Broken Sword 5 - the Serpent's Curse

After the horrendous turn the graphics took with the switch to 3D in BS3 and 4, BS5 finally makes things look good again, with backgrounds that are literally stunning- when you step out into the Paris street for the first time, you're likely to be taken aback by just how rich, detailed and beautiful the environment is. The 3D character models aren't as nice as the animated ones, but effort has been made to give the illusion of an animated style, at least. The gameplay and controls are wholly 2D- no annoying crate puzzles or obnoxious camera angles here! The voice acting is excellent, especially the priest (turns out he's also the narrator in Trine, which is why he seemed familiar)! The story is appropriately epic and full of religious lore, and the puzzles are solid. No glitches to be found this time around. Lots of references to previous games, done well. You get to carry around a pet cockroach for most of the game and show him off to everyone you meet, which brings to mind the sewer key in the first game, only better. So why only 4 stars? The first half of the story is very slowly paced and drags on a bit, and you're stuck in the same locations several times in a row, with little action. The puzzles, while logical and fun, are just a bit too easy, with the exception of the music puzzle, which is virtually impossible for anyone who doesn't know basic music theory, and the glyph language translation puzzle, which is actually a bit tricky and quite fun to decipher. Many of the characters are a bit shallow- the villain is bland and seems to have very flimsy motivation, the secondary villain barely shows up, and the incompetent French police are like something from a children's cartoon. The game ends on a rather lame and unpleasant joke, which seemed like a poor choice for what I assume is the conclusion of the series. All in all, it lacks a certain spark. However, it's still a good game and well worth playing for fans of classic adventure gaming.

If you're new to the series. Get Game 1 (Director's Cut), game 2, then skip to 5. Summary of series from my perspective. BS 1 Good game if a little aged. Director's cut Great game 5/5 the gold standard of point and clicks BS 2 Good game 4/5 BS 3 Good story/writing, let down by average gameplay 3/5 BS 4 Same again but worse 2/5 BS 5 4/5 In other words, if you liked the first game or two, then this is a good return to the standard of writing and atmosphere that made the series memorable. It's not as good as the first but the beautiful art design makes it much more playable and the hint system will help avoid frustration for some players.

I've rarely seen a sequel to a long-time cult classic franchise to be so faithful to its roots. Beautiful hand-drawn backgrounds, typical fantasized depiction of Paris, George and Nico, their voices, the music, lighthearted tone, humor and over the top characters, crime, occultism... Yes, this is it. After a couple of minutes in the game, you know you are in a game that is 100% Broken Sword. I'm also very pleased by the discrete fan service. Any fan will instantly recognize many of the references to the series but these references are never forced. Many sequels to cult games (and movies) are often tarnished by way too heavy winks to fans and recycled ideas. This is not the case here. Like many fans, I've also been a bit surprised and disappointed by the choice of CG characters instead of hand-drawn traditional animation. I understand that this was surely the best choice for Revolution because it is much cheaper that way. But in the end, well I must admit this works quite well in fact, you really get used to it. Yes, the game is also a bit too easy and we don't travel much but let's wait for the second episode to add globetrotting and tricky puzzles. As a backer, I'm very pleased by the game, Revolution has made a wonderful job and also made me feel like I was playing a good "old new" Broken Sword again, a real tour de force more than 15 years after Smoking Mirror.

Very good sequel to the old Broken Sword Series. I see some one star ratings based on technical problems (which this game does NOT have) or based on the fact that episode 2 was not out yet. Those ratings are a pity because those ratings bring down the average and are completely unfair. In my opinion this game is true to the original Broken Sword episodes (with better graphics).

BS5 has the feeling of the old adventure games, jet it is very accesible for uskilled and casual players. The game is very linear and problems are almost allways solvable in one screen, but the game is written so well it mostly doesn't matter (in contrary with ABC murders or most of the Sherlock Holmes series) + Nice handdrawn graphics, good voice acting, adeqaute lenght and difficulty, serious theme, hint system, well-written - The humour is too childish and some problems have too unrealistic solutions for the grown-up theme, George behaves like a dick, everyone moves sooo sloooweeelyyy it actually hurts