Broken Sword 5: A Serpent's Curse (Xbox One) - Review

Broken Sword 5: A Serpent's Curse will be available on September the 4th on the Xbox One and will be priced at £19.99.

I've been a fan of Broken Sword games as far back as I can remember, when I used to sit and watch my Dad play the first game, The Shadow of the Templars on the old Playstation as a little kid. There was something about it that just captured my attention, and I remember begging my dad not to get rid of it when he'd finished with it because 'one day I want to play it'. I tried and tried on the Playstation to play through it, but only being young I lacked the know how. Years later I got it on the PC and locked myself away until I'd completed it. Since then I've completed each game multiple times and honestly, haven't bored of them yet. I actually bought the first game in iPad too, just because.

Broken Sword 5: A Serpent's Curse was released on Vita about a year ago in two parts. I bought the season pass straight away and threw myself into another adventure with George and Nico. As sad as this sounds, it felt like meeting up with old friends again, the characters are just how I remembered from my last foray into the Broken Sword world. Hell Nico still hasn't changed her outfit!

When I heard about the upcoming release on Xbox One I was super excited to play it again, man, I'm still hoping they'll somehow bring all of the old games to the console!

It doesn't disappoint. For ANYONE who has been a fan of the Broken Sword series, for no matter how long this game is a must buy. It goes back to the Broken Sword days of the original two rather than the fancy 3D graphics of the latter two. And it is all the more brilliant for it! As much as I enjoyed all of the games that Revolution have given me, my heart really does lie with the original two, they are by far the best in my opinion. With 5 they have brought back the 2D backgrounds, but have mapped the characters in 3D, giving it a slightly strange look, but one that totally works.

If you haven't already played the Broken Sword games WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? Go and get one of the older ones on iPad or something and play it. Then come back and play this one. For anyone who hated the 3D games don't be put off buying this one, as it honestly recaptures the greatness of the original two.

I was worried about playing it on a console after really only playing these games on PC's for the most part, but the mapping to the Xbox controller is brilliant and works seamlessly. There were a few moments where I had lined up to click something to examine as George made his way there and missed because he was moving, but that was my fault. I was too impatient to move on and didn't want to wait for George, or Nico to get there. Unfortunately they haven't mastered the art of teleportation just yet.

I'm not gonna ruin story for you, but suffice it to say that it is too the usual standard for a Broken Sword game. There are plenty of characters to talk to as you get to the bottom of what's happened and plenty of good old fashioned puzzles to solve. I really hope that this game is the first of many MANY more to come.

10/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review. 

Red Johnson's Chronicles: One Against All (XBLA) Review

This is a game I hadn't heard much about until it was almost release day. I immediately contacted the devs in anticipation of what I believed would be an amazing game! I have long been a lover of point and click adventure/puzzler games and some of my favourite games of all time are the Broken Sword games. In my head I imagined Red Johnson to be something like that, and it was in parts but unfortunately in others it really fell down.

The graphics are amazing there are some really good character design and settings. The music is good as well, it really brings you in to the 'noir' feel of the game.

Now I mentioned the character designs are good and they do look spectacular. But one of my very petty niggles with this game is that the characters are so unoriginal! Red Johnson is a red head pretty boy...doesn't sound too bad right? But later you meet his brothers, Black and Brown and you'll never guess...but they have Black and Brown hair respectively *groan*.

As I said that is a pretty petty thing to be annoyed about with a game so I'll get on to some of the more important negatives of this game. The graphics are great for all the places that Red visits but there is something missing...any movement WHATSOEVER! The game moves between static screen and static screen which all becomes very tiresome. The loading times are pretty ridiculous too to be honest. Once you click on a puzzle in the area it has to load again for what seems like ages and then this is where my biggest problem with this game makes it's appearance...once you have entered into a puzzle you CANNOT back out until it is COMPLETE! I find this a really ridiculous outdated way of making sure you stick around to complete. It makes the game impossible to pick up for twenty minutes or so because once you're in a puzzle the only option is to quit out and lose your progress. Really, really annoying.

To be honest this game doesn't seem to do much right. The quick-time events feel forced and pretty tedious, as does most of the dialogue and some of the puzzles. There just doesn't seem to be much sense to the game, which isn't always a bad thing but with a point and click adventure I do feel that it is pretty much necessary. The game falls on it's ass pretty much every time it tries to be funny too, really not good in this game genre.

There are some good points though. Some of the puzzles are very clever and if you have plenty of time then the not being able to back out and come back later won't really bother you. Also you shouldn't really ever get stuck thanks to the in-game hints system which sees you buy hints to help you progress with the puzzle. The game is only 800MSP and you do get a lot of game for that so if you are into puzzler point and clicks go for it, you'll probably enjoy it. If you have already played the Red Johnson game that was released on PSN awhile back, apparently you shouldn't bother with this one. I never played that one but reports suggest that this game is pretty much regurgitated puzzles from that game.

Overall whilst I wouldn't say I particularly enjoyed this game, it wasn't that terrible either. Worth a try!

5/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.