Are you sure he’s not just sleeping?

By: Uma Smith

Back in the 90’s, Broken Sword was a memorable title due to the popularity of the point-and-click adventure genre. And despite the shift towards other genres, the sequels still made their appearances. Even to this day, it made it over to the PC and the PlayStation Vita. As such, we have Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse trying hard to keep the point-and-click prevalent to gamers. Will this effort prove to be successful?

CONTROLS (3.25/5)

With Broken Sword 5, you use the touch screen for essentially everything, from talking to in-game characters to dragging items along. By holding your finger against the screen, you’ll be able to highlight which objects you can actually interact with. While this makes the controls simple, it can be pretty cumbersome considering how multiple items can be grouped together, thus making the interface quite cluttered.

GRAPHICS/SOUND (3.75/5)

Graphically, Broken Sword 5 is far from looking “broken.” The characters are highly detailed and colorful while the animations are smooth and fluid. On the other hand, the environments can appear to be static and therefore feel pretty out of place with the characters. Luckily, the voice acting is well done all throughout the game with the background playing ambient tracks mixed with some nice instrumentals.

GAMEPLAY (3.25/5)

Broken Sword 5 starts with both George Stobbart and Nico Collard observing an art exhibition in Paris. All of a sudden, a pizza delivery boy comes in to steal a painting as well as assassinate the owner of the exhibition. As a result, you’ll be responsible with guiding the protagonist through the investigation as you try to unravel clues to solve this case.

Almost everything in this game’s world can be “clicked” or touched. So while there are a huge number of things to do within such a small area, the gameplay can result in feeling pretty slow with all this trial and error. On the flip side, there is some element of excitement with this amount of discovery behind the interactivity.

The Serpent’s Curse is pretty linear. Consequently, the game can feel boring if this is not your type of game. You’ll very rarely have more than two areas you need to look around at a particular moment in time, and the puzzles can feel a bit lacking in challenge.

Broken Sword 5‘scharm lies in the dialogue. Whatever happens during the game, there seems to be opportunity for George and Nico to bring some life and drama into their interaction. You can feel the chemistry between these characters. And because of that, you’ll be enticed to find out what will happen next as you’ll be taken away by these two’s personalities.

OVERALL (3.25/5)

Players who are into the point-and-click genre will enjoy Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse for itsvibrant graphics and humorous dialogue. However, others may be just plainly turned off. Still, it’s an interesting game for the PlayStation Vita that should at least by tried out before deciding whether or not to spend your dough.