Calum Petrie reviews Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse…
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse is the charming and visually stunning ongoing adventure of George Stobbart and Nico Collard. The series’ return to the original point and click adventure was long overdue, while also still showcasing why this style of game is an incredible experience. The Nintendo Switch has turned out to be a fantastic new home for this game, as the portability, touch screen and joy-con support lend much freedom as to how you choose to play this game.
The Serpent’s Curse has our series protagonist George Stobbart once again back in Paris, this time in the Spring. The nods to the original game are alive and rewarding to fans of the series, while also lending hints to previous events to entice new players to venture back and explore the back catalogue of adventures.
This adventure opens with an event taking place in the 1930’s in rural Spain, where there are military shootings and a home invasion. There appears to be a specific reason for the mayhem and carnage; once the bodies are lifeless a mysterious agent steps into the room to access the damage and conduct his search.
After these events we are whisked to the present to find George is in Paris, his reason for being in the city once again is to oversee an art exhibition that his employers are insuring. A chance encounter brings George and Nicole into each other’s company once again, only for tragedy and murder to once again give them something to get their teeth into. Nothing more than a helmeted thief/killer, a demonic painting and tampered alarm we appear to be right back where Charles Cecil (series creator) wants us to be.
The overall style of the game has returned to its roots, and the 2D point and click puzzle style works as well now than it ever has. The era of games such as Monkey Island, Simon the Sorcerer, Grim Fandango and many more have such a large space in people’s hearts. The biggest difference though is the art style, adopting a more colourful pallet that does not involve black outlines. The graphics are not hyper-realistic, though why would you want them to be with an art style stunning and vibrant.
The character designs are nearly the same from the series original conception, where familiar faces that pop up will be instantly recognisable. The whole opening section of the game almost feels like a homage to the series’ beginnings.
The standard point and click puzzles have translated very well to the Switch, allowing a variety of options for players to explore the game. The touch screen of the Switch has been an incredibly underused feature and here it allows the game to be played in a tablet style where you will have to click the things, while the joy-con movement allows a cursor to be moved on screen.
Broken Sword 5 also runs very well on the platform, though it does have a couple of certain issues with the in-game movement, it is not enough to actually put a negative impact on the game in general.
The variety of movement controls allow players to comfortably play regardless if the console is docked to a TV or in handheld mode. A perfect mix of control schemes for the convenience of the console itself, though nothing is stopping people from using joy-cons on the handled version. I prefer this method as it less likely that I will drop my console.
The Nintendo Switch was a fantastic platform to play this title on, and the freedom to take the Switch away from your TV allows portable enjoyment. I had played the release of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars on my iPod Touch back in the day, then playing The Smoking Mirror (Broken Sword 2) on my Kindle Fire. The freedom to play these games on the go allowed enjoyment in the spaces between where I was and needed to be. I chose to take the bus instead of driving as that would allow me to relax and have an extra half hour each way with this lovely title, rather than sit in traffic bored.
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse is a fantastic game, with the far fetched logic puzzles and unique characters that we fell in love with all those years ago. I do not care that I need to tamper with evidence or create a fake clue to distract a cop, these are the absurd situations and moments that players have loved from this series since its first outing.
This is one of the series’ high points, where an excellent blend of puzzle solving action and story for more accessible than ever on the Nintendo Switch. A brilliant series back to its roots on a new home, I await with bated breath for remasters of the original games.
Pros:
- Amazing visuals
- Gripping story
- Brilliant Musical score
Cons:
- Occasional stuttering controls
- Touch controls not registering on occasion
Rating – 8/10
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