Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Released and Reviewed

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.astraware.com/ppc/brokensword1/?link=home_rel_1' target='_blank'>http://www.astraware.com/ppc/broken...link=home_rel_1</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Astraware and Revolution Software are pleased to announce the release of Broken Sword(R): Shadow of the Templars for devices running Windows Mobile(R) for Pocket PC. In Broken Sword(R): Shadow of the Templars players guide George Stobbart, an American tourist on vacation in Paris, as he investigates the aftermath of an explosion in a cafe. He quickly becomes embroiled in a dangerous adventure as he tries to uncover the work of the mysterious Knights Templar."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20060803-brokensword.jpg" /><br /><br />Stunning graphics, cut-scenes, music, and er, false noses. Yes, this 115MB adventure game has it all (note that 250MB is required during installation). PocketGamer wasted no time with a <a href="http://www.pocketgamer.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5958">review</a>. They played it, loved it, and rated it a perfect 10/10. Broken Sword supports screens of all sizes, and Windows Mobile 2003 to 5.0. Head over to <a href="http://www.astraware.com/ppc/brokensword1/?link=home_rel_1">Astraware</a> to learn more about the title, and then our affiliate software store (<a href="http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&platformId=2&productType=2&productId=193413">Windows Mobile 2003</a> / <a href="http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&platformId=2&productType=2&productId=193427">Windows Mobile 5.0</a>) for a free trial version or the full version ($29.95). Now, for those of you who have tried it - your thoughts?

[haesslich]

For a PocketPC adventure game, this one's simply stunning in the graphics and sound - and it's a step up from the GBA adaptation of the same PC game (now about 10 years old, IIRC), more so because the interface is much easier to use, IMO. You can turn on or off the 'hotspots' which point out areas of interest on each scene, which means that if you click on one of them, either you'll get a verbal description of the item (along with the text on screen) or pick it up/manipulate it, etc. So far, it's working pretty well for me, even though I haven't had as much time to get into the game as I'd hoped - I'm still fiddling around in Paris - but it's pretty good overall.

I was using headphones while playing this, so the sound's a little better than the 'scratchy' samples that one person was complaining about in the PocketGamer's review, but if I'm right these were taken from the original PC game... which would explain why the voice acting is similarly good (they used professionals). Given that it was designed for the SB16, I wouldn't be TOO surprised if they'd sampled it at 8KHz in the 1990s because the SB16 wasn't all that great with that sound range. Or else Astraware resampled it at a lower bitrate to save disk space. :D

[PDANEWBIE]

I don't see how anything with that large of an install footprint (and requirement of free space)can get a 10 out of 10. Sorry woulda knocked a point off just for that no matter how good the gameplay.

Great to hear theres a new good game out for it though I'll have to check it out.

[haesslich]

I don't see how anything with that large of an install footprint (and requirement of free space)can get a 10 out of 10. Sorry woulda knocked a point off just for that no matter how good the gameplay.

Great to hear theres a new good game out for it though I'll have to check it out.

Well, the reason it's so big is because this was originally a PC-CDROM game.. and you can only do so much to recompress the audio, since it's ALL voiced/narrated. Every object has a voice description, and every animation is drawn in for all the characters. Nobody complains about PS1 CD games taking up 300MB, and this one's barely a third of that size. It ultimately only takes 115MB of space, after you've done the install (the CAB file gets deleted afterwards), and given that 1GB cards are like $30 or less these days, it's not an excessive amount of space, at least not IMO.

The reason they got a 10/10 is because the game itself pretty much blows away any other PDA adventure game, graphics-wise and plot-wise. Even emulated SCUMM games like Curse of Monkey Island don't quite do this well, at least not IMO, because they do have to be emulated... which means something gets lost in the translation, and the interface isn't quite as well-handled as here.

[tom dunne]

I'd have to agree with some of the critics of that review over on Pocket Gamer.

For a game that got 10/10 it was an incredibly short review. Maybe it's because of the in-depth reviews we are used to over here, but I can't help but feel the reviewer was blown away by the speech/graphics and was on a deadline to get the review posted.

[haesslich]

I'd probably point to the other review by our very own Memneisys over that one; he points out the faults (sound quality could be better, animations for characters start dragging on after a while) - but it's pretty impressive graphically and in terms of how it's handled in terms of the interface.

[Hunterick]

:roll: do you know if exist an upgrade for play a broken on PC under windows xp, because it don't run in this operating system.... oit only run under win 95 and 98, not win 2ooo, me and xp!!!

[haesslich]

do you know if exist an upgrade for play a broken on PC under windows xp, because it don't run in this operating system.... oit only run under win 95 and 98, not win 2ooo, me and xp!!! :?: :?:

No, but if you have the CDs, you can use ScummVM to play it: www.scummvm.org - it'll need the data files from the game, but it should run just fine under the SCUMM emulator.

[Menneisyys]

See http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55854 for a REAL, BRAND NEW tutorial on the recently released, latest version of ScummVM. REALLY worth a read! (Sorry for the flood – this way, more people may be notified of the new article.)