• Price: $29.99 USD (digital), $39.99 (physical)
• Developer/Publisher: Revolution Software
• Release Date: November 7, 2024

A review code was kindly provided by Renaissance PR on behalf of Revolution Software. We thank them for allowing us to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Content warning: rated T. Occasional swearing, a bombing, multiple murders.

I was barely old enough to read when the first game in the Broken Sword series came out in 1996. I’ve never played any of the games in this popular point-and-click adventure series before, but I was interested in trying it out for the first time.

Broken Sword – Shadows of the Templars: Reforged is a remastered version of the first game, which includes lovely “4K remastered visuals” and enhanced audio. Additionally, the game offers 2 different modes; Classic Mode is the original version of the game, which offers less assistance to players. Story Mode helps those who aren’t as familiar with point-and-click games by providing automatic hints and more.

I haven’t played a ton of point-and-click games before, so I went with Story Mode. The game opens with your character, American lawyer George Stobbart, relaxing outside of a Parisian café. Suddenly, there’s an explosion, which he thankfully manages to escape unscathed.

George isn’t very pleased about nearly getting blown up on his vacation, so while he doesn’t work in law enforcement, he still wants to look into the incident. He decides to poke around the crime scene a little before the authorities arrive; you can examine or interact with objects, points of interest, and people.

He’ll place any important items in your inventory to use or combine with other items. When you check something/someone out, George’s voice actor will narrate his thoughts and dialogue. The game is fully voiced, which is really impressive!

The other main character, a French photojournalist named Nico, quickly arrives on the scene and asks you questions about the incident. The French police don’t seem terribly concerned about investigating the explosion, which killed one man and wounded others. It’s up to the two of you to find out who set off the explosion – and why.

At first the investigation remains in Paris, as George manages to locate the perpetrator’s escape route and discover some clues about their identity. Sadly, Nico is not a very active participant in the investigation, instead remaining behind and relying on the information that George obtains. That’s disappointing because Nico is a journalist; it would make more sense to have her out in the field, too.

Anyways, as this game was developed in the nineties, our heroes do not have convenient smartphones with easy access to the Internet like we do today. Instead, George has to run around asking people questions instead of “Monsieur Google.” 😉

When you talk to people, you can click on the images of important clues or items in your inventory to prompt them to tell you more about the subject. Not everything will be relevant, although selecting certain items can cause the person to give you additional interesting tidbits or a humorous reaction.

The story involves a mystery behind the Knights Templar, and the investigation becomes more and more dangerous as the game progresses. George lies a lot, trespasses, and steals to gain new clues. 😱 If you make the wrong move – or the right one with bad timing – George will meet an untimely end. (Thankfully, you can retry that scene right away.)

The investigation also becomes more interesting as we move along – both in terms of the content and the “puzzles.” We go from visiting a costume shop in France to tracking down the next clues in countries such as Ireland, Syria, or Spain. Instead of completing more basic tasks like swiping some keys, we start to contend with hidden mechanisms in archaeological dig sites.

I don’t know if I would have thought of some of the solutions to the puzzles on my own, so I was happy that the game provides clear hints when the player asks for them. It was a little annoying to have to wait 30 seconds for the next hint; in the grand scheme of things that’s not a long time, but I don’t think there’s any reason for the wait.

And speaking of waiting, I did feel like the pacing of the story could be a bit slow sometimes. (There were also some rare delays in the continuation of the voiced dialogue.) It just didn’t seem like there was much urgency to find clues and perhaps get ahead of our adversaries.

George also doesn’t seem very prepared for his cross-country search for the truth. He doesn’t bring a camera or even a notepad to record the information and images he finds. I kind of had to suspend my disbelief in some scenes, like the one where someone doesn’t recognize George in his very obvious disguise after meeting him without it just moments before.

Don’t get me wrong, though – I enjoyed the writing overall. I’m generally not quite as interested in European history, but I still found the Knights Templar mystery pretty fascinating. I got a lot of laughs from George’s sarcastic comments, too. The game pokes fun at a lot of characters, including George himself.

They made great use of analogies in the writing as well, which is probably a bit of a nerdy thing to notice. I just thought they were fun ways to express George’s thoughts. The content of the game’s script was great, although the pacing remained an issue for me. I found the ending rather anticlimactic, and the romance, while expected, didn’t seem well-developed.

It took me just under 9 hours to get through Story Mode in Broken Sword – Shadows of the Templar: Reforged. There are some post-credits scenes, and completing the game also unlocks the Chapter Select option.

This is just a really neat piece of video game history to experience. The story itself may not be the most original to newcomers after exposure to media such as The Da Vinci Code over the years, but the snappy dialogue works well to move things along and keep the player entertained.

The game brings a lot to the table artistically, in my opinion. There are nice animated scenes, and neat little details like a rainbow appearing in the spray of a garden hose as it moves around the screen. Players can switch between the original graphics and the new reforged version, which is really cool. And let’s not forget how amazing it is to have full voice acting.

It’s a good entry point for newbies to the point-and-click genre, as it’s not overly difficult. Returning fans of the Broken Sword series will no doubt feel nostalgic thinking of their first experience with the game. As a newcomer myself, I’m interested enough to hope that they give the other games the Reforged treatment at some point. (The fifth game is already available.)