Among Templars and Mayans, a double review of Broken Sword I & II
Introduction
George Stobbart, a common American tourist, is sitting outside a café in Paris when he notices a man clad in a clowns dress entering the café. When the café soon after is blown up, he is lucky to have survived. The policemen that came to inquire into the bombing didn't seem to believe George's story about the clown, so he decides to make his own inquiry and to his help he gets Nicole Collard, a free-lancing journalist that has been researching about some similar murders. They embark on a dangerous journey that takes George to different parts of the world such as Syria and Spain and leads them to strange secrets about the Knights Templar. This is the story in the Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templar. In Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror George and Nico comes to visits a professor of Mayan history in Paris. When they get there Nico is kidnapped and George is locked up with a dangerous spider.
Game play
The appearance of these two games are very similar. The interface of the games are simple, just hover the mouse over the different hotspots and the cursor will display what you can do, talk, use or pickup. The big difference between the games is that in talk mode you can talk about all your stuff in the inventory in BS I in addition to the preset of things that you can talk about, whereas in BS II you just have the preset of things that you can talk about. All inventory items are displayed as icons in a line above the playing area which makes the inventory items easily accessible.
The graphics are lightly cartoonish and are very nicely drawn. Everything is clear and nice. In BS II the graphics are somewhat better, more distinct and clear.
In both games you may die at various points which is good since you have a feeling that what you are doing really is rather dangerous. The problem is though that it is a bit irritating to start over a long time ago when you have forgot to save in a while. This could easily be solved with an auto save function.
The puzzles in both games are very nicely done, and you rarely feel that the puzzles are out of place that is too common amongst adventure games. All puzzles fit nicely into the story and makes you feel that you are participating in the story rather than stand by and watch it.
The voice actors are generally good with nice French accents where it is needed. They could have done with a few more actors since you soon learn to recognise different voice actors. It is not a big problem however.
My thoughts
Since both games are so similar you may think that both games are equally good. This is not true however since BS II seems almost rushed. In BS I you feel that everything have been done with great care for details, making especially the story much more interesting. When you go around in Paris in BS I you feel that every step you take lead towards solving the mystery. This is unfortunately not always true in BS II where there are several scenes that seems somewhat out of place (the movie scene among others). The Mayans mystery is also much less explained, so you really don't feel you have got to know very much in the course of the game. In the first BS game though you learn something new about the mystery in almost every scene.
Also the character development and the story of George and Nico is much more interesting and well written in BS I than in the follow up. There are quite a few characters in both games that are a bit too stereotypical for my liking, but you see it somewhat more in the second game in the series.
In short you can say that each character is a bit more interesting, all jokes a bit funnier and the story a bit more well written in BS I than in BS II.
The slight problem with BS I is that the Knights Templar is a subject brought up many times in movies and games makes you have a déjà vu feeling about the game, but the story is told with great compassion and care so you hardly notices that.
Does this mean that The Smoking Mirror is utterly crap? No, but with the high standards set by Shadow of the Templar you will get a little disappointed with the sequel. Both games, however, are very fine and very enjoyable games and should be played by all who likes a good story and a mystery to reveal.
Now we all just have to wait for the promising third installment in this great adventure games series.