Broken Sword : The Directors Cut - Wii/DS

[Persocom]

I just played through this yesterday. Start to finish Using only 3 hints.

I'll start off by saying, those expecting drastic changes are in for a bit of a shock. The game is exactly the same, bar a few extra scenes regarding nico, which are pretty poorly implemented into the game. The dialogue was only partially re-recorded, so sound normally switches from clear as a bell modern recordings, to hissy, gassy original sounds pretty regularly. I was very unimpressed. Also, the game claims to have had every scene redrawn. I honestly can't comment on this. EVERYTHING looked the same to me. Just in widescreen. The only thing that majorly offended me, was a scene in nicos apartment, where nico has some extra dialogue to do with her part of the plot (tacked on and irrelevent as it is) after george leaves her apartment. Georges sprite literally glitches away.

The new "wii exclusive" puzzles are seriously frustrating and never add anything to experience. Other than that, the game hasn't lost anything. It's still one of my favourite adventures ever. I felt my memories held up well, and the 2d hand-drawn environments certainly still do the job too, definately a reason why they should create another broken sword in 2d anyway.

Also, beware of a few game-busting bugs in nicos scenes. DO NOT PUT PAINT ON THE PRINTY CYLINDER AFTER ITS FIRST USE. I did and had to start again. doh.

[Strider]

I loved playing through it. Guess you can't please everyone

[Persocom]

Oh, I adore this game

I just thought it was a bit... phoned in for the directors cut

[RetroEd]

I started this a couple days ago, here are my impressions of the DS version.

I never played this back in the mid-nineties, actually I've never played any Broken Sword games before, so it's all nice and fresh for me. Being the director's cut, it has an extra piece at the beginning featuring Nicole, a character that is a key part of the game from what I've played so far. It's a point and click, but it works slightly differently on DS. You slide the stylus around the screen, and icons appear when something is clickable, you don't need to furiously tap everywhere on the screen searching every pixel for something that you can interact with. Once you have found something you are able to interact, be it talk, pick up, use etc. You will come across puzzles from time to time. Like the rest of the game, these are touch screen based. A couple examples I have come across so far involve unlocking a gate by moving parts of a lock to free the catch, and putting together a jigsaw puzzle. It all works very well indeed, and I can't see any way that it could be improved.

I can see Shadow of the Templars being well suited to the Professor Layton crowd. Revolution Software have added a hint system where it gives you a few clues if you get stuck. These start off very subtle, and go right up to shoving the answer in your face (I had to try for the thread, didn't I?). You don't have to use hint coins ala Layton, you can just get hints whenever you want. A good decision by the developers I feel, I've only actually had to use one hint so far, and I'm 25% in. Also, you are never left wondering what to do next, the game won't let you progress until you have done what you need to do, so there's no fear of getting lost or missing out on something. I don't know if this has always been the case with the Broken Sword games, but I appreciate it.

The main game plays on the bottom screen, with brand new artwork by Watchmen creator Dave Gibbons on the top screen. It looks lovely, and the animation is excellent. There's no voice acting like the Wii has, but this is to be expected due to the limitations of the DS cartridge. Instead, all of the text is shown on the top screen. The sound is fantastic though, very atmospheric and is great through some nice earphones, you really get immersed in the storyline.

If you are interested in this game and can't decide between DS and Wii, I think the DS should be the platform of choice. For me it works flawlessly on the handheld. Good on Ubisoft for publishing this, but I have seen next to no media regarding the game. A shame, as I'd love to see more games of this genre on the platform. If you like your point'n'clicks, you can do no wrong in picking this one up.

[Steve]

I'd second all that. It's brilliant - snap it up if you see a copy. So refreshing.

[Dogg Thang]

I started playing this today. Had it a while but didn't want to get stuck into it until I had cleared what I was playing. I got the DS version and, so far, it is absolutely excellent. I played the original so I knew what to expect but it works really well on the DS and the added character expressions on the top screen really add a lot to the game.

The new animations are excellent too - though they don't look hand drawn to me. They look like they were rendered from 3D in a way to try to match the old animation. I don't know for a fact that it's how they were done but it looks it.

I must say I do massively miss the voice track, as the DS doesn't have it. The voices added so much of the character for me and it's a shame to lose them. That's the cart format for you I guess.

But everything else seems actually better than before. The visuals look great on the DS screen and the control and proximity detector system is much better. And, like I said, the top screen extras work great - are they in the Wii version in some form? It would seem weird to put that much work into just the DS version.

Always was a great game and it's great to have a really excellent handheld version. Bring on number 2. And maybe even a new sequel.