Wii Gamers Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Review
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Storyline (4 out of 5)
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Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is a Nintendo Wii game that throws you into the action and intrigue in the opening scenes with a killer clown, multiple homicides, and an explosion in a French establishment. You play as the main character American tourist George Stobbart. He becomes embroiled in a huge, world-encompassing conspiracy of murder, intrigue, secret societies, and mysterious relics. The mysteries of the storyline begin to spiral toward one another as you play. This helps create an appealing tale of high adventure and the unknown that keeps you engaged in the game.
The Good Parts (4 out of 5)
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars has a story that starts fast and keeps the action coming with one entertaining and engaging event after another. Vast, world-encompassing societies, mysterious environments, forgotten worlds, and murder create a world that immerses your mind in the game.
Dave Gibbon’s wonderful character art creates a unique aesthetic that combines delightfully with the game’s evocative, hand-drawn backdrops of quaint Parisian streets and exotic locales.
The developer Revolution have expanded the original game both in story and core gameplay elements with two hours of additional content that’s fun for both long term fanatics and casual gamers.
The Bad Parts (4 out of 5)
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templar has trial and error gameplay that’s heavy in conversation, so it won’t entertain all types of gamers. Success in this game requires a slow and methodical approach to gameplay that delivers entertainment in a different way than action heavy titles, like Killzone 2 or FEAR 2: Project Origin. This is a thinking man’s game that engages your mind in an adventure of intrigue and mystery; action junkies need not apply.
Graphics (4 out of 5)
The graphical presentation of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars does include many recycled scenes that are only average in quality and execution. The new scenes and sequences look amazing though. They have crisp and bright colors with smooth and consistent animations that help to highlight the average quality of the legacy graphical elements. The new first-person perspective for item exploration and vibrant art make Shadow of the Templars a far more immersive experience for your Nintendo Wii games.
Sounds (4 out of 5)
Barrington’s fully orchestrated score is epic in nature. It adds amazing energy to the gameplay in intense moments and slows down appropriately in the slower moments, which adds to the immersive quality of the game. The voice acting is high in quality. The actors add personality and emotion to the character’s lines, instead of just reading them.
Playability (4 out of 5)
The Wii remote motion functionality works pretty well with Broken Sword: Shadow of the Tempars. A flick of the wrist allows you to move around the screen, study environments, cross-examine characters, and interact with objects. It all works easily and intuitively.
This game combines pure fantasy and real world intrigue well enough to mask the limitations of the point and click formula used, but the game pace is slow compared to the majority of games in this genre. You need to spend time to progress in this game and replays will be necessary to succeed at the tightly-paced and carefully crafted puzzle elements that provided an extreme challenge at times.
If is quite different from Wii Sports for the Nintendo Wii, but is still fun for most age groups.
Overall… (4 out of 5)
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars still has the best parts of the original game and they have added in a few new elements with this Wii edition that definitely improves the entertainment value of the experience. Shadow of the Templars delivers enough to improve the experience for series veterans while offering an adventure sure to create a new generation of fanatics.
This post is part of the series: Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Guide
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