Quality may thankfully not be going downhill anymore, as Broken Sword 3 was the biggest step backwards, but things have not improved and it is clear that the series lost its touch after the first two fantastic episodes. This is not nostalgia speaking, as I only ever played the series in 2023 for the first time, having bought the four at a discount. Parts 1 and 2 simply aged quite well, while parts 3 and 4 wanted to ride a 3D trend, sacrificing game originality. The useless navigation in the 3D world is sometimes hampered by forced switching between keyboard and point&click. An example is entering the balcony from a room at some point: if you're used to clicking away, you will not notice that you will not be able to enter that balcony, unless you use keyboard controls to leave the room. Talk about ambiguity in "choice". The "parcour" elements also add very little to the game, since it is just a matter of finding the right spot to click, the action element is actually no action and you hardly need more braincells to realize what direction to move on a ledge. At least the timing elements spur you to make right choices, but here the clunky navigation makes for frustrating times. The puzzles are making less and less sense since BS part 2, while at the same time often a tedious drag to reach the next step. Dialogues can no longer be skipped either. The devs clearly have a major issue with religion, but why the blatant hatred in such vulgar form that is not even funny anymore at some point? It is especially ironic, since the charm of the whole series was built on a historical context from the start, where the line between ethics and cultural differences is blurred through the ages. On the upside, the humor is pretty decent and the colour scheme of the 3D enviroment a lot better than BS3. But I still would have preferred the charm of the 2D environment of parts 1 and 2, where artistic creativity makes for much more memorable scenes. Parts 1 and 2 remain the series.
The developers for some reason decided to jump on the 3D bandwagon as it seemed popular at the time. It did not improve on the series, as the strength of the Broken Sword series is the cartoon-like point&click aspect, the artwork and the humor. Turning it into a wannabe "parcour" game that is zero skill based as you just have to click on whether to climb a wall or drop from it, while at the same time the running around is quite clunky with the controls, it basically makes zero sense. Especially since the 3D design takes away any quality artwork that made the first two parts strong. Sure, there are some funny dialogues in Glastonbury, but the humor has lost a lot of its touch as well, the characters have fallen flat and the tedious running around from door to door in search of clues or between characters does not make the adventure exciting but quite tedious. I was getting PTSD from the concrete buildings just to find out how to enter a building in a slightly different way. Skip this part of the series, you will hardly miss a thing.
At times somewhat more tedious (jungle search), but overall a nice follow-up on part 1. Somewhat less humor as well but still cheeky enough for the occasional wink.
Writing this in 2023, this game has aged quite well. The game is paced well, not too simple puzzles and not always linear sequences, the art is excellent and the sense of humor of the writers is far better than anything nowadays. A bit cheeky at times on anything religious (a man of God and wrist action, somehow I wouldn't make that connection right away..), but within the limits of good taste. Highly recommended to any fans of point and click adventures. Great 8-10 hours of fun.
