Posted on: January 21, 2016

grimgroove

Games: 676 Reviews: 17

Not as bad as people claim

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 :-)

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Posted on: June 29, 2019

atrus80

Verified owner

Games: 1922 Reviews: 17

Worst Broken Sword - Cruel Design Flaws

-- 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.

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Posted on: February 5, 2024

therealdadbeard

Verified owner

Games: 111 Reviews: 4

Just skip it

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

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Posted on: April 25, 2014

teskor

Verified owner

Games: 96 Reviews: 2

nice game

While this is probably not as good as part I+II it is much much better than part III. Puzzles have the right difficulty IMHO (in part III they were much to easy), less annoying "action" parts and one can actually use the mouse to go anywhere. Negative is that you can't skip dialogues (luckily they are not that long, mostly), but in general I liked that game.

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Posted on: July 9, 2015

Hanglyman

Verified owner

Games: 444 Reviews: 141

The Angel of Disappointment

This game takes everything that's good about the Broken Sword series and ignores 90% of it. The characters and environments are somehow worse than the respectable ones in BS3, the locations are rather mundane and boring, the plot is bland and relies heavily on a completely unexplained substance that might as well be called "magic powder", and worst of all, the puzzles suck- most of them consist of either annoying pixel hunts or complete guessing, with absolutely no hint as to what you're supposed to be doing and an inventory of around 20 items, most of which are useless. The puzzles that do make sense are usually too easy and ultimately unsatisfying. The game's strengths are the voice acting and a few characters that are actually likeable (Archie, I'm looking at you), but the dialogue has been severely trimmed down compared to previous games and isn't as well written. A plus is that the stealth portions of the game now rely mostly on puzzles rather than running around with bad controls (and the parts with running are pretty easy), and the infamous box puzzles from Broken Sword 3 are used very sparingly here. Unfortunately, they've been replaced with a hacking minigame that is used way too much. While more interesting than the boxes, it has its problems. The hardest hacking puzzle is part of a two-part timed puzzle, and if you run out of time during the second part, you have to do the hacking all over again. Other hacking puzzles require use of a double-sided mirror icon, which you are never told about and which looks so similar to the regular mirror icon that you might not even realize it exists. The controls are broken- often the inventory won't appear or the game will refuse to acknowledge that you're clicking on things. One cutscene ends with you stuck in a pedestal and I'm still not sure how I managed to eventually get free. There are stairs that you can go up but not down- better not save up there or you'll have to start the entire game over! Unforgivable.

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