A solid entry in a superlative series

Posted on 2011-10-18 08:02:01 by hybridial:

A lot of people didn't care for the transition from David Gibbon's wonderful 2D art to standard polygonal 3D for the Broken Sword series and that is fair enough. But realistically it had to happen as 2D animation becomes extremely costly at higher resolutions. Taking that into account, lets focus on the game itself here.
The Angel of Death is probably the most serious and religionread more orientated story in a Broken Sword game yet, and it's overall approach is definitely less campy than 3. This is more played as a thriller but with the laconic sense of humour possessed by the series' long serving protagonists still mostly intact.
It also pared back some of the mechanics presented in 3, such as stealth and action functions. It's a lot more traditional and the lack of cheap instant deaths means that's a good thing really. The puzzles as they are are quite standard fare, challenging but not as taxing as some of the classic games of the genre. The story however is full of twists and turns and there is a lot of deception involved. This leads to a finale that is in some ways as inherently ridiculous as all the great finales the series has presented us, but in more earnest and dark way. Some might not like how the absurd is played straight in this game but it's always how I've preferred my absurdity, it means one can appreciate it more.
The game is certainly not perfect, there are some elements of the story that are a little underdeveloped, and the humour is definitely not as present and funny in previous entries. As such this feels like it could have simply changed the name of the characters and not been a Broken Sword game. Nevertheless, this is a very solid adventure game that offers a mostly interesting story with great characters and fun challenges. Definitely recommended.