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Becky

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I’ve started replaying the first Broken Sword game, which I found unremarkable back in the day. I’m definitely reminded as to why that was.

It starts with a great cutscene and an enormous explosion, and then the first thing we hear is this line: “As I picked myself up, all I could hear was the ceaseless drone of traffic. Life went on around me, but the explosion was to change my life forever.”
Except you’re on the emptiest street in all of Paris, no traffic to be seen anywhere, no life - except for a lone worker - anywhere. A bloody bar blew up, and that worker who’s not twenty feet away from said bar just keeps on working like nothing happened.

You go inside the bombed establishment and we find one dead guy and one waitress who wakes up and remembers a whole lot of details from just seconds before the explosion. But no bartender, no other customers, no-one.

When two cops arrive on the scene on foot (no police sirens, no fire trucks, no ambulance for a suspected terrorist bombing), one of them appears to be even dumber than Inspector Clouseau, and the other outright dismisses your eyewitness claims of a bomber dressed as a clown, especially because that same waitress that remembered everything about that clown when you asked her two seconds ago, fails to mention any such thing to the bumbling cops. And then the inspector pulls some parapsychology bullshit on the waitress to get more out of her, while you are pretty much told to “go away”.

And of course George Stobbart is then adamant on solving the bombing crime himself, because he somehow feels like he owes it to the dead guy whom he never met before and had seen for all of half a second just before the explosion.

It’s pretty safe to say that this all makes it very hard for me to get into the game, and I’m fairly certain this is also why I didn’t really care for it much twenty years ago either.

Sure, the game looks and sounds great, but so did Jack Orlando, and no-one is recalling that game as being a masterpiece classic of the genre…

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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I loved Jack Orlando too!  Smile

     
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TimovieMan - 23 August 2020 05:07 PM

I’ve started replaying the first Broken Sword game, which I found unremarkable back in the day. I’m definitely reminded as to why that was.

[snipped for brevity’s sake]

It’s pretty safe to say that this all makes it very hard for me to get into the game, and I’m fairly certain this is also why I didn’t really care for it much twenty years ago either.

Yes! I’ve never understood why Broken Sword is considered a classic.

     

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TimovieMan - 23 August 2020 05:07 PM

and that worker who’s not twenty feet away from said bar just keeps on working like nothing happened.

....and one waitress who wakes up and remembers a whole lot of details from just seconds before the explosion. But no bartender, no other customers, no-one.

while that waitress didn’t even bother to take a look around and say the least ‘what happened here’, no, she asks for a drink.
a waitress asking for a drink at the bar she attends to. come on, put some effort into the dialogue.

i really never understood at all, why people were and are still crazy about this game.

the only thing that kinda makes this game special at the time that it tackled with some real world environment, characters and some worldly adult and serious issues in a light manner.

 

 

     

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I remember loving Broken Sword at the time it came out. I’m sure I wouldn’t enjoy it as much today, as tastes and technology changes at a rapid pace. But what had me playing it back then was the story and the graphics. You jumped around different locales around the world, and it had a nice ancient secret society plotline. In 2020 the “Da Vinci Code” style story has been milked dry, but it was pretty unique for its time.

I’m sure i’d hate it if i played it today though, so i won’t.

     
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Broken Sword certainly has its own issues too, but I hope that everyone remembers that it’s not supposed to be a serious crime-solving game, it’s also a comedy. So if there’s something that resembles Clouseau or whatever, that is most likely very intentional. At least in the first two games.

Third and fourth games in the series probably changed that somewhat, and in the fifth one much of the comedy was clearly a forced attempt to recapture what worked in the first two games. Some of it was OK, but all that “bug in the matchbox” stuff really didn’t work.

One of the best random jokes that most people never find out in Broken Sword: try to use toilet chain on Nico.

     
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GateKeeper - 24 August 2020 04:02 AM

Broken Sword certainly has its own issues too, but I hope that everyone remembers that it’s not supposed to be a serious crime-solving game, it’s also a comedy.

Doesn’t that require it to actually be funny? Grin

So if there’s something that resembles Clouseau or whatever, that is most likely very intentional.

That much I get, but I prefer my games to make enough sense to allow suspension of disbelief to kick in. Especially in the first scenes of the game, and imo Broken Sword makes a mockery of that.

When visiting Nico’s apartment, there’s traffic passing in the street behind it. If the bar also had traffic passing by in the distance, I’d be fine with the “ceaseless drone of traffic” and “life moves on” lines.

If the waitress wakes up and doesn’t remember anything from the minutes before the explosion, then I’d be fine with that. But first she thinks she has a hangover (despite being in the middle of her own work place that has been blown up) and then she remembers everything up until the moment of the explosion and tells all of it to you, but not to the cops interrogating her a minute later.
The only info we got out of her that was useful was already shown in the opening cutscene, so it would really be more consistent if she just couldn’t remember.

And then the worker doesn’t even seem to know there’d been a huge explosion just a few meters behind him. If his first reaction had been at least an acknowledgment in the style of “Monsieur, what happened?”, I’d be far more willing to overlook all the other stuff and actually get sucked into the game.

Another thing: Nico was taking pictures of the bar after the explosion and managed to snap the culprit in one of them. But George was in the forefront of that picture! While you were walking out of the bar and talking to Nico, there was NO-ONE there, except for that bumbling cop. Either animate some passers-by (like in Monte Carlo in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis), or at least have the culprit in a picture of the surrounding area instead of in a picture with George himself.

There’s so many inconsistencies to get through in the beginning, and waving them off with a “it’s supposed to be a comedy” doesn’t help here. I had to plow through the beginning, and I’m pretty sure I had to do the same twenty years ago.
That’s a massively flawed game in my book. Even if it then picks up and improves, it’s hard to beat a first impression when that was so ineptly fumbled.

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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GateKeeper - 24 August 2020 04:02 AM

Broken Sword certainly has its own issues too, but I hope that everyone remembers that it’s not supposed to be a serious crime-solving game, it’s also a comedy. So if there’s something that resembles Clouseau or whatever, that is most likely very intentional.

Clouseau…? Please!
That’s like comparing the Darkside Detective’s pixelart to Seurat’s pointilism.

     

See you around, wolf. Nerissa

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I am playing Detective Grimoire. I find the game so far charming and quite funny. The puzzles are different, which I like. I’ll report more when I finish the game, which I am looking forward to since the story is starting to draw me in.

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I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.

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Simon_ASA - 19 February 2021 04:48 AM

What do you think of this?
https://gamasutra.com/blogs/AdrianChmielarz/20140430/216597/Seven_Deadly_Sins_of_Adventure_Games.php

I decided to play the Polish game Galador (The Prince and the Coward) after reading this article, a game that has been lying on my shelf since forever. Well, now I backtrack my complaints regarding the illogical puzzles in Oknytt (not really, but…). In fact it’s a pretty solid classic adventure with plenty of nice animations, some good humour and ok puzzles for the most part up until the last chapters when it becomes almost impossible. Had to finish it with a walkthrough by my hand, and I’m not proud of it.

I don’t know what went wrong, it was a very decent point-and-click comedy-fantasy game, maybe not in the same league as LucasArts adventures, but still pretty good. Got an impression that it tried to mimic the first Discworld games - great start and bad finish, with little to no logic in actions, like literally dying in order to go to Hell and then constructing an idiotic costume to meet Lucifer. Also I felt no connection to the characters at all.

That said, I really enjoyed Teenagent - the studio’s first effort at ags released as a freeware Scummvm port some years ago. Better than this game despite much poorer production values.

     

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Currently playing 3:

Girl of Glass: A Summer Bird’s Tale - I know this got a great review on this site, but man I am not enjoying this game. The adventure stuff is mostly item-trading and janky dialogue, and the turn-based combat is basic and way more difficult than I expected… not really in a good way. Feels like a disappointment in both genres AND in the combination of them, as they don’t feel organically merged… just kind smashed together. Art is fricking gorgeous though.

Escape from Monkey Island - I hadn’t played since I was a kid and I was SUPER disappointed. Decided to go back with fresh eyes and… Frown still disappointed. This game isn’t good, ya’ll.

Danganronpa - Holy cow, what is this thing? I think it kind of rules??

     
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Danganronpa - Holy cow, what is this thing? I think it kind of rules??

I love this game. I’ve played it so many times. Either you love it or hate it. Quite different from your average adventure game. I do hope you enjoy it.

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I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.

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Started playing another game I’ve been looking forward to for many years - Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. By the time I learned of it my Nintendo DS had been stone dead, and I didn’t want to buy another one just to play one game. I was hoping they’d port it to PC at one day (which never happened), but finally borrowed it from a friend. And I’m glad I didn’t watch a youtube playthrough, because the game is a blast!

A rare example of an original concept that doesn’t get repetitive and that blends with the plot perfectly. Was surprised to see a proper adventure for a console, was expecting a more straightforward puzzle game with a thin plot. While it does feel a bit like The Incredible Machine at times (the game even mentions Rube Goldberg at some point), there’s just so much style to it. I’m somewhere in the middle of the game, and it’s really addictive.

The plot is an absolutely unique mix of mystery thriller, fantasy and comedy, characters are unlike anybody else, there’s no limit to their insanity (especially the dancing ones), all those creative situations the devs came up with are fascinating. Of course, the game truly shines when you have to save someone’s life in 4 minutes, and it’s always a different experience (even if it’s Lynne.. again!). So much goodness in Ghost Trick that I already wish there was a sequel (there wasn’t, and I wonder why).

     

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Adv_Lvr - 28 February 2021 05:04 AM

Danganronpa - Holy cow, what is this thing? I think it kind of rules??

I love this game. I’ve played it so many times. Either you love it or hate it. Quite different from your average adventure game. I do hope you enjoy it.

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Nice I actually finished Danganronpa 2 recently, and while I had moments of feeling tired or getting burned out by the whole thing I powered through and ended up enjoying a lot. I didn’t like it as much as the 1st but I still liked it enough that I want to finish up with V3. As you said it’s a love or hate thing so if you’re on board with the whole craziness of it I agree that it rules!

By the way how do people here feel about V3? I’ve read is not as good as the others but still good and the ending is controversial? Anyway the ending of 2 left me curious so I’ll play it after a short break Tongue

     
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V3 is great. As good as the first two. The ending is strange, but then it is Dangaronpa and strange endings are the norm for this series.

It’s a must play for those who liked the first two games.

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I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.

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