Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged Review
Classic point-and-click adventure Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars gets an excellent remaster with the Reforged edition.
Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged. Credit: Revolution Software
Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged is my first experience with this venerable adventure game series. Originally released in 1996 for PlayStation, Mac, and PC, it was a huge success that spawned four sequels, with a fifth in development. Reforged remasters the game with 4K graphics, enhanced audio, and useful quality-of-life features.
The game opens when George Stobbart, an American tourist in Paris, witnesses a man in a clown costume bomb a sidewalk cafe to assassinate another man and steal his briefcase. Dissatisfied with the police investigation, he sets off to search for the killer himself, unraveling a vast conspiracy in the process with the help of photojournalist Nico Collard.
Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged. Credit: Revolution Software
Broken Sword draws a lot from Indiana Jones, which the game acknowledges specifically somewhere around the midpoint. I don’t think George has the charm of Indy. Just the opposite: in my opinion, George is a huge asshole. Though I didn’t find him likable, I still enjoyed the story. The game wastes Nico as a character by keeping her in the background. Unfortunately, the additional scenes where Nico is playable from the first rerelease, the Director’s Cut, were omitted. I hope she’s more prominent in the sequels.
The point-and-click adventure gameplay is unchanged. Hovering over an object allows you to look or interact. You can combine inventory items or use them on things in the environment. When talking to characters, the game has a simple UI with icons for the different topics or inventory items you can ask about. Reforged includes a helpful optional feature that removes unimportant environmental hotspots and objects from the dialogue UI when you’ve exhausted all the possible dialogue for them. The only option I think is missing is the ability to make George walk faster; getting him from point A to B can feel like an eternity because of his leisurely walking speed. You can double-click on a scene’s exit to fast travel to the next one, but it doesn’t always work reliably.
Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged. Credit: Revolution Software
The 4K remastered graphics are great. The update makes all the characters look like they would in the game’s traditionally animated cutscenes and adds shadows that make them fit more convincingly in the world. The still image backgrounds also get considerable facelifts, not just in terms of hi-def sharpness but sometimes with subtle improvements to perspective and scale. You can switch between the original and remastered graphics with the push of a button; the new graphics look so good that I found myself playing 95% of the game with updated visuals, something rare for me in 2D game updates.
The game’s audio didn’t improve as much as the graphics. The score sounds great, but the audio quality of the fully voiced dialogue is lacking. It doesn’t sound like the voicework was remastered from the original recordings. Even so, the performances are engaging and perfectly fit the game's classic cartoon style.
Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged. Credit: Revolution Software
Reforged adds two separate hint systems. One of them will highlight the next thing you must do if a customizable length of time passes before you figure it out. The other is more conventional, giving you a series of increasingly more specific hints for the spot in the game you’re in. The game also features a Story mode that offers players more handholding.
Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged is the right way to make a remaster of a 2D game. The beautiful graphical updates that respect the original vision and the quality of life changes that modernize gameplay to meet the expectations of modern players are well considered and executed. It’s a great introduction to the series for players like me who have never experienced it.
Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged is available now on PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One / Series X|S.
Overall Score: 8/10
Played on: PS5
