Circle of Blood

"The best adventure ever... well back then."

Graphics 97/100
The graphics are the most important aspects of the game. It is the first things you see. The
game starts of with some pictures played very quickly beyond eachother. We call it a movie.
Here you can see it is a very good drawn game. Of course, now, five years later, there can
be produced better graphics. But then it was great! There are 11 sections, which are on 2
discs, because the game was so great (in two ways), that the graphics didn't fit on 1 disc.
This was very unique then, it's one of the first game on 2 discs, now it isn't even natural.
You can see this is a very original game, because of the realistic graphics and people.
If you look good you can see depth in the game. The foreground as well as the background
are good drawn. With the most of adventure games from the beginning nineties, there are
unrealistic people and objects. Not here. Sometimes there are movies, which are actually
graphics, but then fast played. There are also very good, a bit cartoony sometimes also.
That's why it hasn't got the fully 100 points, but 97 is a very high rate.

Sound 45/100
The sound is the baddest part in the game, but when you turn on your radio with some cool
music you like. Exciting music is the best. It'll replace the sounds of the game.
Music isn't there much, but it's kinda good. But have you ever heard them talk? No.
Only some important sounds they let you hear. In Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror, this part
is improved a bit, but still I think in part 3 of the BS series, this is the part that has
to be improved the most. Maybe 45 points is a bit to low, for such a very good game, but
sounds were not the most important part of a game back 5 years. Now that has changed a lot.
So, BS 3 will be better. If it comes...

Gameplay 88/100
The gameplay of Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars is very, very good and the most
important part of the game. It tells you how easy (or hard) it is to play a game, and if
it is fun to play. Well, both things are there. When you start the game, you don't even
have to read the manual it comes naturally, except from the ones who touches the pc
for the first time. In the upper bar, you can see your items to try them on other objects.
If you talk you can see in the bottom bar the items to talk about. If you click with your
right mouse button, you can examine things (objects) better then with the left one.
Also, the gameplay is very clear, when you can do something with an object or person, the
cursor changes to a gear, mouth or hand. That's why the score here is 88.

Originality 67/100
Of course, this game isn't very original, there were so much other adventure games made before.
Like Indiana Jones, The Dig, Leisure Suit Larry 1,2,3,5,6,7 and lots of other games.
But the style, story and graphics made this game so good. That's why the originality not only
30 points has got, but still 67. Further more there is nothing to tell about the originality
I think, so let's go to the last part...

Lastability 81/100
The game has over 70 places to discover, and there isn't one way to accomplish the game,
there are much more (5, or so :-). So to play them all, you are busy a while. In every
place you can see 5 objects/persons average. Sometimes many more. It is also just fun to
play the game again and again and again and ... That's what I did, so I could make a faq/
walkthrough for this fantastic game. I don't know if I know al the ways to accomplish the
game, but I think I know 90 % of it. 81 points is a very high rate for a game released
in 1995. The most of the games then went like this. Buy (the game is now very cool), Play
(the game is losing its tite to you), Accomplish (a bit cooler), and then the worst...
Stay in some kind of drawer to stay there for 3 years and then its gonna to be sold at
some kind of market for $2 or Dfl.5. Broken Sword isn't that kind of game. I bought it five
years ago and still I like it to play.

Overall Rate 87/100
This rate is very high especially for such a game as old as Broken Sword, but I've talked
enough about the oldness (yes...) of the game. There are games that score higher,
Deus Ex, Rogue Spear, Unreal II and lots of others, but there are many more that score
lower, like... (no it wouldn't be fair to them). So Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
is a very good game. Try to buy a copy somewhere, but I don't think they are still making
this game, but maybe you can find it somewhere. There are rumours, I don't know if they are
true, that Broken Sword 1 & 2 are on Twilights (this are illegal cd-rom's that are made
in Poland and are distributed in Europe, with many games on it, because they games are
zipped very small). So you can try to find it there to... but I do not recommend this.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/29/00, Updated 07/16/01