Broken Sword: Director's Cut

Broken Sword has always held a special place in my heart, especially because it was Revolution's follow up to my favourite adventure ever, Beneath a Steel Sky. It's great to see Revolution go back over one of their classics and add more to it, and even better to find the result bundled with the original here on GOG. Broken Sword (both versions thereof) feature the mixture of involving setting, well-approached mystery plot and the same subtle but excellent British humour that made BaSS a classic, and the characters' responses and depth of plot make each playthrough worthwhile and rewarding. The game has it all- drama, comedy, history, danger, and even pixies. Moving onto the remastering, and unfortunately the Director's Cut is a bit of a mixed bag. The new sections are nicely written and help to develop Nico's character, and the new puzzles add a bit of variety to what is otherwise a point-and-click through and through (except one puzzle that actually became a lot easier in the DC!), but as previous reviews have pointed out the presentation is a bit of a sore point; the issue here is that 2010 and 1996 don't mix very well. The new scenes have been created with a different voice cast from the rest of the game, and it's obvious. The new sound doesn't suffer from the compression artefacts of the original game's (which hasn't been re-recorded or remastered for the DC) and the result is jarring (you can literally tell what lines they've changed in the DC at times). The artwork is the same - 2010 Nico is smoothly rendered and well-animated in all the places where 1996 George looks blurry and blocky. The new scenes are, on the whole, quite good (if a bit too sparing and too concentrated towards the start). The new plot steals the show away from the excellent original intro, so I'd recommend playing the original first, but seeing the beginning from Nico's point of view is a welcome change and one that sets George's adventure into a bit more context. My one regret is the change in George at the start of his part from someone who's nearly been killed (and rightly wants to know why) to someone who has an innate and somewhat ill-fitting belief that justice *must* be served and *he* MUST be the one to serve it. I'm giving this a 5 stars mainly on the merits of the game itself, rather than the DC (which would get about a 3 or 4 from me), but it's still worth playing through the remastering. (After seeing the original intro, that is.)

One of the more intuitive point&click adventure games (like Syberia or Sam & Max: Save the World). Average length, quite a few chuckles along the way. More than solid - actually pretty good, but not brilliant like Broken Sword 2. The content added in the Director's Cut feels a little redundant. The message decoding puzzles (they are new, if memory serves) are a welcome addition, but the other puzzles (slide-puzzle locks, chess piece placement, etc.) are the typical out-of-place contraptions. The game also comes with the soundtrack you'd otherwise have to pay for on iTunes.

I prefer the original version, so thanks for providing it. I can't talk much about the director's cut edition as I found it pretty superfluous and not much of interest. I have no nostalgia bias toward this game as I did not had the luck to play it as a child. This game has it's own place in the golden age of point & click . It's different but interesting at the same time, while still bringing some subtle references to other games of that time. You become some sort of detective in the character of George Stobbart (stubborn). He is quite the annoying kind of person, but he has his ways and a good sense of answering people, despite always being on the offensive. There are many elements in this game that gives a sens of immersion. Paris like other places are beautifully drawn. The creator has really dig into history and french people, and a good culture of the world. Many characters are often looking like cliché, but are in fact anti cliché and kind of break the usual cliché an american could have arriving in foreign places. You really feel involved in the story, and there are few elements in the game that reinforce this feeling, that no other point & click brought. As for the enigma I found them quite logical, and not so complicated. I had pleasure trying all possible dialogues, even if surprises are rare, some are quite iconic. The only point & click I could compare it to is Indiana Jones and the Fate of the Atlantis, but way more simple and polished. It has it's own distinguishable flavor, it's kind of cinematic point & click, with a good background story, that feels smooth and satisfying to evolve into. The only downside maybe is that it would have been cool if George could run, sometimes it takes quite some time to walk from one place to one other. A top point & click of the 90's, that stands in it's own fashiong along the lucas arts/sierra and other top titles of this golden age.

It's probably been 10 years since I last played this game to the end. I remember trying this Director's Cut to see what it improved and I wasn't too impressed by the silly Myst-like logic puzzles. This time I wanted to play it through completely & since it works on a modern Windows out of the box it seemed the best choice. Let me start by saying that the original game is in my top 5 favorite adventure games along with Beneath A Steel Sky, Monkey Island 1 & 2 and Sam & Max Hit the Road. The music, the atmosphere, the story, the characters - they were all brilliantly realised and even though my PC at the time was too weak, I gladly played it despite the very choppy cut scenes. Particularly the Hotel Ubu music was a favorite - I used that music as a Windows start song for a loooooong time. But let's move onto what the Director's Cut is about. It adds a handful of new locations, fleshes out the story a little bit (not much), adds a few new cut scenes, shows drawn up close faces during dialogue and gives Nicole her own backstory. Does it work? Kind of. The new locations are well made, the new characters are interesting enough and the new puzzles are in line with what you can expect for the rest of the game except self-contained. HOWEVER, they also added a bunch of crappy logic puzzles the like you had in 7th Guest & Myst. These add NOTHING to the game and actually make the game feel worse. What also feels at odds is the mix of old & new dialogue - the old dialogue is warmer whereas the new dialogue is crisper. George sounds about the same but Nicole sounds much older in the new dialogue and it kind of jars. On top of this they changed the music around. The fabulous piano music in Hotel Ubu's upstairs rooms has been replaced by the downstairs music which annoyed me a great deal. The tone of the game on the whole has been changed as well this way - music was added where there was none & visa versa. All in all, it's still a great game but I prefer the original.

Broken Sword: Director's Cut is an expanded remaster of the first game, also known as Shadow of the Templars. It's a point-and-click adventure game where you play as American tourist George Stobbart, who got involved in a conspiracy involving a costumed killers and the Knights Templar's secret. You are assisted by French reporter Nico Collard, who's also interested in the same mystery for a more personal reason. I mentioned this game is the best version to play, and the reason is that there are extra chapters and cutscenes. In the original version, you only play as George, but here you can also play as Nico. Her story involves investigating ties to her father's past, who might had a role in the recent conspiracy. It's a great way to expand her character, making her more than just a sidekick. Sadly, the newest remaster (Reforged) decides to remaster only the original game, without the new Nico chapters. A downside to the new chapters is that some people said it messes with the pacing, for example the game starts with a new chapter so the iconic cafe opening scene is delayed. But if Broken Sword: Director's Cut is your entry to the franchise as it was for me, it wouldn't feel as jarring. Definitely recommended for point-and-click adventure fans. Sadly because of Reforged being released, this version is delisted from Steam, but here you can buy and keep it forever!