Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars

"Flawed, but still oddly enjoyable"

‘Broken Sword' is a wonderful adventure gaming gem full of charm and class, but also some nasty flaws and oversights. Originally released for the PC in 1996, ‘Broken Sword' was ‘Revolutions' third serious attempt at an adventure game, and also their first game for PlayStation. Unfortunately the conversion is flawed and nowhere near as technically competent as its PC counterpart.

The introduction starts with a bird's eye view of Paris, and shows our intrepid hero, George Stobbart; an American on vacation, sipping a latte at a small corner-shop cafe. He is witness to an assassination when the cafe is blown sky high by a killer dressed in a clown suit. Determined to catch the killer, George soon stumbles upon a far more sinister plot than just a simple assassination, and as the game unfolds we see the Knights Templar and an ancient manuscript thrown into the mix as well. The games story takes you to many different locations across the globe, including Ireland and Syria, unraveling the complex plot.
Overall the story is great and serves as your main motivation for playing more and more, just to find what the next clue uncovers and how the story pans out. However the ending seemed a little anti-climatic and confusing for me, which was slightly disappointing. None-the-less this is high grade material, and is just the sort of thing you'd expect to find in a thick mystery novel.
Story: 9

‘Revolution Software' were able to bring together a number of ex-Disney animators for its cell based animation, and it shows. The introduction movie is exquisitely detailed, yet still retains a certain cartoon-ish charm about it. However, once the game starts this impression wears off somewhat due to many basic flaws suffered from the conversion from PC to PlayStation.
For starters, the backgrounds look good but are very blurry and washed out sometimes making it hard to pick out key items that you need to collect. The characters suffer the same problem, and it's hard to see what someone's face looks like as it's simply a mess of beige.
The next problem is the games frame-rate. When there are a few characters onscreen at the one time or a few different things happening in the background, the game slows down to a snails pace, and you can even count the frames in some places! Moving the cursor across the screen in these segments isn't smooth either, it jerks and stops here and there while the PSX struggles to load the next scene. Get into an area where nothing is happening in the background though and the game runs too fast! Ridiculous! I haven't played the PC version but I'm sure it would not have been this bad. It's not that the PSX is technologically lacking, it's just that the game has been coded so poorly.
Load scenes add insult to injury, with a ridiculously long wait to change from one section of the game to another. This is especially frustrating when you are backtracking across a few segments to pick up a simple item you failed to retrieve earlier. This problem is compounded by the fact that the game takes a full 10-20 seconds to load up a half a second video clip of George raising one eyebrow, and then another 10-20 second load scene to get back to the game again. That's just one example, but this basic problem happened in many sections of the game.
Those people who don't have much patience might want to avoid this one, I frequently found myself channel surfing on the TV while the next screen loaded. That's definitely not a good thing!
These (major!) flaws aside, ‘Broken Sword' is still a decent looking game, with brilliant animation and some decent enough backdrops.
Graphics: 5

Thankfully, ‘Broken Sword's' audio is vastly superior to its graphics, with some great music and above average voice acting.
George's character is very well voiced, and is quite convincing in his role. Everything he says seems natural, and he will quite often make you laugh with a witty comment made about the situation he's in. Most of the other characters are voiced well, even if some of them become stereotypical interpretations of what that characters ethnic background would belie. Some may be insulted by this approach, but you just need to take it with a grain of salt.
Many of the actors hold more than one role, so certain characters sound alike, but this never becomes too much of a problem, as the acting is competent and convincing.
‘Revolution' decided not to let the game have a constant soundtrack running, so the music will only come on during certain key moments. This does wonders for the games atmosphere (believe it or not) as you are only left with background noise and not just the same old song on repeat loop.
Sound: 9

‘Broken Sword' plays out like a standard point-and-click. You move your cursor across the screen and interact with certain key items or talk to characters to get clues about what to do next. There are plenty of puzzles to be solved, most of which involve a certain combination of items. For the most part these puzzles are logical and make sense, but some of them are just confusing or stupid. A good example is a cliff in Syria that you scale using a twig and some toilet paper... ah…ok then.
There are also certain points in the game where you can be killed, which was rare in a point-and-click released at the time. Quick reflexes aren't required, just some interactions result in the character being killed. This wouldn't be such a problem were it not for the dreaded loading scenes. Poor optimization is to blame for this, had the game been play tested a little more and a few of the bugs ironed out, it would have been more enjoyable then what it is.
The concept of using a mouse-based game on a control pad may seem like a flawed one, but the developers have worked a way around this with a very intuitive set-up. The D-pad controls movement of the cursor, while the R1 key speeds its movement across the screen. The X and Triangle keys allow you to jump to the top and bottom corners of the screen to quickly access items or dialogue options. While still a little clumsy it isn't a bad system to use.
Despite its many flaws I found ‘Broken Sword' a highly enjoyable and charming game. There were lashings of humor, a complex and interesting plot that used real-life history as a back story, and some brain bending puzzles. Much of the games humor comes from George's insight about a character or situation, but some of the funniest jokes came from showing people some of the odd items in George's possession. For example the police officer who mistakes plaster of Paris for drugs.
‘Broken Sword' was the kind of game that I wanted to see through from start to finish. Sure, I got frustrated a few times along the way, and annoyed at the games flaws and bugs, but I rode it out till the finish and I'm glad that I did. However, I doubt that once you complete this game that you'll ever play through it again. With no incentive of ‘finding out what happens next' there seems little point to a replay. It's also not the longest game around, and can be completed quite comfortably in a weekend, so keep these things in mind if you decide to purchase it.
Game Play: 8
Life Span: 4

Pros
+ Great cut-scenes
+ Unique sense of humor
+ Vocals
+ Game script

Cons
- Load times
- No incentive to play again
- Blurry backgrounds

If you're a fan of point-and-clicks, ‘Broken Sword' is worth picking up, but try and get the PC version as I'm sure many of the flaws would be resolved. However if you can overlook the problems you'll find an enjoyable game with a certain charm about it. Worth picking up if you have a spare weekend and want something that will challenge your brain a little.
Overall: 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/16/02, Updated 03/28/05