Broken Sword 5 - the Serpent's Curse

Not great, but a solid adventure. Part 1 took me 8 hours to finish, using all dialogue options, not hastening, skipping speech etc Pros + Beautiful hand-drawn background graphics + Good voice acting and sound quality + A lot of nostalgia for long-term fans + Built-in hint function for less experienced players + Very comfortable interface Cons - The puzzles are too easy for experienced players - Too linear, usually only one location available - Almost no action and suspense, a bit boring - Lacks the humor of BS 1 and 2

First off this game is a Broken Sword, not just in name but in spirit. For those of us who know the franchise that is enough of a review right there. For those who don't, the game revolves around George Stobbart, an insurance assessor, and Nicole Colard, a journalist. The old friends are covering the opening of an art exhibit for their employers. All of a sudden an armed gunman comes in and steals a painting and kills the museum owner. The game is around 5-6 hours long, and that is just the first half. However you are paying for both halves of the game, you just have to wait a couple months for the other half. The graphics are hand painted in 2D. Fans of the 3d style of the 3rd and 4th games might be put off by this, but their is no need. The graphics are beautiful and the art direction is perfect for this game. The main problem with the graphics is that the lip syncing does not always match up. In fact there are one or two parts where the lips do not move at all. As for the sound, the voice acting is superb. Lastly the puzzles, the vast majority of the puzzles are intuitive, and if you get stuck there is a hint system (which can be turned off in the menu). I used the system maybe a dozen times, and most of the time I used it I kicked myself for not seeing how obvious it was. Only once or twice was it actually needed. In summary I would say this a fantastic game, and I for one cannot wait for the rest of it.

Back in the day, I considered BS 1 and 2 to be the best games I have ever played. Maybe I got too old but with number 5 the magic was simply gone. I didn't really care for the characters, story or puzzles. It was still entertaining enough to get me to the end (especially because I backed it on Kickstarter) but the experience was forgettable.

EPISODE 1: The game looks and plays like the classic broken sword titles. It has good production values, looks beautiful and It is definitely enjoyable to play but it doesn't emotionally involve you as the early titles. In particular, I found George to be quite bland this time, lacking his trademark humour and his relationship with Nico seems superficial and does not evolve. I hope episode 2 has a little bit more heart than this one.