Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars

"Whimsical, brief, engaging, broken"

Ever since my initial encounter with ''point-and-click'' style adventures in the form of Maniac Mansion for the Apple II, I've had a thirst for more such gaming excursions, a thirst that over the years has gone consistently unquenched. Not that there haven't been great games in the genre; it merely saddens me that great in the vein of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars are a comparatively rare breed in a gaming universe flooded with stale-beyond-stale first-person shooters, monotonous racers, uninspired platformers, etc. However, I am also saddened that a game such as Broken Sword, with so much going for it, seems to have been given painfully little attention in the testing/debugging process, to such a point of carelessness that the game can suddenly become impossible to complete without starting over entirely.

Plot:
This is where Broken Sword really shines, setting itself up as a model by which other game creators would do well to hold their products to (so long, that is, as their ''product'' isn't an essentially plotless work such as a sports game or *most* puzzle games). It never hurts, I suppose, to start with a literal bang. What begins as a fairly simple murder mystery quickly becomes something much weightier--cryptic, even--as the role of the Knights Templar is unveiled. Plot twists are unfolded at a fine pace, and they tend to be plausible and logical without necessarily being predictable. The game has the feel of an interactive novel or even old 1940's-style radio serial at times, in a good way. The story remains engaging enough that frequent instances of scrolling through text never actually feel repetitive or tiresome...at least not the first time through ;) It is of course possible for you to unwittingly kill the main character, George Stobbart. Furthermore, George and just about all of the other characters in the game actually have immediately apparent, memorable, believable, entertaining personalities.

Control:
Extremely basic, and therefore perfect for what is in essence a point-and-click adventure. The functions assigned to the L and R buttons are a grand aid, removing potential tedium in some of the puzzles without necessarily making them any easier. That said, however, there might be one or so too many instances in which these mechanics allow thoughtless trial-and-error to prevail a bit heavily over actual logic, but it's a minor point. Revolution did a great job with what they had to work with in the form of the Game Boy Advance.

Fun/Replay Value:
This game is extremely fun, though the source of that fun is the delight of solving the puzzles, figuring out what to do and seeing what combinations of items will make that thing happen, but these combinations are static and therefore the replay value is pretty low. There are no real forks in the road, certainly no multiple endings; in other words: no reason to play the game again once you've beaten it, and that likely won't take long (it's sort of startlingly short, but not quite ''too'' short I'd say). Perhaps you might like to go through it again to figure out all the different ways you can kill George, but chances are pretty good that you've got considerably more interesting (and less sadistic ;) gaming experiences to indulge in than that, right???....

Graphics:
Wow. This is definitely one of the most unique looking games on the Game Boy Advance. The backgrounds are astonishingly detailed and artistic, achieving an almost sort of painting-like effect. There isn't a lot of motion really, and I'd say that George ''lurches'' more than ''walks.'' Also, the cutscenes are just still shots. However, the striking vibrancy and lushness of these stills and the backgrounds more than makes up for the lack of zing-and-zang in the motion department. Minor point: George is reeeeally pixelated when you bring him near the ''camera,'' but hey, it's Game Boy Advance.

Sound:
I think the sound is best described as ''appropriate.'' It consists mainly of ''synth''-phonic swells of string sounds that create a reasonably tense atmosphere. While none of the themes are particularly memorable, this is okay because they seem to be intended to provide moody background music that by it's very nature isn't really meant to stand out in the first place. It does sound impressively non-digital for the Game Boy Advance, but like I said, mostly it's just there to serve a singular purpose which it does very well.

Why this gets a 7 instead of a 9 or 10:
Glitches are one thing, but this is kind of ridiculous. These kinds of games simply shouldn't have circumstances that can make them impossible to be completed, and this one has at least 2. If you're considering buying this game, I recommend reading a little bit about these circumstances in the FAQ's before playing through it to save you some grief. Not only this, but the game completely froze up on me at one point, and I bought it new, and I have to say that I find this to be pretty inexcusable on any console except the NES, where it's just to be expected. I just hope that if they port Broken Sword 2 or maybe even 3 to the GBA that they actually pay some attention to the testing and debugging process.

-----------------------------------

Aside from a low replay-value, shortness, and these ridiculous but entirely avoidable glitches, Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is a wonderful gaming experience for anyone who enjoys a finely crafted interactive story with highly engaging puzzles and memorable characters.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/22/03, Updated 03/22/03