Broken Sword: Director's Cut

This game, I played when I was mid-teens. A fun fact: it was originally named Circle of Blood. To this day (and I'm now middle-aged) I quote this game and this series as an icon, a model of wonderful storytelling with just the right amount of technological assist needed to convey the subject-matter and impart valuable knowledge as it went along! The opening scene was Epic! for its time, the direction was first class, if you played it back then, I'm sure you cannot forget the clown. The creepiest clown after penny wise! I found this and its sequel to be the best of the series. Do yourself a favour if you have no qualms about the genre or the medium or anything else, do not miss out on this artistic masterpiece!

I've loved BS:TSOTT ever since I first played it in the mid 90's so I was all excited when I coulddownload it for basically no money at all. After a rather quick play through my emotions are kinda mixed. I am delighted the graphics haven't been improved, at least not so much one notices. I am dissapointed in the new puzzles that just get frustrating as it requires a sort of thinking that I, personally, don't like in the BS-games. I am also dissapointed in the way the rmake guides me to areas of interest. What I enjoyed the most in the original game (that is included in the purchase thank the saints) was to click on random objects and hear George say something witty about it. This is impossible now. I don't mind the added introduction with Nico per se, but when you get tired of the puzzles (the locks and the coded messages) and find a walkthrough there's something wrong. That's not what I'm after in a Broken Sword game, as been mentioned before. I also don't mind the little avatar like characther picture during conversations but it doesn't go with the story. Why not lip sync or at least add appropriate expressions? Now it's just a cosmetic change so that theplayers will notice that something is new. To sum it up, they've taken a classic and made it a little bit worse. Just a tad though and I was balancing between 4 or 5 stars. So even though I finally put 4 it actually means 4.5. And after all, you do get the original game aswell as some other goodies so I really shouldn't complain.

In these times of turmoil, when the industry is burning down, it is good to remember how many games began appearing from the minds of Indie developer teams. Broken Sword is a game made with love and care, every asset is hand drawn and beautifully animated for the year it was released. The Story kept me totally invested for 10 hours (I ended the game in one siting), that's how good the writing is. It deserves the cult following it has and more. The only negative thing it has is that the characters walk as if they were walking on molasses, but that’s just a nitpick.

I loved the original game and played it on PS1 as well as on PC back in the days. I got this one very cheap off GOG (damn them and their sales...), since I hoped the remake would be even better and unlike many others in the review section I really enjoyed the added scenes. We get to play as Nico and it sheds some light on the background story and we get to see scenes that we couldn't see before simply because George wasn't present. But also people who don't like remakes get good value for their money as they can simply chose to play the orignal game. That way, everybody get's happy. Well done, GOG!

A great game that spawned a great sequel and... some other ones. The added scenes in the Director's Cut are welcome, and flesh out the story a little, but the new sections at the beginning of the game where you play as Nico feel a little padded with unnecessary puzzles to extend the playtime. Ironically, a few things that were in the original game are missing here, like some pieces of dialogue and an option that used to result in a death and game over. Nothing very significant is gone though, much more has been added than has been lost, and some things were cut for good reason, so it's not a problem unless you're a purist. The Director's Cut has the same graphics, resolution and sound quality as the original, but newly recorded lines are of higher quality; which actually makes the rest of the sound much more jarring, as the old lines of dialogue are very low quality in comparison. For those who aren't familiar with the game at all... Well, two things make a good adventure game: story and puzzles. On the story side, it's a globe-trotting kind of adventure about finding ancient clues, exploring ruins and mausoleums, uncovering murder plots, and a little bit of magic and mysticism. Although it sounds quite serious, it's actually a pretty vibrant and light-hearted game with some good humour and exaggerated characters. Overall it's pretty grounded though, and rarely laugh-out-loud funny. The story makes me think of a mix between Indiana Jones and The Da Vinci Code. On the puzzle side, it doesn't indulge too much in the typical "adventure game logic", puzzles usually make sense (with a few exceptions), and you don't have to roleplay MacGyver that much (again, with a few exceptions). So overall, great. Not every puzzle is entertaining though, and some are a little obtuse or long-winded. I almost forgot to mention the music. I love the music in this game! Very atmospheric soundtrack, kind of minimalistic but soothing, and always fits well with the scene.