The artwork doesn't need elaborating on since you can see that in the screenshots, but along with the music and kid-friendly humor, it creates a very pleasant atmosphere and can be considered the strongest point of this game, which runs smoothly and beautifully. The only bugs you'll find are a batlike squirrel and a doglike caterpillar, and they're supposed to be there. My guess is this game is aimed at a young crowd, given the easy puzzles and the plot that isn't too complicated. Most of the parts of the story aren't fleshed out, leaving the player with a lots of stuff to guess at by the end of the game. This could be for sequel purposes or in order not to burden the (young) player with too much story and let that player enjoy the artwork and music instead. Part of the reason the game is so easy is that object of interest are highlighted (no option to turn that off) and most of the puzzle solving doesn't evenr equire you to leave the room. You'll never have more than 3 items in your inventory so with a minimum of trial and error you'll get where you need to be. But not a lot of trial and error will be required, because while the setting is quite fantastical, the puzzles usually follow a simple logic. As a fan of Broken Sword, the name of Charles Cecil lured me into buying this, but the game is much easier than Broken Sword and aimed at a different, much younger audience.
Just seeing those view cones again makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm not an avid gamer, as in that I'd call it my main hobby. But especially during my teenage years I spent quite some time behind a computer screen and that was mostly thanks to the style of game that combined thinking with action. Deux Ex, Thief, Hitman were examples of this in the 1st or 3rd person genre, but my absolute favorites were always the top-view Commandos (up until Commandos 2) and Desperados (the first installment), where you control a small squad of specialized individuals facing huge and beautiful maps full of strategically placed enemies. For some reason aside from these four games, it was difficult to find games that offered the same experience these games had to offer. Until now. Shadow Tactics: Blade of the Shogun is the real deal, and when they say it's the successor to Commandos and Desperados, fans of these games can be assured that it is. Commandos set the stage magnificently, Desperados added a bit more colour, plot lines and quirkiness, and Shadow Tactics moves forward much in the same vain, providing you with huge levels, an arsenal of distractions, hiding spots for both yourself and your victims, and attack moves that make a fight of 2 versus 80 feel unfair to those eighty people, yet always challenging. Enemies are, like in Desperados, diverse and react differently. Some are easily fooled and killed, while others are more disciplined and intelligent and take an original idea to get past them. Shadow Tactics comes with a very interactive environment, where boulders are waiting to be pushed and big animals can cause major accidents. It's so fulfilling to pick off those red dots on the beautiful map one by one, proceeding as you go through wonderfully rich environments and a great story to boot. The replayability is huge, with every map providing many different ways to solve it, each solution having its own challenges. An optional badge system with special mission completion conditions adds to that. My only slight quirk is the speedrun badge that goes against the spirit of this game. Obviously this is optional, and quite easily ignored, I just felt there is no need for speed in this game. Every second in it should be enjoyed, and I intend to spend many more of those here. I can guarantee that his game is absolutely perfect for the Commandos and Desperados fans, but even if you haven't played those: try it and discover a great genre and a game that does it right. Maybe it can steer the younger generations to the older gems? And maybe, after this game's resounding success, more games in this genre will follow? One can only hope. I'm already thankful for this game, an instant-favorite of someone who had even stopped hoping another game like this would come out. Shadow Tactics is more than I had dared to wish for.
My expectations were very low for this one, but I've been positively surprised. First, an introductory comment on the series. The main problem this game, just like any Broken Sword installment, is that it is compared to the first one. I've reached the conclusion, that sad as it may be, nothing will be able to replicate the enjoyment I got out of the first Broken Sword game, because the gaming industry has changed on one hand, but because I have changed as well, expectations and all. Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars introduced me to gaming in general, mesmerized me from the start, and never let go of me. Not to this day. It went a bit downhill from there, true, BS2 felt a little easier, BS3 took a completely different direction and BS4 tried to go back to its roots a bit. And that's the first positive after the boxpushing BS3, which wasn't bad in itself, but the lack of inventory item-based puzzles made it less of a Broken Sword title. BS4 does much better in that regard, offers interesting puzzles that can leave you stumped, but I managed to get through them without a walkthrough. It's a matter of patience and willingness to try everything out. Nothing half as frustrating as the first game's goat puzzle which had me stuck for weeks, but which is now covered up with love under the mantle of nostalgia (and rightly so). The humour is still good as well, downright hilarious at some instances. The plot, well, it's not the best, it's not the worst. The artwork is the worst of the four games I've played so far, which I also think explains the lack of immersion experienced by many. The clunky controls take getting used to, but I prefer the choice between point and click or keyboard running as opposed to BS3 which only offered the keyboard. This game has its faults, but it has its place in this wonderful series and can proudly carry its name. Now on to Serpent's Curse :-)
Great fun! A perfect mix of planning ahead and thinking on your feet, making for a fast-paced adventure with a great musical score and art direction. To be highly recommended!
Not even half as good as the brilliant original Shadow of the Templars and its successor Smoking Mirror, but it's not that bad. It shouldn't have been marketed as a Broken Sword title, because expectations went through the roof and they didn't even try to live up to them. They just changed the entire franchise. They even mocked it. The puzzles are extremely easy. The box, platform and action sequences provide an unwelcome change to the series as a whole, but within this game that has close to zero challenges they provide some welcome variation. My verdict on the box puzzles is that they don't fit in the franchise, but in any other game within another franchise I wouldn't have found them tiresome. The stealth sequences are ridiculous given guards can't see further than 2 meters away in well-lit spaces. There's a riddle in the game about crossing a river that's as old as sliced bread, which shows how out of ideas the developers must have been. In short, this game tried to expand on the original Broken Sword experiences and fell short. The story is a joke, full of gaps and holes, and a truly ridiculous ending to boot. The only good stuff are the return of George Stobbart's voice actor, and some references to the earlier games such as the return to Montfaucon. The workman and the nobel prize winner returning would normally have been welcomed, sadly the characters have been raped. Disregarding all that, I did finish it without getting bored too much. Mildly entertaining if you're willing to forget they raped your probably favorite video game franchise (as it is in my case).
I highly recommend Project Eden. Barely stopped playing it after having it installed. Puzzles, action, smooth graphics, good voice acting, great controls, perfect game that I never even knew existed. And there's some Deux Ex-references early on. Any game that has even the slightest touch of Deus Ex in it should be played. I'd also like to add that I have not encountered any technical issues such as annoying glitches that have been raised by other reviewers. The only thing that could be slightly better is the combat (shooting) system which feels a bit awkward at times, but nothing you can't get over.
