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Khanassassin/Sandbox: E2
Artwork or logo
Developer(s)Revolution Software
Publisher(s)LucasArts
Designer(s)Ron Gilbert
Writer(s)Ron Gilbert
Dave Grossman
Tim Schafer
Composer(s)Michael Land
SeriesMonkey Island
EngineSCUMM
Platform(s)iOS, Mac OS X, Windows, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live
ReleaseOriginal version
October 1990
Special edition
July 15, 2009
Genre(s)Graphic adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars – Director's Cut is an enhanced remake of the classic 1996 point-and-click adventure game Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars developed by Revolution Software. It was released on for Wii, Nintendo DS, iOS, Mac OS X, Windows and Android from 2009 to 2012. The player assumes the roles of George Stobbart and Nicole Collard, who was a pivotal but not a playable character in the original version.

The game was conceived in 1994 by Revolution Software's Charles Cecil, Noirin Carmody and Sean Brennan, while talking about Knights Templar mythology. It was the third game built with the Virtual Theatre engine. Cecil wrote and directed the game, while Eoghan Cahill and Neil Breen drew all the backgrounds in pencil, which were later digitally colored in Adobe Photoshop. The game is serious in tone, but also features humor and graphics in the style of classic animated films.

The game was acclaimed by critics, who lauded its story, puzzles, voice acting, writing, gameplay and music. It achieved commercial success as well, with sales totaling one million copies. After its initial release for Windows and PlayStation, it saw ports to the Game Boy Advance and mobile phones. It was followed by a sequel, Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror, in 1997.[1] A director's cut version was released for the Wii, PC, Mac OS X, Nintendo DS and iOS in 2009 and 2010.

Gameplay

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Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars – Director's Cut is a 2D adventure game played from a third-person perspective. Unlike in the original game, where Geroge Stobbart is the only playable character, Nicole "Nico" Collard is controlable for selected game sections.[2] As a result of its release on various platforms, the game can be played through a point-and-click interface,[3] touch user interface,[4][5][6] and Wii Remote.[7] While certain puzzles from the original segments were simplified, new first-person puzzles were also added.[2] Hotspots are highlighted, and a diary in which the player character takes notes is added.[3] Some of the original game's dialogue and cutscenes were removed,[8][9] with the blood edited out of retained cutscenes.[9]

Extended plot in the Director's Cut

[edit]

For full plot see Plot of Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars

The game opens in Paris, a day before the original game's start, with journalist Nicole Collard receiving a request to go to the Palais Royale, to interview a famous media tycoon and potential candidate for President of France, Pierre Carchon. A mime hangs around outside Carchon's home, but Nico ignores him and goes on inside the house. She meets Carchon's wife, Imelda, as well as Carchon, who reveals that he knew Nico's father, Thierry Collard, very well. Soon, there is a noise in the drawing room; Carchon investigates only to be shot. Nico rushes to the scene to see the mime over Pierre's corpse. She is knocked to the ground before she can do anything and wakes up to find Imelda going to call the police.

After persuading her that she wants to find the truth and help, Imelda allows Nico to access Carchon's room, which contains an elephant carving –the same as one Nico received from her father, who had carved it himself, and a stone cylinder, which contained a hidden letter code. On Carchon's corpse, Nico discovers a ticket stamped "Bateaux de la Conciergerie" and goes to investigate the dock where the Conciergerie was. By using the letters on the cylinder, she discovers a secret office area where Carchon and many others met for business. After she writes her story up, her editor Ronnie tells her to drop it, at which Nico becomes angry. However, she receives a mysterious phone call from a man called Plantard, who tells her he needs to speak to her about her story.

Nico attempts to find out more about her father's involvement with Carchon. She deduces quickly that Imelda is in danger and rushes to the Palais Royale to save her. Nico is too late, but the dying Imelda gives Nico a key that fits a box Nico's father gave her. Nico opens the box and finds out the truth. Her father and Imelda were lovers, and her father worked for the government as a sort of spy against Carchon's secret organisation.

Development

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Man with glasses
Dave Gibbons worked on the visual references for the game, and produced a comic book to accompany the game's Nintendo DS release.

On March 21, 2009, Ubisoft released a special edition of The Shadow of the Templars for the Wii and Nintendo DS. According to Cecil, the Director's Cut came about thanks to a group of Broken Sword fans, who started an online petition begging him to bring the series to the Wii and DS.[10]

After porting the original game to the Game Boy Advance, Cecil thought it was time to reward fans with something new and different – hence the Director's Cut's additional material. He decided the game would start a day before the Parisian cafe explosion in the original game, filling in some of Nicole Collard's back-story. To this end, Cecil also drafted in the acclaimed comic book artist Dave Gibbons, with whom Revolution worked previously on their 1994 cult classic adventure Beneath a Steel Sky. In addition to working on the visual references for the game, Gibbons also produced a comic book to accompany the game's DS release.[10] Gibbons stated that he decided to return to video game work on this game because he knew producing character shots with a range of expressions would be challenging, and he knew he would enjoy it, based upon past experience.[10]

The game was programmed by Tony Warriner and Joost Peters.[11] In the Director's Cut, Hazel Ellerby returns to voice Nicole Collard in the new sections, playing Nico again for the first time since the original game's release. Rolf Saxon, as in every sequel, also returns to voice George Stobbart.[11]

Unlike in the original game, players control Nicole Collard for selected game sections.[2] Besides the new character artwork by Gibbons during conversations, the Director's Cut also features a new first person view for certain puzzles.[2] In the DS version, there is no spoken dialogue, only subtitles.[12] A version of the Director's Cut for iPhone and iPod Touch was released on January 20, 2010. In May 2010, a version with higher resolution and a digital comic was released on the iPad. A PC version was released on August 27, 2010 on various digital distribution services. An Android version, which is an enhanced version of the iPhone version, was released on Google Play on June 28, 2012.

Marketing

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Revolution made a comic book for the DS release of the Director's Cut in 2009 and also a launch trailer.[13] A launch trailer for the iPhone and iPod Touch version was also released on their YouTube channel revolutionbevigilant.[14][15] On the 8th day of Apple's 12 Days of Christmas, the Director's Cut was made free to download for 24 hours.[16]

The Wii and Nintendo DS versions of the Director's Cut are available only in stores.[17][18] However, the other versions of the Director's Cut are available from various digital distribution services, including the iPhone/iPod Touch[19] and iPad AppStores,[20][21] Steam,[22] Mac AppStore,[23] Intel AppUp,[24] GOG.com[25] and Google Play. The Director's Cut is also part of the Broken Sword Complete package from Mastertronic.[26][27]

The Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars – Director's Cut Original Soundtrack was released on the iTunes Store on December 28, 2009.[28] With Director's Cut purchases on GOG.com, the consumer also receives the original game, original manual, high-definition wallpapers, the soundtrack, eleven avatars, and the comic book.[25]

The comic book of the same name was created by Cecil and artist Dave Gibbons for the DS release of the Director's Cut in March 2009. The short comic provides a further glimpse back into Nico's past, showing readers what happened prior to the events of her playable segments in the game.[29]

Reception

[edit]
See also: Reception of Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars

The DS, Wii and PC versions of Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars – Director's Cut received positive reviews, while the iPhone version received critical acclaim. The iPad version also received highly positive reviews. According to Cecil, the game's sales were higher than The Sleeping Dragon's and The Angel of Death's.[30] In 2011, the Director' Cut and The Smoking Mirror – Remastered together sold around 500 thousand copies on iOS alone and had around five million downloads.

VideoGamer.com called it "the best of its platform" and "a great example of the genre", praising its "excellent plot and puzzles", and saying it makes good use of the DS' screens. However, the magazine stated that fans may miss the spoken dialogue.[4] Official Nintendo Magazine UK praised the Wii version's puzzles, story, and art direction, and complimented the new hint system, finishing with: "One of the best point-and-click games ever, this will appeal to both newcomers and fans".[7] James Woodcock said of the iPhone version: "There are quite a few point and click adventures to choose from on the Apple iTunes Store and Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars is one of the finer selections if not the best to give your heartfelt attentions to and best of all travels with you in your pocket." He also praised its story, puzzles, writing and art direction.[5] Slide to Play also complimented the iPad version, saying: "Broken Sword: Director's Cut HD is a great game that nearly anyone can enjoy. Our one caveat is that if you played through it on the iPhone, then the HD version probably doesn't offer enough new content to warrant another purchase. But if you're new to the game or you haven't played it in a while, this is the version to get. The iPad truly is the ideal platform for adventure games."[6] BeefJack praised the PC version's, puzzles, story, characters, new content and interface, but stated that audiovisual quality of older scenes is noticeably "ropey", that there are too many sliding tile puzzles, and that "the new jarring transition between old and new aesthetics lets it down."[3]

The Shadow of the Templars – Director's Cut received several awards and nominations. It was nominated for the award for Best Story at the 2009 British Academy Video Games Awards.[31] Pocket Gamer awarded the iPhone version the Pocket Gamer Gold Award when it was released in 2010.[32] The Wii and DS versions were nominated for the award for Best Port/Updated Re-release at Adventure Gamers' 2010 Aggie Awards.[33] The iPhone version was nominated for the award for Best Adventure/RPG Game at the 2011 Pocket Gamer Awards. The Wii version won the award for Best European Adventure at the 2011 European Games Awards.[34]

Legacy

[edit]

The Director's Cut is often listed as one of the greatest games on the iOS, Wii, and DS. GameYum listed it as one of "The Top 5 Nintendo DS Games" in 2009,[35] and placed it at No. 1 on its list of "The Top 5 iPhone Adventure Games" in 2011.[36] In 2010, PCWorld listed it as one of the "25 Best iPad Games".[37] Pocket Gamer listed it on its lists of "Top 10 point-and-click adventure games on iPhone and iPad" in 2010,[8] "Top 10 point-and-click adventures for iPad", along with The Smoking Mirror – Remastered,[38] and "Top 10 iOS games with Game Center" in 2011.[39] Metacritic ranked it ninth on its list of "The Best iPhone and iPad Games of 2010."[40] Trusted Reviews ranked it at number 31 on its "100 Best iPhone Games Ever" list in 2011.[41] Gameranx ranked it at number 10 on its list of "Top 25 Best iOS Games" in 2011.[42] It is currently VideoGamer.com's fifth-best-reviewed Wii adventure game[43] and best reviewed DS adventure game of all time.[44]

References

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  1. ^ "Revolution Software: Broken II: The Smoking Mirror". Revolution Software. May 29, 2011. Retrieved October 30, 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d "Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars – Director's Cut". Revolution Software. Retrieved March 16, 2012. Cite error: The named reference "revbsdc" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c d Denby, Levis (September 9, 2010). "Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars – Director's Cut Review (PC)". BeefJack. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  4. ^ a b c "Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars review". VideoGamer.com. Pro-G Media Ltd. April 8, 2009. Retrieved February 23, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  5. ^ a b c Woodcock, James. "Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars – Director's Cut Review for iPhone/iPod Touch". James Woodcock. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  6. ^ a b c Reed, Chris (February 1, 2010). "Broken Sword: Director's Cut HD iPad Review". Slide to Play. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  7. ^ a b c Scullion, Chris (March 23, 2009). "Broken Sword: Director's Cut review". Official Nintendo Magazine UK. Future Publishing. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  8. ^ a b Brown, Mark (July 7, 2010). "Top 10 point-and-click adventure games on iPhone and iPad". Pocket Gamer. Steel Media. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
  9. ^ a b Revolution Software (September 1996). Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (PC).
  10. ^ a b c "Start/Select Broken Sword Special". GameSpot. March 2, 2009. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ a b Revolution Software (September 2010). Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars – Director's Cut (PC). Scene: Credts.
  12. ^ Wales, Matt (February 20, 2009). "Broken Sword: The Director's Cut First Look". IGN. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
  13. ^ "Metacritic: Broken Sword: The Director's Cut Launch Trailer". Revolution Software. March 24, 2009. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ "Metacritic: Broken Sword: Director's Cut (iOS)". Metacritic. January 24, 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ "YouTube: Broken Sword: The Director's Cut for iPhone and iPod touch". Revolution Software. January 24, 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  16. ^ "iTunes 12 days of Christmas Day 8 Giveaway – Broken Sword: Shadow of The Templars Director's Cut Free Download". Technoism. January 2, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  17. ^ "Store: Broken Sword – Director's Cut Wii". Revolution Software. August 30, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  18. ^ "Store: Broken Sword – Director's Cut DS". Revolution Software. August 30, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  19. ^ "Store: Broken Sword – Director's Cut iPhone". Revolution Software. August 30, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  20. ^ "iTunes: Broken Sword – Director's Cut". Apple. January 24, 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  21. ^ "Store: Broken Sword – Director's Cut iPad". Revolution Software. August 30, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  22. ^ "Steam: Broken Sword – Director's Cut". Steam. September 3, 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  23. ^ "Store: Broken Sword – Director's Cut Mac". Revolution Software. August 30, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  24. ^ "Intel AppUp: Broken Sword – Director's Cut". Intel AppUp. September 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  25. ^ a b "GOG.com: Broken Sword – Directors Cut + The Original Game". Revolution Software. August 26, 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  26. ^ "Store: Broken Sword – Director's Cut PC". Revolution Software. August 30, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  27. ^ "Mastertronic: Broken Sword Complete". Mastertronic. December 15, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  28. ^ "iTunes – Music – Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars – Directors Cut Original Soundtrack". Sugarstar Limited. December 28, 2009. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  29. ^ Allin, Jack. "Adventure Gamers: Broken Sword – Director's Cut comic giveaway". Adventure Gamers. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  30. ^ Cecil, Charles (May 28, 2011). "Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars sold around 1,000,000 copies". Adventure-Treff.de. Retrieved March 16, 2012. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  31. ^ "Video Games Awards 2010". BAFTA. February 16, 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  32. ^ "Classic point-and-click title Broken Sword: The Director's Cut makes its way onto Android". Pocket Gamer. June 28, 2012. Retrieved June 30, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  33. ^ "Adventure Gamers: 2009 Aggie Award nominees". Adventure Gamers. February 5, 2010. Retrieved April 18, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  34. ^ "European Games Awards 2011 Winners". European Games Awards. 2010. Retrieved April 18, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  35. ^ Pipedreamergrey (June 27, 2009). "The Top 5 Nintendo DS Games". GameYum. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  36. ^ Ghosh, Anurag (May 20, 2011). "The Top 5 iPhone Adventure Games". GameYum. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  37. ^ Rigney, Ryan (April 3, 2010). "25 Best iPad Games". PCWorld. IDG. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  38. ^ Brown, Mark (September 9, 2011). "Top 10 point-and-click adventures for iPad". Pocket Gamer. Steel Media. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  39. ^ Usher, Anthony (October 24, 2011). "Top 10 iOS games with Game Center". Pocket Gamer. Steel Media. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  40. ^ Dietz, Jason (December 21, 2010). "25 Best iPhone and iPad Games of 2010". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  41. ^ Williams, Andrew (August 18, 2011). "Top 100 Best iPhone Games Ever". Trusted Reviews. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  42. ^ "Top 25 Best iOS Games". Gameranx. January 17, 2011. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  43. ^ "Top Wii Adventure Games of All Time". VideoGamer.com. Pro-G Media Ltd. Retrieved April 17, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  44. ^ "Top DS Adventure Games of All Time". VideoGamer.com. Pro-G Media Ltd. Retrieved April 17, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
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