Game Review Data
 


Game Title

Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars
Publisher
BAM
Features
1 Player. Battery Save.
Format
Adventure
Reviewer
Andrew Blanchard


RATING

Excellent!


Ratings Scale:

Excellent!

Good!

Playable!

Ho-Hum!

Yuck!


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Introduction

The Broken Sword games have been a worldwide success for Revolution Software and titles have appeared on the Playstation, PC and even the Mac. In fact, it's been so successful that later this year will see the release of the third instalment, "The Sleeping Dragon", which will also appear on the GBA. What started out as an office joke and a JAVA demo now makes its way on to the humble GBA courtesy of BAM Entertainment who seem to be forging a name for themselves as a quality publisher. This was, however, a 2 CD ROM set on all the various formats, so it will be interesting to see how it converts to a handheld and, more importantly, whether it will be as much fun to play.

Screen Shots

GamePlay

Things start off with your main character, George Stobbart, enjoying a quiet coffee in a street side cafe in beautiful Paris. You're sitting there, soaking up the atmosphere, listening to the birds sing and then BOOM, the cafe explodes and the only thing you can recall is a businessman carrying a suitcase and a mysterious clown. Unhurt, but very shaken, you dust yourself off and begin a journey involving sinister plots with origins that extend back to the early 14th Century. You journey takes you not only to Paris but to many other locations around the world and discovering the secret of the Knights Templar becomes an all important personal obsession.

Broken Sword is what's commonly known as a 'point and click' adventure so, for anyone who hasn't encountered these before, the object is simple - find out what's going on. That may sound a little abstract but you're usually introduced to a given situation and then it's up to you to discover the rest. You might find yourself a little lost at first but talking to various people should point you in the right direction. It's important to explore everywhere and pick up anything that's available as you never know when it might come in handy. There is some help for those who get really stuck and the manual features a handy guide taking you through the first 10 minutes of gameplay but after this you're on your own. Everything however is very logical and the developers never treat the player unfairly by hiding critical clues or making puzzles impossible to figure out.

One thing that's essential in adventure games is the ability to combine objects in certain situations. While not giving away any specific examples from this game I can tell you this is allowed but only when the combination is useful to your adventure, so you can't combine just any old items and hope to make them work. As with all games of this nature saving is very important and with Broken Sword it really couldn't be simpler. Pressing the 'B' button almost anywhere will take you directly to three save slots and you'll probably need to use all three at regular intervals just in case you get into a tight spot.

Controls

Point and click adventures have always relied on an intuitive interface leaving the player to use a bit of grey matter to solve the puzzles, and for the GBA version Revolution have completely redesigned the existing one. George is controlled using the D-Pad and when reaching a hot spot an icon will appear. This might be a hand to allow you to pick the object up or, perhaps, in the case of another person, a mouth to let George engage in conversation and thus gain valuable information. When this happens you can also scroll through your inventory and question people about various objects. The maps are an important guide as George uses them to travel around the various locations in a city or even in different countries. These only become available as information is gathered which can lead you to new addresses and / or people to question.

Graphics

Having recently replayed the original it's amazing to see what a quality conversion this actually is. All the backgrounds are beautifully drawn and the main sprite of George is wonderfully animated even when he walks into the distance. You'll also see that other background features have remained intact to further the illusion of reality. The only visual casualty is the FMV cut screens which have been edited down to static shots. Although this means that GBA owners aren't treated to what is some truly fantastic animation you'll be pleased to know that it hurts neither the gameplay nor the overall atmosphere.

Sound & Music

Obviously this is one of the areas where considerable cutbacks had to be made as the original game features speech throughout the two disk adventure. This again though is the only real change so GBA owners are still treated to the wonderful Barrington Pheloung soundtrack which creates an incredible atmosphere of tension. In addition there are spot sound effects everywhere such as cats screeching, workmen digging and birds chirping. You'll hardly miss the spoken dialogue as the text is still very humorous and the sound adds to what is an immersive gaming experience.

Final Comments

Even with the compromises made Broken Sword is an outstanding product and is unrivalled on the GBA or any other handheld for that matter. There's more than enough here to satisfy even the most avid gamer and with outstanding graphics, sound and gameplay there's little to criticize. This is, in short, the top of its class and I'd urge adventure fans to run out and buy it now. Everyone else should also give it a look as this is the standard that other GBA titles should now be judged against and with Revolution's plans to release similar titles the future is looking exceptionally good for Nintendo's little handheld.

@ EAGB Advance 2002. All rights reserved.