Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut (Nintendo DS) Review

The stars of Broken Sword are George Stobbart, an American tourist with a penchant for getting involved in matters he probably keep his nose out of, and Nico Collard, a roving reporter and photo-journalist for a popular French publication who is far too inquisitive, becoming quickly embroiled in scandal and danger without even realising exactly how deep she has gotten. Both have become iconic over the three sequels that followed. Therefore, it is no surprise that for this special re-envisaged edition of the very first game Revolution has decided to develop the protagonists' roles even more in order to appease fans that have become attached to them over the years and want to see more. As a means of achieving its goal, the development team has given George plenty of extra lines throughout the adventure, plus they have even gone as far as providing Nico with a completely new storyline that runs parallel to the original story, fitting in nicely alongside the tale of intrigue that long-term fans will know almost by heart.

Whilst the action initially started with George back in 1996 as he sat outside a peaceful café, sipping his drink and soaking up the atmosphere, now players have to wait slightly longer being witnessing him being nearly blown up by a killer clown that leaves a deadly bomb inside the establishment. Instead the oh-so-familiar scene arrives a little further into the game since this time round the game commences with players in control of the delectable Ms. Collard as she is called off for an interview with a gentlemen that knew her father. It certainly makes for a good start to an old classic with the style of the PC game being fully retained in terms of atmosphere, quirky script, pleasingly hand-crafted visuals and the memorable soundtrack. Newly drawn character portraits are shown on the upper screen, along with close-ups of important events, whilst the bottom half remains clear for the main point-and-click adventure section, showing why the DS is ideal for this particular genre as the expanded viewpoint increases the enjoyment factor and ease of play considerably.

The control set-up is rather simple and perfectly suited to the Nintendo DS's touch-screen control, with players able to move the on-screen arrow-head to wherever they require Nico or George to move to simply by tapping wherever they please. The pointer is context-sensitive as well, changing to a magnifying glass when items can be inspected in detail, a set of cogs when something can be used or an eye when something can be talked about for the benefit of giving the player more general information. Touching and holding the stylus on the screen brings up a silhouetted image that comes into focus as it is dragged towards something that can be interacted with, then lifting off the screen once on whatever option is preferred at that time will result in the action taking place. Other than that, a finger-pointer will appear if either character can travel to another section of the game, with a double-tap in that situation saving gamers from having to wait whilst the characters saunter off to the side of the screen.

The majority of the game is based around following the main story, but to help progress further it is a necessity to collect as many items as possible along the way and whilst on your journey to learn more about the secret of the Templars there will more often than not be plenty of cases where said items will come into play. Sometimes it will be a simple case of handing an item to someone to carry on a conversation, whilst other times some items will need to be combined in a specific order to then make headway. This is a large part of the fun, trying to get your head around what needs to be done next. Thankfully the puzzles are not so obtuse that headaches are regularly induced, but there is definitely enough challenge along the way to give players a good ten-to-fifteen hours, depending upon their skill levels at this particular genre. A few of the in-game puzzles have actually been changed, with Revolution tweaking them to suit the touch-screen - examples include ones where items must either be dragged around or picked up and moved to other locations, something that certainly adds to the experience, as well as helps to freshen the experience for those that have not only played through the original PC edition, but gone as far as re-treading the adventurous steps in the Game Boy Advance re-worked version.

Sadly, however, there is a drawback. Whilst games like Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis managed to squeeze a full game, video clips AND voice work into the package, this portable version of the Director's Cut follows in the footsteps of the GBA edition by ditching all speech and merely relying on the witty and engaging script, as well as the strong background music. Other than the lack of voices, though, the quality of the old classic remains, with tweaks for the better, additions to the story and a very intuitive control system. If you call yourself a point-and-click adventure fan then you definitely have to try this or the Wii version out...