Broken Sword 4: The Angel of Death (2006)

If you are a fan of the BS series like I am, you might still like parts of this game. The story is interesting enough, but it lacks much of the lore depth the other games have. It will rarely explain anything beyond the surface, which bugged me at times - being a lore nut myself. What it does well: -98% voice-acted -the templar manuscripts are beautiful -Stobbart-quips -Puzzle/item variety -good story -fun side characters -3D controls are much better than BS3 -surprisingly long game What it does poorly: -clunky movement -many puzzles are devoid of logic -frustrating real-time segments -inventory bogged down by excess dead items -can't skip dialogue -confusing cut scenes Is it worth playing? If this is your first point-n-click, absolutely not. If you like the series? Maybe. If you are intrigued by the story? Probably. I had to use hints for most of it since the game almost always makes you guess what you are supposed to be accomplishing. The puzzle designer really didn't give much thought as to how someone other than themself could solve these. The real-time elements, as with 95% of P-n-C's I've played, are absolute garbage, and terribly frustrating. I gave it 3 stars because it's definitely the worst game of the series, but not a terrible experience. I still enjoyed it overall, but make sure not to set your expectations too high. If I were to compare this to the other games in the series, it would be getting 2 stars. As for game length, I was actually pretty happy with this area. P-n-C's tend to be pretty short compared to lots of other games, but I'd put this one on the longer side: I played it over the course of a couple weeks and it took me almost 12hrs with occasional glances at hints. According to Galaxy, the average playtime for this is 7.5 hrs.

Where do I even start? I had to really force myself to finish this one. Of course I loved Shadows of the Templar. I liked Smoking Mirror too, though it had its problems, and same goes for Sleeping Dragon. This was just terrible on so many levels. They tried to reintroduce a point-and-click control scheme... which makes me want to throw my mouse at the wall because the camera keeps moving, causing you to constantly re-adjust while George is moving. During the first 5 minutes I got stuck on a stairway too which is always fun. You can't skip dialogue, which only serves to frustrate when it doesn't tell you what topics you've already talked about. The soundtrack was completely forgettable. The biggest sins of all are that: 1. None of the characters were memorable or interesting, sans Brother Mark. In fact most of them were downright annoying (including Nico!). Even George wasn't his usual self. 2. The plot barely tries to be interesting, the ending is an anticlimax. What was it about again? I don't remember. 3. Puzzles require absurd levels of extrapolation, are out of context, illogical and unintuitive. Get your walkthrough out if for some reason you still want to play this one. Bottom line: This is the most soul-less installment yet. If it wasn't Broken Sword I wouldn't have finished it and would have given it 1 star instead.

Well okay maybe not boring all of the time but most. To hold it next to games like the first three you're shown a pretty shabby game. The puzzles are basic at best and poorly constructed. The story seems like it was written by an individual who watched 'Raiders of The Lost Ark', played 'Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis', and thought "Well gee! I think that I'll combine the two and put George in there!" Good luck making any sort of connection with any of the characters because they do a crappy job of making you like them. As if all that wasn't bad enough it's buggy as hell. If you'd like to have more fun than this game can provide get yourself a copy of the script for 'Raiders...' and read Indy's lines in your best George Stobbart impression. If you'd like to have just as much fun do the same thing but do it while rubbing your head on a cheese grater.

This was the last game I ever bought for full price $60 when it came out. I loved the other games, but this one was boring and even Rolf Saxon sounded older and more tired in a way. The feeling is just gone and the ending blows. Stick with game 1 and 2 and refuse 3D in point and click gaming as much as possible.

Outsourced development, weak script. Even Revolution themselves were not fully into this since they let go most of their staff sometime after the third Broken Sword. It is best to just try to avoid this game ever existing. Like George Cecil said, 2D adventure games are dead, and then he ate his words after this worse than mediocre game and made a 2D adventure with Broken Sword 5.