Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars

"A remarkable retelling of the 1996 pc hit"

In the young days of the PC game market, giants like Sierra ruled the scene with a plethora of adventure games. Most notable of these were King's Quest, Police Quest, Legend of Kyrandia, and many, many others. During those ages, the mouse was not in existence yet and interaction was solely done through keyboard (as was dubbed 'polling'). Technology does advance quickly and with the birth of the mice, the gameplay of adventure games change dramatically. Gone are the days of 'polling' adventure games. The adventure game makers switched to the use of the now ever-known point-and-click style of play. Technological hallmarks have also made game makers push the limits of adventure games even more. Games would come in bundles of CDs and would feature full motion videos as well as fully animated cartoons. Unfortunately, interest in the genre went to a decline following the emergence of other more notable games. In 1996, Virgin Interactive and Revolution Soft brought the great adventure Broken Sword in the guise of the PC game Circle of Blood. A superb adventure game utilizing hand-drawn art fused with great interesting cinematics, Circle of Blood tells the tale of George Stobbart and Nico Collarde. The popularity of the games spawned the sequel entitled Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirrors. In 1998 came the Playstation version of the first game. This time though, bearing the title Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars.

2002 marks the year where Revolution Soft in collaboration Bam! Entertainment shipped Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars to the Gameboy Advance. There are significant issues when peering into the possibility of porting a PC game to a console, much less to a portable. With all the technical power utilized in the PC version, would it be possible to port the PC game to the GBA and yet retain much of the strengths of the adventure game? A more important question, though, would be: ''Can the port tell the story as effectively as the PC version?''

Graphics (8/10)

There are a lot of things, visually, that can go wrong when one game gets ported from powerful platform to a limited platform. At first glance, the difference between Circle of Blood and Broken Sword is uncanny. The both look so much alike that it would be difficult to pin-point which is which... at first glance. A little bit of scrutiny and you will notice the GBA game utilizes lower resolution and much more muffled sprites. This doesn't actually sound bad on the GBA. The tiny screen would hide the muffled graphics. Safe to say, the sprites do well to deliver the same backgrounds as in the PC version. While the PC version would leave you stunned with the backdrops, the GBA version does nothing to deliver the same grandeur. However, visually-speaking, the team has done a remarkable achievement. A more pressing problem, though, is the telling of the story utilizing the movie cut scenes from Circle of Blood. There was no way to deliver the same finish and retain the movie clip, which was part of the immersive and entertaining story-telling of the PC version. Revolution decided to use still-shots to try to piece the cut scene together. While the stills actually look good, the story telling in these parts are a bit off and sometimes hard to piece up. The opening cut scene, for example, doesn't tell actually give you a clear description of what actually happened. Much is left to your mind to 'view' these movies. And like the ported opening movie cut scene as well as all the other cut scenes, I recommend you take the time to watch it a few number of times just to make sure you get everything right. Usually for a portable, this limitation is excused for hardware limitations, yet for an adventure game, the gravest sin would be to fail in telling the story, and in those cut scenes, Revolution has missed the first swing.

Sound (6/10)

With only midi to work on it was clear Revolution didn't have much to work with in terms of sound. The background songs are either hit or miss. But with every attempt, the songs come out with ear-irritating bleeps. To be fair though, some of the songs aren't very irritating and some do immerse you into the action. Aside from the background music, there isn't much to hear in this game. It's a shame that Revolution couldn't add in special touches such as footsteps and other sound effects that would have added invaluable help in setting the atmosphere. In cut scenes, Revolution could only rely on sound to help piece together the stills that are flashed to the players. In this area, sadly, Revolution also has a mixed bag. Some of the sounds are spot-on crisp such as the explosion during the opening cut scene. But sometimes, you are left wondering what might have been had Revolutions used a better way of using the sounds in telling the cut scene. Moving back to the opening cut scene, instead of using sound effects to try to assist players in imagining what the introduction would have looked like in full motion glory, they have a background music that barely tells you what goes on. Clearly things could have and should have been done better.

Game Content (9/10)

The heart and soul of an adventure game is its story. People long to play an adventure game to be enchanted and be drawn into by its tale. Broken Sword by current standards has a story built around certain cliches. In fact, Broken Sword goes through cliche after cliche featuring a typical American unlikely hero in the form of George Stobbart and a nosy and opportunistic female in the shoes of Nico. To top the cliches of, they become a pair who solve mysteries and become, somewhat, attached. However, the tale being retold by Revolution clearly stands the test of time. How the murders and mysteries intertwine with the scribbles of certain historical events are really superbly written. People who have longed for an adventure game with a great story will find themselves in good hands with Revolution's Broken Sword.

The story unfolds in Paris as an American tourist, George Stobbart is enjoying his vacation outside a cafe, sipping a cup of coffee. His peace of mind is snapped when the cafe is blown up to bits. Jolted by the explosion, George is presented with a puzzle full of riddles and questions unanswered. You are his guide to solving the puzzles and you will take him through many exotic locations and many colorful characters to meet.

With the PC version utilizing point-and-click style, the GBA port utilizes hot-spots in almost the same manner, however, managing to do without the mouse pointer is indeed an intriguing idea. The cross-key directional pad is used to move George around the place. When George approaches a hotspot, a certain action icon will appear, allowing the player to interact with it by pressing A. Pressing B will allow George to examine the area or item in focus. Using the R-trigger allows you to cycle through the number of hotspots in the scene, hence eliminating the pixel hunt dilemma of PC adventure games. This simplifies some things that would have, I imagined, to be much more difficult on a PC game. However, it doesn't make some other things easier, such as a certain area where you need to be able to leave the premise without having a certain item on, which you need to bring somewhere else. It doesn't sound sensible to people who haven't played the game, but when you do, you'll understand. The L-trigger is used to bring up a flimsy inventory system. In this inventory, you are allowed to cycle through different items using left or right. Up and down is used to rearrange items. Pressing up will move an item out of the inventory list, allowing you to cycle through the list again. Pressing down will move the item to its new place. Pressing A on the inventory list will select the item in focus. Pressing Up and then selecting another item will allow you to combine those two items. It's a bit difficult to get used to at the start but it does get the job done. During conversation with certain people and when using a telephone, a different list appears on the upper left hand corner of the screen. For conversation, it features a list of topics you can talk about. Sometimes, the icons don't imply the topic the developers intended. I honestly think using text would have been a better choice here since the game is heavily driven on text. Anyway, you can cycle through the topics using the left and right directional pad keys and A to select the topic. For using the telephone, the icons tell you which person you can call.

In traveling to different places, George goes to a map screen where it can take him from Paris to as far as Spain. Similar mechanics are used from the controls discussed already and its fairly easy to use once you familiarize yourself with the basic controls at the start.

As mentioned already, Broken Sword is a heavily-text driven adventure game, having a very limited sound capable platform. The text does the job, although it really implies that you'll be doing a lot of reading through the course of the game. However, to the patient adventure gamers, the story unfolds nicely, if not somewhat a little slow. Fortunately, Broken Sword provides a manual that has a short walkthrough of the first part, which should give players a big push to get the story going.

Broken Sword has an array of puzzles that are a bit challenging and some of them don't readily make any sense at all. Sometimes you'll be doing a lot of blind searching and trying everything and exhausting every dialog just to find the part you've missed. Other times, the puzzle becomes easier since you have those trigger buttons to use. The museum part at the nightfall is a fine example. One bad blemish in this game is a bug that will not allow you to finish the game. I wouldn't have been able to complete the game if I hadn't known about it. Clearly this is one of those subtle bugs that wouldn't have been detectable to most players. Many were forced to repeat, and I am no exception. I would've appreciated it if Revolution did go out of its way to at least warn people of it. Posting a ''Don't go to Spain'' text on the official game web site does nothing to help. Despite this annoying bug, Broken Sword is definitely capable of retelling the tale of the PC game.

Replayability (2/10)

When a reader finishes a novel, it is time to close the cover and place it back on the shelf. Unless it's a very finely written piece of work, a reader may never find himself going through the book again. An adventure game goes through a similar thread of life and Broken Sword definitely goes through the same path. While Broken Sword is a finely crafted game, it will only compel players to go through it once or twice or maybe thrice the most. Also, players can actually go through the whole game in a much quicker pace after finishing it once, making the second or third run less satisfying. With already prior knowledge of the events that will follow, Broken Sword instantly loses its appeal, although shoving it in the shelf for a couple of years may bring some itch back to the hands of the player. Those who have either played the PC version or the PS version won't miss anything important in this version. In fact, it might be a good idea for them to stay on their old copies of the game. The GBA version is definitely for those who haven't played Broken Sword and those who want to play it on-the-go.

OVERALL (8/10) NOT AN AVERAGE

As the pieces of the puzzle fall in place, given the merits, Broken Sword should have a place in the hall of fame for great adventure games. However, that place doesn't go to Broken Sword and instead goes to Circle of Blood, the game that started it all. Broken Sword, though, gets a lot of the conversion of a point-and-click game to a portable soundly right. The use of the triggers to cycle through hotspots do make some of the nuisances of a PC adventure game disappear but it doesn't actually eradicate all of it. The story does unfold pretty nicely and the characters are very interesting. Like many adventure games, though, Broken Sword falls under the same pitfalls on puzzle design, featuring at times, frustrating and illogical puzzles that seem to be added just to keep the game from ending much quickly. These kinds of puzzles encourage players to go and exhaust every possible option, which will only make them even more prone to falling into the dreaded 'BUG'. It's almost as if Revolution designed a finely crafted trap for players to fall into and curse from the bottom.

The graphics do carry the game pretty well and it does stack up well against its brethren considering it is a portable. The sound is not as good and does provide some sort of annoyance at times while the interface does need some adjustment for a more user-friendly touch.

In spite of these blemishes, it is easy to recommend Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars. Clearly it reminds people of how well-written Circle of Blood is, and how people can live or relive the adventure without having to sit in front of the PC. Those who own the PC version will have little incentive to pick this game up. Knowing how good the PC version is and how much was axed off technically on the GBA, PC gamers will be happier without this version and sticking to Circle of Blood.

A great game stands the test of time. Broken Sword is a living testament to that statement. With its finely crafted story and satisfying conversion, Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars is indeed a remarkable retelling of the 1996 PC hit.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/04