Broken Sword's remaster fixes the mistakes of the Director's Cut and is the perfect reminder that this is still one of gaming's greatest adventures

GamesAdventureBroken SwordBroken Sword’s remaster fixes the mistakes of the Director’s Cut and is the perfect reminder that this is still one of gaming’s greatest adventuresWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Revolution Software)

A villainous clown

Paris in the fall. The last months of the year, at the end of the millennium. The city holds many memories for me: of cafes, of music, of love… and of death.

In the pantheon of classic, Golden Age adventure games, few have managed to retain as strong a grip on me as Broken Sword. More grounded than LucasArts' fare, funnier than Gabriel Knight, less obtuse than the Sierra greats—it stepped into the ring and went up against a horde of PC gaming faves, and it kicked some serious arse.

(Image credit: Revolution Software)

The Paris skyline

The first—and best—game in the series has returned today, in the form of Broken Sword: Shadows of the Templars Reforged, but this is not the first time that Broken Sword has tried to engineer a comeback. In 2010, Revolution released the Director’s Cut, a remaster with some new bits thrown in. It… wasn’t great.

Lessons have been learned. Shadow of the Templars Reforged recognises that you can fiddle with a formula too much and risk ruining it. Instead, this new remaster takes a lighter approach, maintaining the original’s vision, and pretty much everything else, but with remastered art and audio.

Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged | Release Trailer - YouTubeWatch On

Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged | Release Trailer - YouTube

If it’s been a while since you joined George on his first adventure, you probably remember the sumptuous art and likely forgot how pixelated it actually looked. And now that doesn’t have to change, because the 4K overhaul makes the backdrops and character art sing.

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(Image credit: Revolution Software)

Outside a Parisian cafe, after an explosion

Remembering disasters like Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition and GTA: The Definitive Edition, where the use of AI created all sorts of weird anomalies, I was keeping an eye out for oddities, but instead I found nothing but improvements, like the tiny background posters outside the cafe, where the images on them are finally identifiable. George has a sort of bemused look on his face most of the time, which doesn’t always fit the scene even if it broadly fits George’s personality, but otherwise this is an absolutely stunning adventure game.

The audio has also been punched up, though the improvements here are less noticeable. Dialogue still sounds a touch tinny and muffled, but to be clear: it’s still much cleaner than the original. This is likely as good as it could possibly get without just re-recording the entire thing, which was understandably too tall an order.

A difficulty system—Story or Classic—rounds out the small number of changes, and while Story mode isn’t for me, its inclusion is not unwelcome. Getting fed the answers to conundrums is going to leave you without the joy that comes from solving Broken Sword’s sometimes tricky puzzles, but the more gentle nudges in the right direction—the way it stops you from repeating redundant actions or subtly guides you to places where you should absolutely be snooping around—won’t.

(Image credit: Revolution Software)

The difficulty options

This is a classic pixel hunting, mess-around-in-your-inventory adventure game where you’ll spend a lot of time trying to use one item on another item until you get it right (or figure out the correct approach and avoid all the trial and error nonsense), and while I’m a nostalgic sicko who actually enjoys that kinda thing, the ability to sidestep some bullshit doesn’t undermine the adventure.

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