Broken Sword 2: Remastered (2010)

I think most of the positive reviews come from nostalgia. After playing the original and liking I decided to go for the second installment in the series. Nico's character is significantly "nerfed" in this one, the pacing is all over the place, sometimes the scenario or interactions do not make sense. One positive are the interesting locations, yet still, not as diverse as the first game.

I'll start by saying that this was a fun, solid point and click, albeit not as good as the first. It was great to play as Nico and George again and their characters continued to be fun. The puzzles weren't overly difficult and MOST of them made enough sense. There is a hint system, which was nice when it didn't quite make sense. I didn't give it higher rating mostly because of the beginning. The beginning just throws you into the mix without much context. There is more context but it comes in the form of a "graphic novel" that I assume came with the remaster. I didn't really start enjoying it until a quarter of the way in but quickly did. I also will say that there are parts that didn't quite age that well, with the treatment of South American people and culture, but I've seen worse from 90s games.

I've never understood why this game wasn't as well-received as the first Broken Sword, as I actually like this one slightly more. It has more creative puzzles, more moments of humour, and more interesting locations and situations. I find it a little more charming and a little more memorable. To be fair though, this game was my introduction to the series, and I first played it when I was very young, so there's probably some nostalgia in effect. The game is considerably shorter than the original, but not extremely short. In the playthrough I just did, I finished it in 6 hours, but that's because I could remember the solutions to most of the puzzles off by heart, since I've played the game God-knows how many times. I found that in Broken Sword 1 you return to the same locations too often, and it can start to feel like filler; but in Broken Sword 2 you very rarely return to the same place twice and it just keeps sending you off to new locations, which keeps things feeling fresh. The art style is the same, still great, but improved by better character animations. The first game has awful sound quality for voices by modern standards, but the sound quality here is fine, and the music is perfectly atmospheric. The only ways I would say the game falters compared to the original game is firstly that the story is a little weaker, but it's by no means bad, and characters are more interesting and memorable. Secondly, you have to channel MacGyver a lot more now. "Adventure Game Logic" is in full force, and some of the solutions to puzzles can be ridiculous. It's a shame, but it's honestly no worse than many of the much more fondly-remembered adventure games of the era. The improvements of the remaster are very minimal, the graphics are the same resolution as back in '97. Conversations are presented a little differently with small comic panels in the screen corners which animates the dialogue a bit more, the UI is a little different and there's a hints system. That's about it.

Same spirit as the 1st, not as good jokes but it will do. I love how you can also play as both characters, depending on where you are storywise.

Tried it on 2 different computers, and couldn't get it to work on either.