Broken Sword 2.5 - The Return Of The Templars Review (PC)

 

 

A few days ago i was very pleasantly surprised to discover one more masterpiece by MindFactory team, a tribute game to Revolution Software. This is no other than Broken Sword 2.5 - The Return Of The Templars. And there are several reasons that justify my so called surprise. Well First of all Broken Sword 2.5 is an unofficial, full-length sequel to the series completely designed by fans for fans!!! Yes you heard right! A Smoking Mirror sequel with traditionally hand made graphics and  really applausable designed characters and plot that if u ask me is way better that any other official release after the second installment!

PLOT: 9/10

George Stobbart being in America receives a message that his girlfriend, Nicole Collard, has died. Having lost his father as well in the near past he takes the first plane to Paris only to find out that Nico is alive and sound but quite abrupt and unwilling to accept the unexpected visit of George. Later on George finds out by the not so much friend of his, Andre Lobineau, that Nico is the main suspect of the murder of the mayor of Paris. Now George is being called to find out the real facts behind the rumors with ways that only in a Broken Sword game one can find!! Not wanting to make anymore spoilers the rest is up to you to discover!

GAMEPLAY: 8.5/10

Now thats what i love about a really really memorable point n click adventure game. Its gameplay. If you ask me it has to be simple, short and sweet if u want but without neglecting anything! I still remember how i was surprised when i played  Broken Sword - The Shadow Of The Templars for the first time. And that was because i was more addicted to that gameplay than any other adventure game I had played. 

You move George by left-clicking the mouse wherever u like. If the cursor turns to 2 joined cogwheels then u have an item with possible interaction if you left click it. You can also combine it with items from ur inventory. By right-clicking George just describes what he sees and maybe gives some useful tips about the item. If the cursor turns to a moving hand that points downwards then its most likely that item can be picked up! When the cursor turns to a "follow me" hand, then you can move further on the 2D environment screen left or right. The mouth cursor over a person, indicates that George can start a dialogue with that particular person. 

There are 2 black tapes on the upper and the lower side of the screen. The upper one has save and load options and options such as language, volume etc. and the lower tape of the screen is the inventory. When George starts a dialogue on that lower tape the player can find the potential topics of the conversation. As in any other Broken Sword George can die (game over) and that means that there are times that the player must act quickly to prevent hazardous situations (i love those BS moments!!!). 

The gameplay aspect of BS 2.5 gets even more intriguing because the developers had the wisedom to include familiar faces and places in that unofficial installment, which certainly brings back lots of memories! My only "complaint" is that the puzzles and riddles of the game are quite easy and if you want a bit dumb (i could spoil but you should play and find out for yourself). The actions that the player must do to proceed in the game are as such: he has to speak with all the people about anything and for whatever George carries with him, he has to check stuff from his invetory by right-clicking on them (sometimes a woman's bag can hide very interesting things!), combine them with items on the environment, cheat, bribe or threaten! As i said before a very addictive yet simple gameplay quite suitable to a game like this!

ATMOSPHERE/MUSIC: 9/10

To be honest when i first learnt about it i was excited but quite wary at the same time! Because we are talking about one of the most famous adventure games here and this attempt was by "amateurs" (that succeeded where professionals fail many times...). And the graphics part to make 2D for an hand-drawn adventure game  is  not so difficult but when it comes to music..??? As I have said in the past many times the "sound" (music, voices, sound effects) of a game is half the game at least for me! It is what draws you in the digital world and makes you distinguish masterpieces from non-sense football games for example! Who hadnt had goosebumps by that chimy sounds when George tricked the watchman's dog to fall in the water in BS 2? Or even by the soundtrack at the intro of BS?

So in that sequel the music part fulfills its purpose in the best possible way! The same happens with the characters voices. The designers did such an excellent work, that they even did patches (voices and subtitles) in several languages except German. And guess what!? They are very similar to the original ones!! Well... what more is there to ask?! 

GRAPHICS: 9/10

The graphics of that BS sequel are traditionally (Broken Swordish) hand-made, 2D, cartoon style. The locations consist of original backgrounds that  pre-existed in BS 1 & 2 and totally new ones. The only "problem" is that with a bit of observation (if you hadnt played the previous installments that is) you could tell which are the original scenes taken from the previous games and which are the new.. not that i thought about it too much when i played it but i just found it note-worthy! In general terms i liked the new scenes and really admired the work of the designers!

OVERALL: 8.87/10

In a few words, Broken Sword 2.5 - The Return Of The Templars, is the most fascinating unofficial indepedent adventure release that has ever fallen into my hands! A script related to the general plot, good old-fashioned graphics, and atmospheric music can promise you some hours that many of us would like to experience but a few have got the guts to risk making it true! Just ENJOY!!

P.S. Since the download sources are limited and the game is distributed totally free here is the link to the site that u can download the actual game and the patches for the English audio and subtitles! 

Download

http://www.brokensword25.com/