BROKEN SWORD – Shadow of the Templars – Reforged

Remakes of older games always involve a risk. Especially when it comes to products from another era, which have a completely different approach to the more austere and, much less, receptive culture of 2024.  

However, most pre-2000 adventures, a category now considered niche, are quite difficult to play for modern audiences, mainly as a result of their outdated graphics and mechanics. And that's a real shame, because it leaves many "gems" out of the sight of more "inquisitive" young gamers and social media, a combination that would probably give them an extra boost to become better known.

Therefore, a "redefinition" is necessary, provided of course that the original vision of the creator is not destroyed. Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Reforged is an excellent example of how remakes should be made, remaining completely faithful to the original game, but at the same time presenting a visual field that stands worthy of the modern era.

For Revolution Software's Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars itself, there's not much to say that hasn't already been written. Released in 1996, this is one of the most classic point 'n' click adventures of all time. It dealt with the Templars and their mythical (?) status before they were "in fashion"" (before Assassin's Creed and Dan Brown that is), and created one of the most memorable lead duos in the genre, George Stobbart and Nicole Collard. The huge success of the game spawned several notable sequels (we're already waiting for the fifth), though in my opinion, none of them reached the level of the original.

There was even a Director's Cut Edition in 2010, which made some additions to the existing story (with Nicole having a much larger role than just watching her sit in her apartment chair), however, this remake doesn't deal with that version at all.

It's worth pointing out that Reforged is not built entirely from scratch on a new graphics engine: instead, the new graphics are based on the original game, which you can easily see by pressing the TAB button, which toggles between the original and the new graphics. Needless to say, the difference is chaotic, to the point where one wonders if the first Broken Sword really did look that "bad" or if nostalgia is playing its own games.

The work done by Revolution Software is amazing, both in the implementation of the backgrounds and the characters (design, animation frames, coloring), with the game easily being one of the most visually accomplished adventures of recent years. The soundtrack has also undergone a remarkable remaster, bringing it up to modern standards, remaining after all these years, wonderfully atmospheric and melancholic. However, the same is not the case with the voice-over, which has been carried over almost unchanged from 1996 (although there are some additional lines of dialogue that were "cut"), resulting in it sounding a little bit blurry and with volume issues - sometimes the character's voices sound low and at other times, loud.

Partly logical, as the original recording of the dialogues probably wouldn't have bare further improvements and needed to be re-recorded, but it's something that should be mentioned and is one of the few things that remind us that we are playing a game from the last century.

One of these is definitely the controls of the game, which has certainly seen some improvements. Overall though, the interface remains the same, with the use of the mouse taking care of everything, the familiar icon-based approach to the dialogues (cleaner though), but also the lack of a skip button in them, which is sometimes annoying when we try to solve a puzzle unsuccessfully, and George repeats the same lines without being able to interrupt him.

However, Revolution Software has introduced the (optional) ability to highlight the hotspots when George is near them (there is no dedicated button), and by double-clicking, we can quickly transit to the next screen, as long as we have visited it at least once. What's notable is that the development team didn't stop there, but have also added a "Story Mode", which is purely aimed at newcomers to the adventure genre.

The "Story Mode" does not remove some puzzles, like Monkey Island does, but it makes sure to give hints to the player at regular intervals, while the longer he delays to find the solution, it "bombards" him with even more visual stimuli, to the point of "greying out" the hotspots or the dialogues that don't lead to the coveted solution. The goal, of course, is for the player to never get stuck anywhere, but to enjoy the story of the game, without banging his head with puzzles such as to combine the greasy tissue with the statuette to make it look "old".

It's an option that will definitely resonate, but we estimate that Broken Sword isn't one of the hardest adventures out there, so we highly recommend a playthrough in Classic Mode. And it's really worth doing so, as time has treated it well and Broken Sword proves, once again, that it's an enjoyable adventure. On a personal level, this must be the fourth time I've tackled it, yet it still managed to impress me so much that it "forced" me to re-finish it after about ten hours, without feeling like I was doing a chore, because I just took it upon myself to write the review.

Therein lies the success of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Reforged: the fact that it is a timeless adventure that, almost thirty years later, is just as easy to play, thanks to its great storytelling/writing, its clever humour, its well-written characters and of course the mystery surrounding the Templars.

All the more so when the package comes with "2024 graphics", the Reforged version as a whole is a remarkable title that has a reason to exist and is worth playing by old and new players alike. We couldn't think of a better "appetizer" leading up to the release of Broken Sword 6.

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