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Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
- saiya-jin 4y agoAh good memories, this is type of gaming i enjoyed a lot. I recall some article that some small French town where part of the game happened had massive bump in tourism after the game came out. In times where computer gaming was mostly looked on as weird geek hobby for few.
- nix23 4y agoSame with gabriel knight 3... the tourists i mean.
- keyle 4y agoI completely had forgotten this title even existed. In fact, I don't seem to remember any of these titles except for Beneath a Steel Sky. And I played them all.
- nunodonato 4y agoI need to play this game again... I really miss the good old times of adventure point-n-click games. Too bad we kind of lost the genre. My favourites were Monkey Island and the Indiana Jones series. There was always a good dose of humour in these games
- dave84 4y agoNew Monkey Island this year from Ron Gilbert.
- tannhaeuser 4y agoTitles like these are on the App store for the original iPad/iPad mini, and there was a short renaissance of the genre on that platform ten years ago.
- korijn 4y agoThere's been quite a resurgence, and they keep coming. Search on steam!
- hh3k0 4y agoIn particular, Thimbleweed Park might be worth giving a shot.
- jokethrowaway 4y agoIt wasn't bad but I had to force myself to finish it. Same with broken age or the various "tales of" and deponia. The writing and puzzles are just not as great as monkey island 1-2. I enjoyed the rusty lake series and the journey down.
- korijn 4y agoNot strictly point and click, but have you tried untitled goose game?
- pkorzeniewski 4y agoI recommend games from Wadjet Eye Games studio, they're really well made, with great story, voice acting, balanced difficulty and overall they feel like created in the 90s.
- nickv 4y agoThe Blackwell series from Wadjet is absolutely spectacular and 100% brought me back to that 90s adventure games feeling! Super recommend them too! (I also cried like a baby at the series conclusion)
- mike_hock 4y agoDay of the Tentacle. Perfectly captures the height of the genre, or at least its first peak: Mature graphics given the technical constraints, 4th-wall-breaking self-deprecating humor (the game is a joke and it knows). Nothing is serious and you should be able to try anything and everything without any repercussions other than not progressing (if you don't, you might miss out on a joke). Broken Sword was the second peak, when stories became more serious and played more like an interactive novel. There are still jokes, but the game itself isn't one anymore.
- dr_dshiv 4y agoSam and Max Hit the Road deeply influenced my humor. Best game memory of my childhood.
- bulbosaur123 4y agoWhat made the genre die out?
- atombender 4y agoI would argue that 3D games and consoles happened. People started demanding more from games: They had to be bigger, more immersive, visually more advanced. The niche gamers still existed, but the publishers didn't want to cater to them, for the most part. The Broken Sword series is actually notable for surviving this trend, by transitioning to 3D and being console-friendly. Fortunately, "the long tail" also happened, and the market has expanded in scale and improved ease of distribution (Steam, Itch, etc.) to the point that it's no longer true that every game has to be a big-budget "AAA" game; there's plenty of room for tons of niche stuff like adventure games, and it can be profitable.
- unixhero 4y agoIt isn't dead. New games have been coming out ever since it's proposed death back then and all the way through to today.
- zerocrates 4y agoMuch like other "dead" genres like the text adventure before it or the RTS after, the thrust of the idea that point-and-clicks are "dead" is that they were once firmly in the mainstream and are now niche.
- unixhero 4y agoWell PC gaming in that case is essentially dead, beyond the enthusiasts. I would however contend that it's death is largely overrated.
- mertd 4y agoMy guess is that point and click adventures are not very profitable. There are no in game trinkets to sell, they don't fit a subscription model. I guess you can slowly release "chapters" and sell them independently and some developers do it these days but the user churn should be high as there is almost no desire to replay once you complete a chapter.
- aspaviento 4y agoI also want to recommend the Runaway series. They also have a catching story and charming characters
- iotemm 4y agoThanks for the find! This was one of the first adventure games I laid my hands on as a young boy. Lent it from a neighbour and it immediately captured me. One of the aspects that were most intrigueing to me, was, that compared to other PaC-adventures that I had played, there were several situations, in which George could actually die. This gave the game a dynamic and immersion, that I hadn't experienced before. Which was, of course, partly due to the game selection I had played before. Nevertheless, I am glad to be reminded of this gem!
- autophagian 4y agoDistinct memory of having a painful conversation with my angry mum as a bairn, after I had racked up a hefty phone bill on one of those Game Walkthrough Help Lines while playing this game.
- acdanger 4y agoOh man, I had the exact same situation with my parents. Twice. I still squirm thinking about it.
- effingwewt 4y agoWhen I was a kid and Super Nintendo was the new hotness, a friend and I loved 'Shadowrun'. A group of us had played various TT games over the years and loved video game adaptations but that one in particular was fantastic for an ARPG. We had for years wondered where a spell was that was listed in the manual. We tried everything, asked everyone we could think of, when finally we decided to call the Nintendo Power hotline, whatever it was called. The charges started immediately and as you listened to a recorded spiel. I think was several selections later we spoke with an agent who looked it up and informed us he could tell us for an additional fee. We agreed and he informed us the spell had been removed either prior to release or in the localization. We were devasated. Weeks later my Dad gets a call from my friend's parents. We go over and they explain they had a huge phone bill because apparently my friend had called them back asking all kinds of stuff for games, then it progressed to phone sex lines. Of course this was all my fault. So not only did I have to do yard work all summer to pay it down, but he got to enjoy his summer scott free. My question was how did they not know either time it was squeaky-voiced kids. I guess they didn't have to since all the commercials said something like 'kids must have parents permission to call'. Guess they got paid either way.
- roenxi 4y agoThe real find here is that the listing on GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/broken_sword_directors_cut https://www.gog.com/game/broken_sword_directors_cut) includes the original game as well as the one-finger's-width inferior directors cut.
- predictsoft 4y agoDon't forget AdvJam 2018 (or other years) which have dozens of small games that actually are excellent. Favourite game is Spy Quest which emulates Sierra games of old. You can get AdvJam walkthrough videos on YouTube.
- fareesh 4y agoWhy hello George! What can I do for you now?
- thecosmicfrog 4y agoIf anyone hasn't played Beneath a Steel Sky, I can't recommend it enough. Its humour is some of the best writing I've seen in video games.
- michaelgrafl 4y agoIt's horror as well, if I remember correctly.
- thecosmicfrog 4y agoI wouldn't call it horror. More of a parody of a dystopian future. One of the best point-and-click games I've played for sure!
- otachack 4y agoAnd the recently released sequel is pretty well done, though it's a lot more PG-13 in my opinion.
- hiccuphippo 4y agoAnd it's free, you can apt-get it.
- dudul 4y agoThat takes me back. Loved this game so much. Even the 2nd one was great. The 3rd one was average at best, and the 4th one very enjoyable. I haven't played the fifth installment yet. Comments are already full of great recommendations if you like these games, I would just add Runaway which, to me, was such a breath of fresh air at a time where point n clicks were kind of gone.
- predictsoft 4y agoDon't forget Retro Hour podcast of the guys who did Broken Sword and Beneath Steel Sky: https://theretrohour.com/beneath-a-steel-sky-revolution-software-with-tony-warriner-the-retro-hour-ep327/ https://theretrohour.com/beneath-a-steel-sky-revolution-soft...
- xbar 4y ago"Indeed, I’ve probably already spent more time on the historical backstory of Broken Sword here than it deserves..." Not at all. What a great review of a beloved sub-genre. Sometimes I think about re-reading Foucault's Pendulum out of sheer joy at the memory. But then I usually get by with just recommending it to someone else who foolishly brings up anything in the Dan Brown/Indiana Jones space.
- norwalkbear 4y agoIt's amazing how well broken sword 5 captured the art style of the earlier games, compared to return of monkey island.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- atum47 4y agoI've just installed scummvm on my tablet and put beneath a still sky on it. That and broken sword are two games that I never got to play with the dedication is deserves. I'm trying to play a little bit before bed to see if I can finish them.
- pluijzer 4y agoI installed ScummVM on my old tablet Turing it into a wonderful adventure game console. For me also perfect to play in bed to calm down a bit from a busy day. The games play wonderful in this form factor. Also I was pleasantly surprised that not only the old scumm games work on it but also some brilliant calssics like the Longest Journey and Blade Runner.
- unixhero 4y agoA fantastic game, engrossing story, handpainted graphics and real world locations. The non English editions have fantastic voice acting too. Heck I even travelled across Ireland motivated by what I experienced in the game. The game story was very on point with regards to Ireland :). Paris is factual too. 10/10 would recommend. I for one am replaying it for the third time in a third language, challenging but not a waste of time for learning, as it is so well done.
- mrwh 4y ago+1 to this! I played it in French for this reason.
- mike_hock 4y agoOh yeah, voice acting. The characters in Ireland all have Irish accents. Check. In Syria, the characters all sound Arabic. Check. Most of the Parisians have a French accent. Check. But the thugs outside the Ubu have New York accents (OK, clearly an intended joke), the receptionist at the hospital has an American accent (iirc). Come to think of it, no-one in the hospital has a French accent, do they? And the de Vasconcellos lady (in Spain) has a British accent for some reason.
- unixhero 4y agoIn Spanish all the French locations have Spanish spoken vocals on fremch-spanish accent, really impressive attention to detail.
- mathnode 4y agoHere is Charles Cecil doing a post-mortem talk at GDC: https://youtu.be/REKr5QvLR8o https://youtu.be/REKr5QvLR8o
- khaledh 4y agoToo bad that the adventure game genre faded after that period. Those that survived went for 3D rendering, which for adventure games just doesn't feel right. I'll always take an old 2D hand painted adventure game over a 3D one.
- throwyawayyyy 4y agoThis is definitely part of their fall. Everyone -- from producers to players -- _thought_ they needed 3D. But it's poorly suited to adventure games. Shadow of the Templars is an excellent example of this: new enough not to be pixel art; old enough not to be 3D. Perfect. Even the Monkey Island games turned 3D with the fourth installment. Having played through them all (again!) over lockdown, it's that game, Escape from Monkey Island, which now looks and plays the worst.
- rasz 4y agoNothing wrong with well made 3D, try playing The Book of Unwritten Tales.
- throwyawayyyy 4y agoI'll check that out! And I should say, Grim Fandango was great.
- darepublic 4y agoWent down a rabbit hole exploring the links on this blog. Engrossing stories, and I will never tire of story trope of the small company with a chip making an impact by following their own beliefs
- ducktective 4y agoI played the PS1 version of this game. The music, the atmosphere, the lore, the dialogs...This game is so memorable it has become part of my life experience as a human. From their 3rd installment they went with the 3d craze but the result was not as captivating. They returned back to 2d in 5th version but I still prefer their old style. Nowadays, games with a story-line as rich as this is very rare. Please recommend if you know any. LucasArts games series is too old for me (and I don't fancy their complicated interaction mechanics). I very much adore 18, 19 and 20th century European adventures with colorful styles. You know? Like Blake and Mortimer series, or The Adventures of Tintin.
- plankers 4y agoplayed it on the gameboy advance, same experience. i can still remember a few of the hand-drawn scenes and (for a child) inscrutable puzzles. something about a runaway floor buffer.
- otachack 4y agoSame! It's amazing how much it holds up. I can still replay the original version from GoG (packed in the enhanced one) every year.
- rasz 4y agoClosest to Broken Sword I can think of would be Runaway series by Pendulo Studios, All three episodes are awesome. Anything published by Wadjet Eye is amazing - Blackwell series, Gemini Rue, Shardlight, Primordia, Technobabylon, Strangeland. The Book of Unwritten Tales 1, 2 and prequel are my absolute favorites. Harvey and Edna 1 and 2 are close behind. Deponia is supposed to be good, but I couldnt stand the protagonist :(. The Whispered World and A New Beginning were ok, but very German. Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle is great. Its a prequel to So Blonde, havent played, made by lead designer of Broken Sword. A Vampyre Story is hilarious. The Longest Journey 1 and 2. Secret Files series. Syberia, altho it was too French/weird for me. >Like Blake and Mortimer series, or The Adventures of Tintin. you can try Jack Orlando: A Cinematic Adventure, except its located in US, but similar art style?
- 4y ago
- artpi 4y agoThis was the first game I ever got into and it was so lovely! So many great memories