Bay Area Multimedia Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars

Old PC Point And Click Goodness On The Go!

Strengths: Good Story, Presentation

Weaknesses: Won't Be For Everyone, No Replay (After Beating The Game), Rather Easy For A Point & Click Adventure Game

Summary: Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is a point and click adventure game much like the old Lucas Arts PC games games. While the game itself doesn't really consist of anything action oriented it's not meant to and what it does do it does well. In Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars a lot of the puzzles you will figure out are rather easy but the game itself is fairly long for a game of the point & click type so that makes up for the easy difficultly and the story itself is very well done.

I would highly recommend Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars to fans of the old point & click styled adventure games as you don't see many now a days so to have at one that is good is definitely not something to be missed by fans of it's kind!

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Point & Click Mystery Adventure

Strengths: Fairly Engaging Story

Weaknesses: Gameplay can become boring quickly

Summary: Broken Sword for the Gameboy Advance definitely isn't for everyone. In the game, you play a tourist in Paris who begins investigating an explosion by a cafe. For DS owners, the gameplay is similar to Trace Memory, where you gather clues by talking to people and examining the environment. It does get annoying when you become stuck for a while, only to find out it was because you didn't look at a particular object in the right manner to trigger the next cut scene. Even though the game is a nice change of pace, it got very tedious and I found myself quickly losing interest.

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Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars

Strengths: Old-school adventure game with a good plot, and excellent graphics.

Weaknesses: Lacks action and replay value.

Summary: Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is an old-school PC (think Myst) style adventure game. The point-and-click, static screens from those types of games have been replaced with a somewhat updated interface capable of running on the GBA hardware. But deep down, it is still a point-and-click type game. It has an intricate story and puzzles to solve, but no action or RPG elements like most people would expect.

Also, surprising given the title, the game is not set in Medieval times (I had assumed this when I first glanced at the title!). It actually starts off in cafe in Paris in modern times. The graphics are some of the best seen on the GBA with beautiful hand-drawn backgrounds with fluid and interactive elements (they aren't just static pictures like in the really old-school PC adventure games).

If, like me, you fondly remember the old PC adventure games, or you simply want a game that is a change of pace from most of today's action fare, this is an excellent choice.

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Only hardcore adventure game players need apply.

Strengths: Offers the opportunity to play Kings Quest style adventure game.

Weaknesses: Dated graphics.

Summary: I picked up this game as a nostalgic return to King's Quest era adventure gaming. It certainly fulfilled these expectations, but I quickly found that this style of game no longer interested me as much as it used to. Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is a port of a 1990s PC game, and the graphics definitely show it. I thought the limited screen available on the GBA for this type of game was a definite negative, but playing the game on the TV with a Gameboy Player solved that problem. If you still think you might enjoy playing an old school adventure you can pick this game up...but you can save yourself a few bucks and just dust off one your old copies of a classic adventure title and have just as much fun.

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Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars (GBA)

Strengths: Adventure gaming

Weaknesses: Weak graphics in places

Summary: I love adventure gaming! From the olden days of King's Quest this genre has held a special place in my heart. When I saw one of these games released for GBA I couldn't help but pick it up, and I wasn't disappointed. It's highly engaging story if very satisfying, and the modifications to the point-and-click interface allow relatively seamless gameplay.

If you love adventure gaming (and want it on-the-go for your handheld or on your Gamecube with a GBA player) get this game. If you don't love adventure gaming, go play an FPS or something equally mindless.

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Broken Sword is a slow-moving adventure game with ...

Strengths: A quality adventure game from a dying genre; true to original it is ported from

Weaknesses: Low resolution makes some details difficult to see

Summary: Broken Sword is a slow-moving adventure game with lots to see but little action. It was orignally a PC game and later a Playstation game, but the overall quality hasn't suffered in its transition to the Gameboy Advance. If you like the Adventure genre and haven't played its PS1 counterpart, then pick up this game.

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