Broken Sword Doesn't Need Fixing (Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (DS))

Member Name: jaeger138

Product:	Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (DS)
Date:	06/09/09 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some good things kept in, puzzles edited for control system

Disadvantages: No voices!

Many companies these days have foud a new and easy way of making money, porting. It's easy, take an old game and port it to a current console and you can sell it to old fans and new players alike. But is it shameless? Are we buying into this knowing full well we're buying the same game that we possibly already own twice? In this case, I'd say no.

This DS port isn't shameless, it's great! While much of the game remins the same it has been updated enough to keep it fresh and interesting while keeping enough intact to do ustice and show respect to the original PC game. The Director's Cut adds new story, new puzzles and a new character to control.

In this game, you mostly play the part of George Stobbart (two Bs, two Ts), an American Patent Lawyer from Idaho on holiday in France. George is sucked up into a murder mystery when a bomb explodes in the Cafe he is sitting outside. Through his inquisitive nature, he eventually meets Nico Collard, a French journalist with ties to the mystery through her father. Together, they end up travelling the world, solving clues and unravelling mysteries to attempt to find the costumed killer and stop a group of Neo-Templars from taking over the world.

The story remains the same in this game from the original, with the addition of a little extra at the start from the view point of Nico Collard. She is a character that appears in all the games of the series, but was not controllable in the original release. In this version, she is controlled in order to solve puzzles and find a little extra back story to the remaining game. It adds a good grounding for the rest of the game and it's interesting to see the events that lead to what I know will happen later on. This portion of the game gets nothing but thumbs up!

Some of the puzzles have been updated in this and the Wii version of the game to utilise the platforms' control systems, which is a great feature. Both consoles lend themselves to point 'n' click adventures readily, and the fact that puzzles have been personalised to each system is great. All it does is add to the adventure.

As stated, the game remains mostly intact for George Stobbart's leg of the journey, but the negative aspect of the game is the lack of vocal talent. The sarcastic tone of George, the biting harshness of Nico, these are very strong memories of the game for me. Without these, there feels like there's something missing. The script remains mostly the same, but I want to hear it, not just read it.

The game still looks great, and the art style is a big part of the uniqueness of the title and it's a very stylised look; painted backdrops and 2D character models, it's a very comic book style, and it really looks great.

There's not much to say here without reviewing the original game, which isn't something I'm going to do unless I actually am reviewing it, but the changes are mostly positive and most of the good things that were in the game already have been kept there, so it's not a bad port at all, and I for one feel it's definitely worth it, even for those who are long time Broken Sword fans and have played this game plenty of times already.

Summary: A great game with enough updates and enough kept in