Click&Point

It All Started in Paris...

This game's announcement was one of the greatest news in adventure genre lately and I believe development studio, Revolution Software, more or less expecting it to be this big. This was because of game's long history as a classic title. The story of the characters you see above on the title started long while ago in 1996 (Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars) with a really distinct style and a smart mystery case. I was too young back then and missed the opportunity to play the game at the time it was published but later I played and still playing whenever I start to forget about it. Later came Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror in 1997 with almost same style and same level of quality. After these first titles Revolution Software had to go 3D because of the cruel industry, tried to maintain the same aspects and developed Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon in 2003 and Broken Sword: The Angel of Death in 2006. They were also point and click adventures but what we tasted as adventure gamers were more bitter than what remained on our tongues after first two titles. Revolution Software should have noticed this almost-fact that the series was losing its audience so they came up on the stage last summer with the shine on their eyes, to announce next Broken Sword title "Broken Sword - the Serpent's Curse". They started a Kickstarter project at the same time and the project has reached its fund goal $400,000 in only one month. Players paid around $800,000 in total for the project to be developed. This all means how gamers were hungry for a good adventure title. Let's see why the project was this successful and how the game came out.
Be aware that the game will be divided into two episodes and since the second part is not released yet, this review is written taking only the first part into account.

...It Should Continue in Paris!

We should firstly celebrate Charles Cecil and his team surviving hard times against publishers only to keep the series alive. Many indie game developers are now inspired by Broken Sword while they are developing their own games.
What The Serpent's Curse tries to do is bringing old quality back and giving 2D another chance. What allowed this was clearly publisher Virgin Interactive's non-oppressive approach to game's development. Set-free Revolution team started finally doing what they've been wanting for a long time. Game has beautiful hand drawn 2D backgrounds with 3D rendered 2D character animations on them. Well, at this point I will have some objections because eventhough models were in cartoonish, hand drawn style, they do not really fit on their backgrounds. I am well aware of the fact that creation of 2D animation is a pain in the back, needs much more effort than in 3D maybe, but noone can argue the difference in result. There are a few small negative sides of the game which do not really change the marvelous looks of the game but I still have to mention them if I am gonna review truly. For example clicking at the same point to walk starts walking animation again and it creates a glitch and loss of time. There are also blank moments especially in dialogues and they break the flow. Let's step back a little bit, forget about the small bothering bugs and look at general features of the game.

Classy Pixel Hunting

I guess only few can argue on the beauty of hand drawn background and environment art in the game. We had them in previous episodes of Broken Sword and we know that they have major role in a game where you are hunting objects and details on the screen to achieve goals. Luckily we do not have to worry about this feature in this game. Revolution preserves what they created first hand. Environments are in just-right level of quality. I do not know if they could be better, I suppose they could be but they do not have to be to keep up the legend. Credits are going to the environment artists who sweated to deliver us these beautiful scenes.
As I mentioned before, animations consist of 3D rendered 2D images. I will be honest, this was not such a great decision. Characters look like they do not belong to the place they stand on. Background and animations do not fit. On the other hand I suppose making a fully 2D animated game would double the efforts. Studio must have an excuse or reason for this issue but the explanation will not change that it was disappointing for me.

Stubborn Goat

When it comes to Broken Sword, puzzles are difficult mostly when it comes to the usage of items in your hand. There are no small puzzle games or conversation challenges inside the game but you have to be creative sometimes to find out what item to use where. Let us not forget about timing actions where you have to perform some action before you ran out of time. In The Serpent's Curse, the whole thing is made a little easier. Almost in every situation the first combination of items comes to your mind solves the puzzle. About timing events, you have a lot time to perform your actions and eventhough you cannot, no worries because you can try it again. There is also a hint system which tells you what to do almost directly and is tempting but I do not think anyone would need it. Do not call me cruel because I also do not like when something very absurd and impossible to solve emerges in a game but it could be a little more challenging. I would like to spend more time trying to solve puzzles than waiting for empty game moments. Revolution might have wanted to go with contemporary fashion in game development, aiming for casual players but I am not very happy with it.

Mysterious Plot

The story in this game surely will not fail you. First, it makes you face a simple thievery and then reveals itself in fairly mysterious way. You might guess a few happenings but it is really hard to understand where the plot is going. Again, we are after something ancient in our pretty real world with George and Nico as we did before. George's motive is adventure eventhough the game tries to remind us he needs to report and make whole event clear to his boss in an insurance company. Nico is after a story for her newspaper and sometimes it gets annoying how she mentions about writing a great story after every enthusiastic line of George. The funny moments and references are also not forgotten, George finds a way to make fun of every situation as he goes through them. I cannot reveal the story here and spoil your experience but I can tell that it is about another great Broken Sword mystery to solve.

Melodies of Paris

Do you remember that mystery tune starts all of a sudden when you reveal a secret in Broken Sword? It still is in the game and made me smile a few times since it really sounds satisfying. Tracks that play along your journey is well preserves from the previous titles. They completely reflect Broken Sword. Dialogues are all dubbed as they supposed to be, give characters life and do not sound unnatural at any moment.

All in all, with a few negative sides game is still great. It brings memories back and blows the soul to the genre what it needed for a long time. The game is also out for Linux, Android and PS Vita which is a big plus. I cannot wait to see how the story will be finalised in the second episode and I hope Revolution Software has plans to create other big titles in the same genre as well as continuing legend of Broken Sword.

Story & Characters 23/25
Revolution uses its own well-made characters and presents a new successful mystery case.
Puzzles 15/25
Puzzles barely exist. You do not need to think much. Still, they are no dumb.
Visuality 19/25
Game shines bright with its environments. 3D rendered animations are a question mark.
Gameplay 13/15
Nothing bothers much. Disappearing inventory after every use and discontinuous walking animations create annoyance.
Music & Sound 9/10
Music is absolutely in Broken Sword style. Mystery-solved tunes are cool. Dubbing and accents are perfect.

Overall Score

79/100