Broken Sword 4: The Angel of Death (2006)

Quality may thankfully not be going downhill anymore, as Broken Sword 3 was the biggest step backwards, but things have not improved and it is clear that the series lost its touch after the first two fantastic episodes. This is not nostalgia speaking, as I only ever played the series in 2023 for the first time, having bought the four at a discount. Parts 1 and 2 simply aged quite well, while parts 3 and 4 wanted to ride a 3D trend, sacrificing game originality. The useless navigation in the 3D world is sometimes hampered by forced switching between keyboard and point&click. An example is entering the balcony from a room at some point: if you're used to clicking away, you will not notice that you will not be able to enter that balcony, unless you use keyboard controls to leave the room. Talk about ambiguity in "choice". The "parcour" elements also add very little to the game, since it is just a matter of finding the right spot to click, the action element is actually no action and you hardly need more braincells to realize what direction to move on a ledge. At least the timing elements spur you to make right choices, but here the clunky navigation makes for frustrating times. The puzzles are making less and less sense since BS part 2, while at the same time often a tedious drag to reach the next step. Dialogues can no longer be skipped either. The devs clearly have a major issue with religion, but why the blatant hatred in such vulgar form that is not even funny anymore at some point? It is especially ironic, since the charm of the whole series was built on a historical context from the start, where the line between ethics and cultural differences is blurred through the ages. On the upside, the humor is pretty decent and the colour scheme of the 3D enviroment a lot better than BS3. But I still would have preferred the charm of the 2D environment of parts 1 and 2, where artistic creativity makes for much more memorable scenes. Parts 1 and 2 remain the series.

The move to 3D was a trend at the time, but this was not a good move for the Broken Sword series. If you loved the point and click mechanics of Broken Sword 1 and 2, then you will be disappointed here. The controls are still terrible, there is a lot of jank, and the story is worse than Broken Sword 3. Honestly, I would definitely skip this one unless you're a completionist.

My expectations were very low for this one, but I've been positively surprised. First, an introductory comment on the series. The main problem this game, just like any Broken Sword installment, is that it is compared to the first one. I've reached the conclusion, that sad as it may be, nothing will be able to replicate the enjoyment I got out of the first Broken Sword game, because the gaming industry has changed on one hand, but because I have changed as well, expectations and all. Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars introduced me to gaming in general, mesmerized me from the start, and never let go of me. Not to this day. It went a bit downhill from there, true, BS2 felt a little easier, BS3 took a completely different direction and BS4 tried to go back to its roots a bit. And that's the first positive after the boxpushing BS3, which wasn't bad in itself, but the lack of inventory item-based puzzles made it less of a Broken Sword title. BS4 does much better in that regard, offers interesting puzzles that can leave you stumped, but I managed to get through them without a walkthrough. It's a matter of patience and willingness to try everything out. Nothing half as frustrating as the first game's goat puzzle which had me stuck for weeks, but which is now covered up with love under the mantle of nostalgia (and rightly so). The humour is still good as well, downright hilarious at some instances. The plot, well, it's not the best, it's not the worst. The artwork is the worst of the four games I've played so far, which I also think explains the lack of immersion experienced by many. The clunky controls take getting used to, but I prefer the choice between point and click or keyboard running as opposed to BS3 which only offered the keyboard. This game has its faults, but it has its place in this wonderful series and can proudly carry its name. Now on to Serpent's Curse :-)

-- Spoiler Alert Start-- Ok that was really cruel. After almost 20 hours in the game, i found out i couldn't finish it because i had burnt a map early in the game which i needed it to open a door just before the end of the game. -- Spoiler Alert End-- No, this cannot be Charles Cecil, it cannot be, i deny to believe that he would design something so cruel like this. Dead end on a 2006 adventure game? I think i am having nightmares here, please wake me up. Apart from that disastrous flaw, what else is to remember? Nothing: bad puzzles without logic, story one of the same, amazingly torturing PDA puzzles for connecting to various servers, uninteresting 3D environments, so so music. I have played all Broken Sword games, and this one i have already deleted it from my memory. So sad.

It's like I am playing a fever dream. I played through 1-3 and had a good time. Even the third one I liked. It's in 3D but animations in cutscenes are very nicely done and has a very nice charm to it. BUT THIS ONE Holy moly. The controls are really bad, riddles are completely out of this world. I NEVER EVER had to look up so many of the solutions to the ones I encountered. And I played Sam & Max, I understand what convoluted nonsense is. That's how Civvie would say it. DO.NOT.BUY.THIS.GAME