Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut

 PC
User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 113 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 85 out of 113
  2. Mixed: 26 out of 113
  3. Negative: 2 out of 113

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  1. RosstheBoss0
    Oct 3, 2018
    6
    This directors cut removes much of the content that made the original great, including the iconic opening line, and replaces it with out of place puzzles and new pace-breaking segments.
  2. ScrumptiousG
    Sep 21, 2010
    9
    9.5 score in reality. This game is a masterclass of how to make an adventure game and one of the very few adventure games that can live with the classic Lucasarts titles. New content adds a bit to the game but it's the 14 year old content that still steals the show for me. The main feature being a story that is so good that if it were to be made into a film, I would be in the cinema9.5 score in reality. This game is a masterclass of how to make an adventure game and one of the very few adventure games that can live with the classic Lucasarts titles. New content adds a bit to the game but it's the 14 year old content that still steals the show for me. The main feature being a story that is so good that if it were to be made into a film, I would be in the cinema watching it now. This game always got the difficulty blend just right, sometimes it can drive you nuts but you feel good once you've solved a problem. On top of great story and gameplay, the voice acting is top notch doing justice to a script that is witty and clever.

    There is no reason not to own this game at least on one platform but for me, PC is the real home of George and Nico.    … Expand
  3. DantheMan
    Jan 10, 2012
    10
    Better game than The Longest Journey. There, I said it. Treason! The story to this game is filled with laughs, sly wit, and over the top spoofs and in its own way is every bit as good of a narrative as TLJ. Once you move away from the story elements Broken Sword shows itself in every way to be the superior game. The inventory system is better, the graphics have been updated, the puzzlesBetter game than The Longest Journey. There, I said it. Treason! The story to this game is filled with laughs, sly wit, and over the top spoofs and in its own way is every bit as good of a narrative as TLJ. Once you move away from the story elements Broken Sword shows itself in every way to be the superior game. The inventory system is better, the graphics have been updated, the puzzles mesh with the story, and the in-game hint system both manages to keep immersion intact while allowing the player to set their own level of difficulty. April Ryan will maintain a singular place in the hearts of adventure game fans but for pure entertainment value Broken Sword wins. It's impossible to objectively criticize the first installment of the Broken Sword series without nitpicking. Perhaps the only fair criticism is that the puzzles are not super hard even without the hints. However, the sad truth is the most of the challenge to the puzzles in other games comes from bad design, not intellectual sophistication. When all and said and done Broken Sword: TDC is the best adventure game because everything in it just works synergisticly to keep the player to keep on playing.… Expand
  4. JonesR
    Dec 1, 2011
    5
    This is a decent point and click adventure--made me feel like I was part of a Johnny Quest cartoon. The story is an engaging history lesson in 14th century Templar Knights and the voice acting is well done. It is a very casual adventure; the puzzles are extremely easy, plus the blue markers remove any difficulty in finding whatever you need, plus there is a hint system in the unlikelyThis is a decent point and click adventure--made me feel like I was part of a Johnny Quest cartoon. The story is an engaging history lesson in 14th century Templar Knights and the voice acting is well done. It is a very casual adventure; the puzzles are extremely easy, plus the blue markers remove any difficulty in finding whatever you need, plus there is a hint system in the unlikely event you get stuck. On the downside, the graphics are dated and the movement is slow paced making the game longer than it needs to be. But overall, it was pleasantly entertaining.… Expand
  5. kazerniel
    Nov 27, 2013
    10
    Brilliant game it kept me intrigued throughout the whole story. It's long with various locations, and very enjoyable! (Though the Syria parts were somewhat racist...)
  6. I_Am_Turok
    Apr 24, 2012
    9
    For fans of Longest Journey, Still Life, Secret Files et al, Broken Sword (all three game episodes), is up there with the best of them, Fine, so the graphics are old, but the story is great, great voice acting (first game especially with the French female accent), some very funny scripting, and getting the balance just right on puzzle solving and how much to-and-fro there is to do. LovedFor fans of Longest Journey, Still Life, Secret Files et al, Broken Sword (all three game episodes), is up there with the best of them, Fine, so the graphics are old, but the story is great, great voice acting (first game especially with the French female accent), some very funny scripting, and getting the balance just right on puzzle solving and how much to-and-fro there is to do. Loved playing all three. Happy to recommend all them to point-and-click fans.… Expand
  7. vixvicco
    Aug 28, 2012
    10
    Played this game years ago when it first came out for PC. Now I believe the Director's Cut is a huge improvement, and gives an old fan excuse to play the game again. Only recommend if you like point and click style adventure games. Only downside for some might be the 2D cartoon style graphics, but if you can look past that, you will find a masterpiece of game here.
  8. SilverMan
    Jul 4, 2012
    8
    Astonishing game!!!! The puzzles, the story, the dialogs, the scenarios, everything in the game is awesome. It makes you wanna play at once. Amazing! But the original version is better...
  9. GolovA
    Jun 19, 2018
    8
    Director's Cut is actually that - CUT - although with improved visuals. Director’s Cut also changes the narration by altering the story from the very beginning.

    Instead, I suggest you Play the Classic (Original) version available as a free DLC. (Tip: In SCUMM VM Set the Graphics to OpenGL (No Filtering) / VGA / Fullscreen Mode). The game aged extremely well. Superb and intelligent    Director's Cut is actually that - CUT - although with improved visuals. Director’s Cut also changes the narration by altering the story from the very beginning.

    Instead, I suggest you Play the Classic (Original) version available as a free DLC.
    (Tip: In SCUMM VM Set the Graphics to OpenGL (No Filtering) / VGA / Fullscreen Mode).

    The game aged extremely well. Superb and intelligent dialogue writing, phenomenal voice acting, massive amount of content, long and fulfilling Adventure, grabbing mysterious plot, cute hand-drawn animation. Alas, a somewhat hurried ending.

    If you’re an adventure aficionado – you’ve already played it.
    If you are a novice in this genre – it is a must - for it really is worth a dozen of most contemporary-made Adventures.    … Expand
  10. Rytis
    Feb 24, 2015
    5
    The premise is lame. She didn't kill the man, but wants to interfere with the crime scene which is illegal. I know that perhaps I take it too seriously but to start the game on such lame premise coupled with the voice of the lead character which absolutely doesn't suit her. The character is in her 20–30s while the voice is in the 50–60s.
  11. soylinda21
    Dec 25, 2015
    6
    Okay but flawed. This game certainly has its strength on puzzles, which were often quite clever and fun. And the dialogue had just enough witty snark to entertain me and keep me going. However, The game’s overarching story (or lack thereof) wasn’t very intriguing. Sure, there’s reportedly some secret organization tailing you, but at the end of the day it’s just a long treasure hunt. AndOkay but flawed. This game certainly has its strength on puzzles, which were often quite clever and fun. And the dialogue had just enough witty snark to entertain me and keep me going. However, The game’s overarching story (or lack thereof) wasn’t very intriguing. Sure, there’s reportedly some secret organization tailing you, but at the end of the day it’s just a long treasure hunt. And there were so many expository lines that were mindbogglingly boring. I was half-asleep each time the history of the templars were mentioned. Plus, the voice acting was quite bad. The main characters were alright, but some of the minor characters sounded god-awful. Accents (Spanish, Scottish, etc.) were way off, and the acting often was either comical or flat.

    I quite liked the aspect of playing two different characters at the beginning, so it was disappointing when George took full charge and Nico became less of a character than the NPCs. It was a letdown especially considering Nico was the one with the personal motives to pursue all the mystery. Apparently, in the original version of the game, George was the only playable character, and Nico was turned into a partially playable character in the remake, which explains her taking the backseat all of a sudden. Not a very good idea to offer a new playable character only to take her away some time later. And speaking of Nico and George, I didn’t like the token romance between them.    … Expand
  12. bskierys
    Mar 22, 2020
    7
    This is a classic point&click title. The story is engaging with great intrigue full of lost mysteries, secret societies and ancient puzzles. The game is full of great moments, like searching through a lost tomb or studying old art to reveal hidden mysteries.
    Broken Sword is also filled with humor. Almost all the characters have their own weird habits. The protagonist is also very    This is a classic point&click title. The story is engaging with great intrigue full of lost mysteries, secret societies and ancient puzzles. The game is full of great moments, like searching through a lost tomb or studying old art to reveal hidden mysteries.
    Broken Sword is also filled with humor. Almost all the characters have their own weird habits. The protagonist is also very likeable.
    But the game has also its problems. I played the Directors Cut version and it has quite a few technical problems. I had to lower my screen resolution significantly to be able to read the texts in the game. I also was forced to play windowed mode.
    When it comes to gameplay, some of the segments has the problems of the old adventure games. Some puzzles have very non-logical solutions, and the only way to proceed is to try every combination of items. The NPC were also not very original. They all seem the same after encountering a few of them.
    Broken Sword is quite a decent game, but I didn't find it as good as some people claim it to be.    … Expand
  13. TerrorClaws
    Jun 23, 2015
    5
    After all these years I finally bought this game and forced myself to play through. Generally I'm a fan of point&click adventures, but can't say I enjoyed this one much. The puzzles were not very interesting and the pace was slow. Felt like there was dozen times a variation of the most basic puzzle: "find a key to open a door". Probably the overall style of the game just wasn't my piece ofAfter all these years I finally bought this game and forced myself to play through. Generally I'm a fan of point&click adventures, but can't say I enjoyed this one much. The puzzles were not very interesting and the pace was slow. Felt like there was dozen times a variation of the most basic puzzle: "find a key to open a door". Probably the overall style of the game just wasn't my piece of cake, because the plot felt so badly worn-out. But something good also: visuals, especially character animation were splendid work.… Expand
  14. PlayShack
    Jul 14, 2015
    9
    A great story that develops as you find various clues. The graphics are cartoon based which is a bit disturbing for some of the players, but this graphics style work well on story based games. Overall, this is a game worth playing and discover the ending of the story behind the game.
  15. PeterKerl71
    Sep 3, 2015
    9
    If you can get ahold of the original version, go play that one. Then play the Director's Cut.

    Don't get me wrong, the game is still good, but there are some scenes & events in the original version that won't happen in the director's cut. In my oppinion, these scenes added A LOT to the overall mood of the game and added a small bit of fear. By todays standards i understand that you would    If you can get ahold of the original version, go play that one. Then play the Director's Cut.

    Don't get me wrong, the game is still good, but there are some scenes & events in the original version that won't happen in the director's cut. In my oppinion, these scenes added A LOT to the overall mood of the game and added a small bit of fear. By todays standards i understand that you would not include such scenes/events anymore in a point&click adventure since they might frustrate the player. But at the time of release, they were great and i really miss them in the Director's Cut. ;)

    On the other hand, you should also play the Director's Cut, as there are additional scenes which give you background information about the main characters. There a also some additional puzzles.    … Expand
  16. Bloodnes
    Feb 2, 2020
    10
    Лучшая игра в стиле адвенчура, отличный сюжет, затягивает, проходится на одном дыхании. Повторить игру не удалось никому. По сей день остается актуальный и невероятной. Проходить всем! 10/10

Critic Reviews

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No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. PC Gamer UK
    Dec 30, 2010
    69
    Wonky visuals, but this is as close to The Da Vinci Code meets Monkey Island as we'll get. Did I mention the hot French accent?
  2. Vandal
    Oct 27, 2010
    75
    Maybe new players who don't know the series might find the story uncohesive or even might be dissapointed by its graphics. But Broken Swords fans should buy it without hesitation.
    Read full review
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    80
    Simplified and slightly extended version of a legendary adventure game uses somewhat obsolete visuals but still counts as one of the best games of all times. [Issue#196]