Broken Sword 5 - the Serpent's Curse

Maybe it's because I played the previous entries so long ago, but I didn't really remember Broken Sword being so unsubtle in its approach to humor and borderline fourth wall-breaking gags. Or that it introduced semi-important characters in such haphazard fashion (Eva), giving them a cardboard cutout personality, only to flip it around in the end by way of character growth, as it were. Or it allowing itself to be so unserious that a character, which by all rights should be thinking their partner had just been killed, then promptly indulges in wisecracking while, unbeknownst to them, their very much alive partner indulges in an impromptu philosophical discussion with their shooter. These things took me out of the story, so jarring were they, along with the contrivances to get the characters from one country to the other, and the on-the-nose nostalgia, with cameos for the sake of all-too convenient cameos, which almost feel like padding in a game that, by itself, is rather on the short side. It's also a very easy game, especially for P&C veterans, with only a mean-spirited bit of semiotic lateral thinking late in the game providing any real challenge, and no real memorable puzzles to speak of. Which is fortunate, as the interface (both modern and classic versions) is terribly dated and unwieldy, especially when compared to the innovations brought about by other recent P&C titles. The plot is nothing to write home about, like someone looked up Gnosticism on Wikipedia and decided it'd make for a cool story background, came up with a disposable villain who shows up late and leaves you indifferent, and couldn't make up their mind as to how the titular characters reacted to the whole thing, alternating between an obnoxious, arch tone of secular contempt, and a sporadic newfound spiritual fervor. All in all, a disappointment. Not an unpleasant one, mind you, as it still has that Broken Sword charm, but a disappointment nonetheless.

Want to see a woman carrying a bloodstained mop in her pocket all the way from Paris to a small church in Catalonia to play 'Ave Maria'? Or a man with a pet cockroach Trevor whose name should be Boris? Then this game is for you! To make it clear this review is actually 4.5 stars. The only problem for me was that apart from a couple of puzzles most of them were very easy with no struggle at all. If I recall correctly all of the puzzles can be solved in the same location you encounter them and this means 1 to 3 screens representing adjacent sub-locations. But all of them are very logical and can be solved analyzing information you've got at the moment on hand. Well, almost all. There is one glyph puzzle closer to the end of the game that didn't look so logical to me. About 30% of it felt random, but it could be only me and lack of analysis. And I was very happy to encounter one message deciphering puzzle which was only in BS1, if I'm not mistaken. Everything else was very good: beautiful backgrounds, believable plot with a good ending (rare case), pretty lengthy (took me 13h to finish and I consider game to be easy), humor, voice acting. To my taste Nico's voice was the sexiest in BS1, but in this game it's second best and pretty close to the original. It's pretty obvious the developers put a lot of effort and a bit of their souls into BS5 to make it in spirit of the first two games. And I think they achieved it. Summarizing all aforesaid, this game is a must-have for all fans of the original BS1 and BS2, a very good choice for the novice in the genre of adventure point-and-click games. And it's still a very good game for the mighty and experienced adventurers, just keep in mind you won't struggle but will still enjoy it nevertheless. [Apologies to all non-Russian speakers for not giving translation for this one. It doesn't really belong to the review, but I just couldn't help it: Ваучер приватизации в рамке на стене, вы серьезно?!]

I had hoped this game would be where Revolution Software returned to their former glory, but nope. This is still not it. While the graphics were improved some more, the gameplay hasn't. We're still pixel hunting, and the puzzles here were so contrived that they broke my suspension of disbelief (like, blow a skylight open with a water rocket made out of a coke bottle and escape with a grappling hook made from a dust cover and a crowbar instead of simply pushing a piece of furniture under that skylight). Also characters walk around at a rather slow pace, which makes the game longer than it has a right to be. And the supposedly romantic banter between George and Nico feels way too forced for me. Did Revolution Software fire all of their competent developers after the second game and are now slowly rebuilding?

After the (imho) unplayable messes that were BS 3 & 4 this is a fine return to form. The animation and art are fantastic and I really enjoyed the story as well. The characters were all entertaining, the dialogue is well scripted and the voice acting is perfect. Some of the puzzles are easy for sure, but some are challenging. Most importantly none are absurd things that you would have to stumble onto by accident because they don't make any logical sense. In BS4 one of the solutions to a puzzle included barring a door then kicking down a brick wall to make a bridge. Who would think that you could kick down a brick wall and it would make a bridge? I'm surprised at all of the swings people are taking at it. It's great to see such a well made point-and-click adventure game in this day and age, and the fact that it pretty much plays like a sequel to BS2 is all the better. Sure there are some indy games trying to emulate 8 and 16 bit graphics that are good, but when was the last time you saw a slickly produced, fun and fast paced Pn'C in the past few decades. Not often.

Ups: The dynamic duo (George and Nico) are back at it again, and there are a lot of humorous comments. There are also many people that we have met in previous BS games that show up in this one, too. The storyline is rich in history and a gripping mystery to work out. There are not the miserable controls that were in some of the earlier games - this is more of a real point & click and not about how quick you are with mouse buttons or a game station if you have one. Downs; Mostly just one, but it counts as several: 90% of the game is spent talking and listening to a lot of babble from the characters, some of which is informative and necessary. The rest of it is just dumb and wastes time, like when George says something like "I put the batteries into...." or "I clicked on the container...." Well duh, I made you do that and you didn't need to tell me about it too. Fortunately I got this game when it was on sale; not sure I would want to get it for the full price.