| 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.
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.
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