Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror - Remastered (PC)

Developer:

Revolution

|

Release Date:

1997

|

Systems:

Win, OS X, iOS, Android

---

Looking back over the games I've played for my site over the last seven years, I've noticed a pattern forming: I've played a horror game for Halloween on every odd-numbered year, while even-numbered years have gotten games like Snake's Revenge and Saints Row IV at the end of October instead. Seems to me that I've got a bit of a tradition forming here... but I despise pointless traditions, so this year on Super Adventures I'm breaking the pattern by playing Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror - Remastered! I don't think I'll be seeing any ghosts or zombies in this one.

I'm torn here, because I really want to call it Broken Sword II, but there's clearly no 'II' in that logo up there. There was in the original game's logo, but they've taken it away for the Remastered version, because I guess knowing what order things go in only confuses modern audiences. Personally, I'm more confused by the subtitle. Is it referring to a mirror that's recently been used as a murder weapon? A mirror people that go out to when they fancy a quick smoke?

Wait, I forgot to mention that I'm playing the game on Halloween because it was released on October 31st, 1997, the same day as Curse of Monkey Island and the Blade Runner adventure game, so all three are twenty years old today! Well okay, technically this is only seven years old because I'm playing the Remastered version on Steam. I would've played my original CD version but I've lost it. I’ve checked shelves, I've checked boxes, I’ve checked other boxes buried underneath boxes, and it seems like the bloody game’s just vanished.

Funny thing is, when I bought the game the discs were already damaged and some of the video files wouldn’t copy when I installed it. Fortunately, when ScummVM came out there was a compatibility problem with the video codec so Revolution put revised cutscene files up for free and I could finally play this game I'd owned for years! I actually still have that install on my hard drive ready to go, but I lost half the files in a hard drive failure and now ScummVM won’t even recognise it.

It’s like fate doesn’t want me to play this game, and it doesn't care how much physical storage media it has to break to keep me from it.

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (PC)

Developer:

Revolution

|

Release Date:

1996

|

Systems:

Windows, Mac, GBA, PSX

---

This week on Super Adventures I'm playing Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars. Not to be confused with Shadow of the Beast, Shadow of the Colossus, Shadows of the Empire, Shadow of Memories/Destiny or the Christian Slater/John Travolta movie 'Broken Arrow'. Wow, I haven't seen that film in forever, I should give it a rewatch some time.

In America the game was originally given a different subtitle: Circle of Blood. I guess shadows and Templars just didn't seem as marketable back then in those pre DaVinci Code/Assassin's Creed days. In 2009 it got another subtitle: Director's Cut, as the game was remade with extra content for PCs, phones and the Nintendo systems of the time.

This is Revolution Software's third adventure game, after Lure of the Temptress and Beneath a Steel Sky, but I've also written about In Cold Blood as I'm getting to them all out of order. Plus it's the second graphic adventure I've played this year about the Knights Templar, as I took a look at Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade back in January. There, I think I've just broke the record for the amount of games I've mentioned in an intro! I'll say Monkey Island as well just to make sure, seeing as it's inevitably going to get brought up at some point anyway.

Alright, I'm going to give Broken Sword an hour or two and take lots of screenshots, while writing up what I've been doing and what I thought about it. Same deal as ever.

In Cold Blood (PSX)

Today I'm finally taking a look at In Cold Blood on the PlayStation, after getting hundreds of requests for it over the past few months. Well two requests anyway, which is still a bit of a surprise to me because it seems like something very forgettable.

This is the fifth game by adventure game specialists Revolution Software (of Broken Sword fame) and this time around they've apparently tried something new and added a bit of stealth action into the mix. Fortunately I'm the kind of guy who likes to keep an open mind, or else I would've been predicting that this is going to turn out to be a total train wreck right about now.

Beneath a Steel Sky (MS-DOS)

Alright, the next game I'm looking at is Beneath a Steel Sky, originally released for DOS and Amiga systems, and now sitting in the game collection of basically everyone with an account on gog.com due to its freeware status. It's Revolution Software's second point and click adventure, after Lure of the Temptress, and it's actually pretty highly regarded. It also has a badass logo, but you've probably noticed that already.

Back in the early 90s adventure games like this were huge, and I'm not just talking popularity. On the Amiga, Monkey Island 2 and Fate of Atlantis took up 11 floppy disks each. This game came on 15 disks. Of course these days you can just stick the CD version into ScummVM and it runs, no disk swapping or installation required. So I did.

Lure of the Temptress (MS-DOS)

Today I'm taking a look at Lure of the Temptress, the first game by point and click adventure specialists Revolution, who went on to create Beneath a Steel Sky and the Broken Sword series.

You might have noticed that this is the second adventure game I'm playing in a row, after Beyond Shadowgate. Well, I figured that considering there's 68 first person shooters, 71 RPGs, and 260 platformers on the site so far, the poor point and click genre was getting a bit under-represented. Plus I felt like playing it.