Broken Sword returns for a fifth adventure!
The news is out; Broken Sword, a series close to the hearts of many point-n-click pros, has returned.
This title, called ‘The Serpent’s Curse Episode One’ is now available on Steam and GOG for £18.99. In fact, it’s knocked down to £15.19 on Steam until the 13th December.
I’m really pleased about this. The recent remastering of the first two games, for mobile and desktop, rekindled my love of the series. These games take us back to a time where not all games were about exploding the most naked women. Broken Sword games had a low-violence problem solving approach with a big dose of comedy, creating what can only be called a good old fashioned adventure. Solve the crime, get the girl (or in Nico’s case, eventually concede that the guy isn’t entirely unbearable) and stop the baddies in a variety of luscious locations.
Oh, and make sardonic comments about all the useless tat you end up carrying around. Broken Sword games, you see, not only exemplify the adventure genre, but also manage to lampoon it throughout. Them’s the good writin’s.
But wait! Will this new instalment have the same vibe as before?
I expect so, thanks to the inclusion of BAFTA winning designer Charles Cecil, one of the brains behind the original series, plus a reunited Broken Sword team at Revolution Software. The point and click element has been reinstated (rather than the 3D exploration system of the middle instalments). The art style, while modernised for HD, retains much of the flavour of the first games. In many ways, this is a fan’s sequel. Not an update or a new wave, but more of what we loved in the first place.
What g’wans in this’n? Well, behold quoutage: ‘When a mysterious painting is stolen during an armed raid on a Paris gallery, George Stobbart and Nico Collard are thrown, seemingly by chance, into the investigation together. From Paris to London and beyond, the trail becomes a race against time as dark forces from Europe’s turbulent past are woken from their slumber. Broken Sword characters old and new are encountered – but who can George and Nico trust? The journey they are on reveals a conspiracy as old as the written word, whose ancient heresies will cause innocent blood to spill once more…’
Yeah, that’s right. Dark forces. Europe. The past. Conspiracy. Investigation. Basically, Brokenswordgasm.
“This has been a labour of love not just for us here at Revolution but the entire Broken Sword community too,” says Charles Cecil, founder, Revolution Software. “We have been privileged to be able to make the game we’ve wanted to thanks to the generous support of our Kickstarter supporters, who really have given us the freedom to take the series to new heights.
“But this is only the beginning – we’ve a concluding episode due early next year which will complete the story of what I hope will be seen as our most ambitious Broken Sword game ever. We’re really excited to finally unveil the start of George and Nico’s greatest adventure.”
Fancy that! Good one, Charles. I can’t get to return to Nico grilling people with her sassy French wits and George stumbling around comically with his American lack of wits.
Now, can I wait until the Christmas steam sale?
