Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse - Episode 2 (PC) Review

The first part of Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse saw lead character George Stobbart return once more, this time with the American quickly becoming embroiled in what appeared to be a rudimentary murder mystery, soon being reunited with past flame, local French reporter, Nicole Collard. As the chapter continued, events surrounding the death early on started to grow in scale and the real mystery came to the fore…just as things then concluded, all of a sudden. Rather like Broken Age from Double Fine, Revolution decided it was best to slice the latest Broken Sword into two sections. In some ways it works, whilst in others it simply does not, though.

The way matters concluded were all fine and dandy, with a decent cliffhanger, yet coming back to jump into The Serpent's Curse - Episode 2 is not the smoothest of processes. To start with, this is not actually downloaded as a second part, instead coming as an update to the main game file on Steam, meaning the original save file is required in order to even start events (so if it was deleted during an uninstall, heading to the company's official site to download it is necessary), and even then it is not abundantly clear how to access the new elements of the game. Fumbling around and loading what should be the 50%-complete save file from the end of Episode 1 has George and Nicole in the same sticky situation they were left in several months back, only this time when getting them out of it, events continue rather than the credits rolling. With the initial hurdles overcome, thankfully everything picks up very swiftly to compensate.

There were no real complaints to be had with the first part of this historical-tinged escapade, with beautiful 3D character models donning a beautiful cel-shaded appearance, gorgeous atmospheric music, thoroughly high quality voice acting all round, and perfect use of the traditional item collection and puzzling solving antics of classic point-and-click games. It really was a return to top form for Revolution Software. Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse - Episode 2 seriously should have been part and parcel of the first episode, though, and splitting them almost ruins the experience to start with. However, despite the lack of recap to bring players up to speed after a few months away, after a few minutes it is all back to the norm - high quality adventuring from experts in the field. A closer connect between the two parts would have been ideal, but as it is, Episode 2 is still a great experience.

Rather than focusing on the Templars yet again, it is a group called the Gnostics this time, and the importance of the stolen piece of art from the first episode becomes more apparent, linking into a crazed plot to raise Lucifer (the Devil) at the expense of Jehovah (God). Never one to be bogged down by overly complicated narrative - avoiding potentially making players bored- the whimsical banter between George and Nico throughout is as light-hearted and humorous as ever, yet there are many serious elements that need covering and it is the strong supporting cast that deliver those all-important points that have to be committed to memory for use in cracking conundrums faced at various stages en route to the finale. The puzzles on offer are a mixture combining various objects collected, using logic to figure out patterns, analysing clues and committing key details to memory, some back-and-forth moments to piece things together, as well as some real leaps of faith - serious out of the box thinking that will raise a smile once the task has been completed! There will be times of frustration, mainly due to adventure games nowadays laying everything on a plate before the player, but those older gamers more used to hardcore old point-and-click classics will appreciate the added brainpower required to make that imperative breakthrough for progressing to the - admittedly disappointing and somewhat rushed - concluding sequence.