What can I say? My all time favourite game. I've gotta say I am not a fan of the additions, the character portraits are absolutely unecessary and add nothing to the experience at all, do yourself a favour and download the original version that comes with this purchase.
Comparing this to to its predecessors is harsh but necessary, the previous Broken Sword games were, in my opinion, the greatest adventure games ever made (by far). As was so often the case though the step over to 3D didn't quite work out as I had once hoped and not always for the obvious reasons - sure the graphics lacked charm and shoving around boxes isn't my idea of a stellar adventure game puzzle, but there were more fundamental issues than these. First of all the writing. This game is not well written, the charisma and humour of the previous two games is gone, most of the jokes are naff, almost non are funny. I don't need my adventure games to be a laugh a minute but the wit of the first two Broken Sword games really stood out, it was a more measured approach to adventure games, I always prefered the likes of Gabriel Knights or Broken Sword to the likes of Day of the Tentacle or The Dig because they didn't seem to be trying to be funny all the time. The humour in BS 1&2 was sparodic, clever... fun. But not here, I laughed once or twice but only because I enjoy the word 'pissouir'. But this isn't the main problem with the writing. The big issue here is the story. The entire game hinges on nonsense. There are gaping plot holes. Why did the 'professional' killer need to frame Nico - why was that necessary? Why did the 'proffesional' arrive at the scene of the crime in a conspicuous E-Type Jag? Why did she discard her disguise about 3 yards away from the house leaving an obvious DNA trace? It is all very clumsily handled by the writers. But worse than this is general lack of quality in the writing throughout in game conversations, it just isn't as smart as BS 1&2, it isn't as deep as those games, you can't talk to all the characters about every item in your inventory for example and so it all feels comparitively thin. It isn't bad but a badly written adventure game, with a poor plot, and very simple puzzles is never going to live up what had come before.
Standing in the shadow of the greatest Adventure series of all time it isn't a surprise that BASS is overlooked. This is Revolution finding their feet, sandwiched between the apparently mediocre Lure of the Temptress and the amazing Broken Sword 1. But BASS lacks the weighty plot of BS1, it isn't as expansive as that masterpiece, the longest journey you make is going down an elevator. The puzzles can be jarring too, you often jump one hurdle only to immediately hit a brick wall; although never too hard you're often expected to back track to a location that you presumed had long been left behind, with no real suggestion that you were meant to go there (i.e. grappling hook or fingerprints.) The plot is decent, though as I say, rather limited in scope, and I think that sums up the experience quite nicely. But that shouldn't put you off, as a free game BASS is very special indeed.
