Adventure Gamers - Forums

I must be the only one here who liked Angel of Death. Was it perfect? Far from it. Still, it felt like BS, I thought a lot of the dialog was still worthwhile and I just love the characters. Shit ending, but meh, most games have shit endings.

The BS4 hate is the same over-the-top reaction that MI4 gets.  (Must be something about 4’s. )  If the same games didn’t have the names “Broken Sword” and “Monkey Island” attached to them, they’d be considered reasonably decent games on their own merits, just not great ones. 

Speaking of high expectations, I’m curious how many people would rank the series in exact numerical order: 1, 2, 3, 4.  In other words, getting worse every game.  And yet people seem to have full faith that 5 will change that trend.  I expect 5 to be pretty good as well, but then I wasn’t nearly as disappointed with 3 and 4 as so many seem to be.

that is interesting.  I expect this game to be good too, but, I liked broken sword 1 the best, #2 second, and #3 kind of liked and didn’t like #4 that much at all.  same with Simon the Sorcerer, I liked 1 the best, ect. but, with monkey island, I liked 2 and 3 better than 1, but, didn’t like the fourth one.  but, I think that had a lot to do with the controls.  I don’t like keyboard. but, definitely something to think about.

Jackal - 24 August 2012 08:20 PM

The BS4 hate is the same over-the-top reaction that MI4 gets.  (Must be something about 4’s. )  If the same games didn’t have the names “Broken Sword” and “Monkey Island” attached to them, they’d be considered reasonably decent games on their own merits, just not great ones. 

Speaking of high expectations, I’m curious how many people would rank the series in exact numerical order: 1, 2, 3, 4.  In other words, getting worse every game.  And yet people seem to have full faith that 5 will change that trend.  I expect 5 to be pretty good as well, but then I wasn’t nearly as disappointed with 3 and 4 as so many seem to be.

Jackal: Monkey Island 4 is (in my opinion) mostly bad due to the god awful 3D which in turn also limits the game in several other ways with how the entire world is planned out. I mean, come on, it’s hideous to look at - even for its time! To go from a beautiful 2D world to clunky and ugly 3D was a bad move. With Broken Sword 4 it wasn’t the first game in the series to be made in 3D, so it isn’t /that/ which is to blame for its failure - the game just looks and plays poorly and the story is nowhere near as good as any of the other three games, not to mention the characters doesn’t feel like they have the same personalities any longer.

And it’s not because I hate 3D, the third Broken Sword was nowhere near as good as the first two, but that wasn’t the 3D itself that was the problem but instead the mediocre game design with a ton of possibilities for losing later in the game if you missed stuff and an abundance of box moving and other tiresome activities. ANYWAY, besides those flaws, I still found the game somewhat entertaining as the story was good and when you made sure you never forgot to pick up anything and therefor didn’t run into walls it was enjoyable enough to solve various problems along the way.

Other than that, I think most people rank the Broken Sword series chronologically, but personally I prefer the second game to the first, as I think it has a lot more humor and I like that. All the haters can just go suck it

Sure, Kasper, both 4’s I mentioned have some undeniable flaws.  No doubt about it.  I just think the disappointment of failed expectation makes the reaction disproportionately negative.  BS4 may not hold a candle to the earlier games for one reason or another, but strictly on its own terms it was still much better than tons of other dreck I’ve played. And since it was me who reviewed it here, that’s why it got the score it did.

You and your objectivity, Jackal!

I’ve got to admit I wouldn’t be able to review it without having the fanboy glasses ever so slightly on. Sure, the game might be a 2 (while gameplay mechanics are so-so I hate the script which ruined the characters) without the expectations being laid on it, but with those expectations added in the disappointment was at such a high level that I only remember the game with rage and disgust.

And unless Broken Sword 4 was the first you played in the series, then I think most people would have a hard time not looking at it with tinted glasses and therefor end up being disappointed if either the gameplay or the story wasn’t to their liking. Also, is it just me, or does Broken Sword 4 actually look worse than 3 when it comes to the quality of the 3D? I seem to remember it that way.

I have the luxury of a horrible memory.  I can barely remember a game I played a month ago, let alone 7 years ago.  So I tend to go into each new series game pretty open-minded. 

But yeah, BS4 definitely looked worse than 3.  Not just technically, but the colour palette and environments were really bland too.  I’d wager good money they were on a much tighter budget for that one, and that’s where it really showed the most.

Revolution has basically admitted they made many mistakes with the 3D games (due to publishers for the most part) and are now set on remedying said mistakes. This is where that faith is coming from! They are basically saying that the game is not only going back to its roots graphically but gameplay-wise also.

Also Kasper, like I said, even though I feel BS2 is worse than the first, it’s still awesome. Also, I was saying I think 3/4 has some really good moments in them too, for example, George inspecting the nuns’ factory in BS4 was hilarious! hehe

What?! You guys are nuts. What was so bad about BS4? The graphics? Really? It’s a BS game. I’m just glad to get a new one, despite how it looks.

Yes, it had a lot of problems, but when I was playing it I was engrossed. I’m not going to lie.

BTW, I’ll take the graphics in AoD over Tales of Monkey Island, which came out WAYYY after AoD. At least AoD didn’t cookie-cutter their characters (hmmm…take a game known for its quirky and colorful characters and replace them with the same two models over and over again? BULLSHIT! What were they thinking?!).

jhetfield21 - 25 August 2012 12:02 AM

well there isn’t so much difficulty in seeing why they failed on the fourth one.they did say that lately they had problems with budgets,not getting any more royalties etc and they are a small company afterall.to decide for the second tim to go with 3D and have your time mostly on the graphics while not pushing it so far in the story part which is the most important admitedly for fans is suicidal.for me it’s the same,1st is the best,2nd the 2nd best etc.but still i liked the story in number 3 and the script too even though i didn’t like the combo between 3D graphics and gamepad controls.but i recently replayed the 3rd and i honestly believe it would have been a better experience if it also had point and click.

anyway the studio might have had a bad streak in BS lately but in the past there are 4 notable titles to see.having them return to 2D which is where they excel the most and having the old crew back is most promising of a title in the high level of those 4 from the past.that’s where the trust comes from in my opinion.

EDIT1:@scars….what order did you play the games in?

Yeesh, you think I can remember that far back? I believe I played them in order with a slight possibility of 1, 3, 2, 4.

jhetfield21 - 25 August 2012 12:30 AM

well i was going for “you played the fourth at first so it made and impression and so forth”

but i was also prepared to throw the “hey there simply have to be people who like the fourth without the attachment a fanboy would have because we are so many in this world and from what we learn about the world there are many kinds of people.”

anyway for me it wasn’t a good experience.if it was for you then all was not lost as people seem to think.

No no, I might be a BS fanboy. I freely admit it, and yes, it did help in blinding me to some of the shittiness that was there. But aren’t playing these games about having fun? As bad as aspects of it were, I still can say, honestly, that I had fun.

Jackal - 24 August 2012 08:20 PM

Speaking of high expectations, I’m curious how many people would rank the series in exact numerical order: 1, 2, 3, 4.  In other words, getting worse every game. And yet people seem to have full faith that 5 will change that trend.

The 2nd and 3rd games are very similar in quality in my opinion—they’re both solid games. For me, it was the 4th game that put the series into question.

The Angel of Death was clearly an attempt to right the wrongs of BS3—no crate puzzles or action sequences—but however much money THQ were willing to put into the project, it was nowhere near enough. The ending is probably the most obvious example of that, but the game also suffered from a horrible technical glitch that prevented people with multi-core processors from playing it, which THQ/Sumo Digital never fixed (Revolution recently fixed it for the GOG version, apparently).

A small budget shouldn’t excuse the puzzles, which I found to be the worst in the series; illogical and obtuse in a way that I just didn’t expect from a Broken Sword game. It’d be easy to put the blame on Sumo Digital but the fact is I have no idea how much input they had, or if they were just programmers for hire.

The reason I have faith in this 5th game is because Charles said he’s spent a lot of time analysing why people love Broken Sword, and he recognises that the 3D games got away from that. Plus, a lot of BS veterans are working on it, and it looks amazing as far as I’m concerned. Can’t wait to play it.