quite simply a must own for all adventure gamers, serious or humour.

A fine blend indeed!

[NOTE: This game works on some Windows XP machines but not others. Because of this, it may be required to download SCUMMVM in order to play – but it’ll be worth it]

95/100

[SSH]

Inventory items were at the top of the screen, dialog options (when talking to a NPC) were at the bottom, although inv items could also be used as dialog topics.

[TheGreyMatter]

As i recall the inventory location was moved down in the second game. which is a shame since they the narrowed the ability to use the inventory items as dialogues.

[dazsin]

Erm, the game was called Broken Sword – The Shadow of the Templars

[Terramax]

Okay valid points. It's also different in the second to that you don't need to press the esc button to get to the pause screen. The whole way through BS2 I found myself reaching over to the keyboard to find nothing happening when I pressed esc.

BS2 wasn't a bad game, however, I found the game a little more sensational, the locations not as magical, and the music was played far too often. In fact, if you so much as looked or clicked on any single item some music track would perform.

I admire the original for its more minimalist approach.

[Isak]

Hey Terramax! Good review! Is it possible for me to put it up on Broken Sword Zone?
/
Isak,
webmaster

[Terramax]

Sure. As long as it has my name on the review?

[pointandcliklover]

the best way to play these games were on the playstation as they only had 1 disk and wasting about installing etc was eliminated. Great review tho

[Terramax]

The great thing about AGs is introducing them to my little sister. I play them by myself and then let her play a while after. It's terrific, you can watch someone play and look in more detail at things like the scenary and how well the dialog is put together. This is one game where my lil' sis just didn't wanna stop playing.

also, recently I've got hold of a program that lets you play the BS music from the disc. Since then barely a week goes by when I don't play some of the music. It's not best quality but still excellent. The pause music is unbeatable.

[Boneho Chane]

Originally Posted by pointandcliklover

the best way to play these games were on the playstation as they only had 1 disk and wasting about installing etc was eliminated. Great review tho

I'm going to have to disagree. I played Playstation version of Broken Sword II and I'm convinced it's one of the reasons I now wear glasses. The graphics are really, and I mean really, downgraded. I ended sitting like 2 feet in front of the screen and still had a hard time finding most of the objects and figuring out the puzzles. The GBA version of Broken Sword had better graphics, (probably because they were repainted for the system). On top of that there were many load times, sometimed I had hoped to avoid.

[Terramax]

I hear ya Boneho, I remember playing the demo to BS2 for the PSX before I played them on the PC, and the loading times...

I didn't mind so much then because I was used to having loading times in games, I didn't get my first pc for many years to come, but these days I can't stand loading times in AGs, it destroyes the feeling of being there. Even the loading times in Bone part 2 gets to me. BTW, are there loading times in Bone part 2 if you buy the disc version?