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Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged
Delisting
At the outset I have to say that I was really disappointed in Revolution for delisting the Director’s Cut version and the associated original ‘vanilla’ version as DLC. I think if you already had them installed then you were ok but if not then it’s tough luck and what you paid for apparently no longer belongs to you. This game franchise has endured 30 years and has garnered a loyal, global fanbase. As one of those fans I feel like they have exploited that loyalty in forcing me to buy yet another copy of this game if I want to play it again. I expected better.
It’s even worse when you look back at the many times when Charles Cecil (Revolution co-founder) openly criticised games publishers for showing a lack of respect for gamers and now it appears he’s joining the same bandwagon.
It’s good to see that the original ‘vanilla’ Broken Sword 1 is now available again as DLC with Reforged but of course you’ll have to buy it ... or is that lease it? The debate about digital ownership in the games industry will undoubtedly rumble on ...
Review
Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged shines and for me has become the definitive version to play.
I played it both on PC and Steam Deck and on both devices the experience was seamless with excellent performance. In fact when you launch the game, no joke, it takes about 5 seconds to get to actual gameplay almost like it’s coming out of sleep mode. Well done devs, that’s impressive!
Story
The plot centres on a conspiracy for world domination by a murderous group of illuminati styled wannabes. You play an American tourist who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and has a penchant for sticking his nose in to other people’s lives. You team up with Nico, a French photojournalist, and together you attempt to solve a murder and stop the conspiracy from succeeding.
The story is fun, enjoyable and well paced. Grounded in historical fact, the rise and fall of the Templar Knights being at its core, the story has a feeling of depth. Feel like a real adventurer as you visit various European locations and historical sites now beautifully rendered in 4K resolution.
Characters
The characters are fun and quirky, often times stereotypically. Dialogue is sharp witted and carefully walks just on the right side of silliness. Occasionally, attitudes of the time sneak in particularly those towards women and foreigners which can be a bit cringe. Nico’s role is very limited and the romance angle reminds me of old 50’s movies where after just two days of knowing each other they’re planning a life together, lol.
George, the game’s protagonist, is more or less likeable but will have the occasional personality meltdown where he inexplicably becomes aggressively rude or sarcastic, for no reason. The scene with the jongleur comes to mind. I’m guessing Charles was having a bad day when he wrote that scene. George is a poor man’s Indiana Jones, travelling across Europe, throwing himself into all kinds of risky situations to stop some dastardly plan for world domination.
He’s sarcastic about everything but somehow you still root for him and want him to succeed. Nico constantly has to keep him in check in some weird maternal way but it actually fits as he does behave immaturely at times. It’s kinda funny.
Gameplay
The game can be customised to suit your preferred style of gameplay including relaxed settings with helpful toggles you can experiment with. I love that they have gone the extra mile with this as it gave me the choice of having the closest possible ‘vanilla’ experience like I played it all those years ago or occasionally a bit more of a relaxed time with it. The addition of toggles for things like allowing George to exit a screen as soon as possible and not waiting for the animation to end is also a great time saver in some areas and a nice QOL feature.
Visuals
The 4K visuals are a feast to the eyes and I can’t praise them enough. I had a slight issue with some rooms or spaces being too dark. Each area has a border of ‘decor clutter’ which effectively creates a sort of vignette effect. It’s a nice design feature which limits the required processing on screen but also draws focus to the action. However this ‘decor clutter’ border was too dark in many areas which is a shame. Add to that the underground areas, of which there are many, being even darker still and it became problematic. Thankfully, the game allows you to switch to the original ‘vanilla’ version which is much brighter and allowed me to see what I needed to see.
Puzzles
Puzzles are largely logical and common sense. The only potential stumbling blocks are the notorious goat and the Syrian Kebab seller. No matter how many times I’ve played it ... that flippin’ toilet brush, requiring the exact conversation sequence trigger which I can never remember ... gimme the goat puzzle any day, lol. Aside from that, if you get stuck make sure you have exhausted every avenue of conversation including asking about every item in your inventory as the game relies heavily on these types of triggers for solutions. The game allows for a more relaxed style of play for a more modern audience not used to these types of frustrations by providing an in game hint system which you can toggle on/off in the settings.
Audio/Soundtrack
The audio has been acknowledged by Revolution as a particularly difficult element to polish up. In some areas, I think the hotel was the most egregious, the levels were all over the place and clarity/quality wasn’t great. I was constantly turning my volume up and down to compensate. It was frustrating but it did eventually settle to normal levels.
The game is elevated by Barrington Pheloung’s beautiful cinematic score. The hotel lobby piano piece is literally unforgettable, like I can’t get it out of my head, lol ... but in a good way.
Summary
Apart from this being a good game, it’s probably the closest I’ve ever got to recapturing the same feeling I had 30 years ago playing it for the first time on my PS1 and that’s rare in gaming. If you’ve never played it and you’re still unsure just do a quick internet search and just see all the accolades that the game still garners to this day.
Is the game worth buying? Hell yeah ... all day long!