Broken Sword: Director's Cut

It was only recently that I heard all the great buzz about the first 'Broken Sword' game, so I decided to give it a try. I played the Director's Cut first, and thought it was a great game overall, with excellent graphics, good voice acting, and a mature, engaging story that could rival its contemporaries from LucasArts. Although the game's ending felt rushed, and that the added story and puzzle contents were superfluous and inconsequential, it was a lot of fun to play the Director's Cut of 'Broken Sword'. However, the Director's Cut is a double-edged sword (pun intended). I expected the new content to blend in with the old as seamlessly as possible, but it was not so. Dave Gibbon's new artwork was gorgeous, but it did not match the style of Mike Burgess, the original character animator. I was also quite enthused to play as Nico, but her story turned out to be not important to how the rest of the adventure plays out. I was hoping I would get to switch between George and Nico throughout the Director's Cut, but Nico's adventure was only tacked on at the beginning. In fact, presenting Nico's adventure as the prologue also ruined the original game's more impactful opening. The new puzzles? Well, they were alright, but one puzzle was so poorly designed that you literally had to guess the solution. At the very least, I expected the old content to be remastered to match the quality of the new. Yet, the newly recorded dialogue stood out like a sore thumb because of different audio quality. The old cutscenes looked dated and grey, compared to the brighter tones of the new ones. The discrepancies between the old and the new were so obvious that I wished I had just played the original. Thankfully then, the original 'Broken Sword' game is packaged with the Director's Cut, so it can still be enjoyed. I must say that the Director's Cut does scale the graphics up to be better enjoyed on modern computers. Despite my negativity, I am still recommending this game. While the Director's Cut could have been much better, it's still very fun. At the very least, now you know to play the original game first before checking the Director's Cut out.

Includes the original game version from ~1996 which, despite its low screen resolution, does hold up very well. It's a very pleasant adventure game which is driven by an engaging plot and loads of dialogues between the characters. So that means that you can barely get stuck, as you advance mostly through careful oberservation and dialogues. Features an exciting plot and beautiful animations and cutscenes. It's also a surprisingly long game. The director's cut version adds some new scenes and puzzles, but quickly falls flat - it's technically not well executed and there's loads of clipping errors between the sprites, missing animations and bad puzzle design in the new parts. The added plot also falls disappointingly short, even though it does start out interestingly. The new and old art styles do not always match and the new 3d rendered sprites stick out like a sore thumb and clash heavily with the original sprites. The originals, on the other hand, are somehow lacking some of their original animations and often look rather mushy. The director's cut also makes some minor changes in some cutscenes for example and does take away some of the player agency (as in: options) in a few scenes. I did enjoy the new clicky type puzzles, but they are going somewhat overboard with it in later parts of the game. Overall, I would strongly recommend playing the original version. The director's cut itself is a bit of a letdown, even though there are some nice ideas in it. As for the original: I can absolutely recommend this game. Very enjoyable.

It would have received five stars if ONLY the original were included. The fact that people probably are going to play the "director's cut" when given the choice is worth at least -2 stars. Here's what's wrong with the new version: - It's babysitting your ass by pointing out everything you can click on. Looking around for yourself is seriously 50% OF THE GAME. They just removed 50%. If you're sharp you could probably finish the game with only audio and black backgrounds, as long as you see the blinking dots and their descriptions. Solving the newly added parts isn't satisfying in the least. - Puzzles have been dumbed down. That's fine if you want less of a challenge. - Seems like you can't die anymore, because you can't make fatal mistakes. Not forcing you to start over from the beginning is sensible in a modern game, but this isn't how you do it. The right way is to allow for mistakes and then offer the player to load a checkpoint just before they made the mistake. - They've removed some animations, but kept sounds from them. All in the name of dumbing down the puzzles. - The "speaking faces" are just a collection of still images of generic facial expressions. It further distracts from the beautiful original environment art. Better if they were only one unchanging image, then at least they wouldn't attract as much attention. - The Nico story is squeezed in between the original parts, and isn't mentioned in them for obvious reasons. - Predictable jokes. - The new journal looks just awful. Ten year olds can make better judgment calls on font and text size. On the bright side: + The new animations are in the same style as the old ones. + The cursors have gotten facelifts. I appreciated that more than all the other changes combined. + There are probably some changes that aren't noticeable and that just work. Like it should be. + Easy install!

Years ago I enjoyed the original Broken Sword and decided to refresh myself on it with the Director's Cut. The new content met with mixed reception, although I took no issue. I enjoyed Nico's character and appreciated seeing her background fleshed out. Her puzzles were fun and logical. None of the same can be said for the original George segments. George is a rather unpleasant character -- nosy, needy, pushy, and immature. He lacks motivation and character arc, and by the end we know absolutely nothing about him, except for his name, that he's a writer from America, and that he likes Nico. That's really it. Revolution is usually compared more favorably to Sierra in terms of puzzle design, but this game is as baffling as they come. Giving a ball to distract a boy to pet a cat on a table then ringing a bell to open a door to divert the ball to hit a Newton's cradle to startle the cat to jump back onto the table to knock over a statuette that was in reach the whole time is just one example of this game's oxygen-deprived moon logic. It's not the worst the genre gets, but it's well in league. The original animation is stunning and still shines through the questionable graphical updates and clashy added content. Still, the original looks better. My biggest issue with Sword is its tonal inconsistency and character development. Its dark story is undercut by ceaseless slapstick. George channels Guybrush Threepwood, surrounded by caricatures and ethnic stereotypes who insult him nonstop. Supposedly emotional moments earn no pathos, danger is treated with almost no tension or stakes. Musical cues are head-scratching (ex. the same swelling, uplifting intro music is played when George is knocked off a cliff by the antagonist). There IS plenty to love for genre fans. The premise and mystery are intriguing, and the unfolding map of exotic international locations to explore feels like a true adventure. Still it feels like the parts don't quite add up to a bona fide classic.

I like the fact they have enhanched the game with some parts excludeded on original version and made it playable on modern system. Anyway i feel that Nico new parts has opened some open question never explained later in game. The big con for me, it's censorship. No more death scenes (hotel, museum, underground, desert, well, train), cutted blood from cutscenes and some were shortened with no reason... Another con, it's inconsistency in some animation. It happens quite a lot that you can see a huge difference between old and new sprites. And the font used for subtitles are so small than probabily the original ones will be more readable still today. I mean, i'm greateful i can play it on modern system, but i would like to have a great quality dc/remake like has been done with Full Throttle and Day of the Tentacle. It's a shame that a so great mature game released in 1994 can't be played with a proper version that will bring justice to the original work.