Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut
Score: 78% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: Revolution Software Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure/ Puzzle
Graphics & Sound: Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut is actually a remake of an older game called Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars. Basically, the Director's Cut means that they added and removed some things, trying to keep it true to the original, but updating it to take advantage of the touch screen on the DS. The graphics in Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut (wow that's a long name to say!) are a little choppier at times than I would like. When the background is moving, you can see each line of it shifting. Even though this is a remake of an older game, the scenes could still be fixed to be better than that. Overall, the level of detail is about right to make the game work. If there were too much detail, you'd never be able to decide what you need to examine. If there were too little, the game would be too easy. As it is, I think they got it just about right. The music is pretty basic, mostly staying in the background. But you will notice the ambient noises since sometimes they're much more important in this game. Little things like the sound of footsteps or the rattling of a rusty gate make for a very interesting game.
Gameplay: Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut is an adventure/puzzle game. There are no enemies to fight and you don't have any fighting skills at all. You are playing as a reporter named Nico. You just recently landed an interview with Pierre Carchon, a very rich man and well-known philanderer all over Paris. It's no wonder his wife isn't happy to see you when you arrive. Anyway, you never get the chance to interview him as he is killed, by a mime, right before the interview starts. Seeing the chance to scoop an even bigger story and solve a mystery that somehow involves your father, you take the time to investigate everything before the police arrive. Each time you answer one question about the case, you'll find yourself asking two more. You have to search everything, examine every little detail, and solve puzzle on top of puzzle winding your way around Paris both above and below ground to try and find all the pieces before you can put the big puzzle together and solve the mystery.
Difficulty: If you're not someone who pays attention to details, you'll probably find Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut quite difficult to play. As I said earlier, I think that they got the level of detail about right. There are a good number of things to search, but not so many that you can't find what you need if you look hard. You can always take the method of sweeping the pointer across the screen. If there's anything to find, you'll see a circle so you know to click there. The puzzles aren't always that easy to solve, though. Every once in a while I came across one that I had to sleep on and think about it in a different way in the morning. The game does give you built-in hints though. There are 3 hints available for each puzzle. There is no penalty for getting hints, but the game keeps track of how many you have used. So if you want to do it perfectly, then you should use the fewest number of hints that you can. The good thing is that you really can't miss anything. Unlike some RPGs or other games where you have to make sure that you get everything, you aren't allowed to move on until you find everything that you need. This is really good since the game in purely linear and you can't really go backwards.
Game Mechanics: Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut is an easy game to play mechanically. Everything is done by using the touch screen. To make your character move, simply touch where you want them to go. To examine something, just touch it. If there is anything to examine there, then a faint circle will appear with some kind of icon on top of it. These icons tell you what can be done to that area. You can examine things, talk to people, interact with things, pick up items, and inspect items closer. As I said before, you can't miss anything that is important because it won't let you move on until you've done everything there. So if you run across places that you can't access because you don't have the right items, don't stress about it. You'll be able to access it when you need to. Just keep looking for little things, like hair clips, that might be useful for picking locks and such. There were a few times that I had trouble hitting the exact thing that I wanted to tap on, especially when I had to drag objects to use them on other objects. You have to get the second object right on top of the first one. If you don't, the second one goes back into your inventory and you'll have to try it again. With the placement of some things, it took me a couple of tries to get it right. I also found that I accidently hit the hint button when I was trying to tap on something else. Overall, Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut is a fun little mystery to play. I did have problems with some of the touch places, but maybe that was just me. If you're not sure about it I recommend renting it, as I can't see very much replayability.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
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