this broken sword has just been smashed, and not in a good way.
And its just as well i didnt buy it outright, because after playing this game for the guts of 5 hours im well and truly fed up with it.
when i first got this game, i loaded it on my full spec pc and it ran like a dream, but since im painting and decorating atm ive loaded it on a dell laptop and turned the visuals down to rock bottom in order to play it.
anyways,
im a counter strike player, and it actually kept me from playing bs4 for at least 2 years. i still have loads of games in wrappers and they are un-opened because of it.
but better late than never ? eh ! hmmm, better never i think.
being a fan, owning the first 3 broken swords, and clearing all of them kinda gives me a full entitlement to completely diss broken sword 4.
its just not anywhere near as good as the previous installments. which, in my view, is a complete let-down and is frustrating to say the least.
where does this game fail?
the answer lies in the puzzle riddled gameplay.
it also fails in broken swords number one aspect, immersion.
let me explain a bit here, broken sword 4 is the equivelent of going to the dentist and doing the work on your teeth yourself. it just makes no sense at all.
firstly, the whole pda thing. it may act as a phone, which could be handy, but isnt, but for the love of god if you give somone a pda you shouldnt have to try and hack it, and you also shouldnt be able to hack a pda in the way bs4 does.
its like your moving satellites around the globe just so you can get access to a website. stupid?? yes my friend it is. its the equivilent of swatting flea's off a dog with a baseball bat.
as for the puzzles.
omg! someone freakin shoot me.
you may need to find a gun first to do that , but when you do find the gun
to shoot me, make sure you dont have to go ino puzzle mode and xray your hand and play with tendons or nerves in order to get your finger to pull the trigger. because thats what this game is like.
movement alone is like a puzzle. hmmm, lets press right arrow, oh no, he turned into the wall. maybe i should try forward and left !! oh no, this wall avoidment puzzle is tricky i tells ya.
ok, let me go into depth here about a puzzle that really annoyed me.
im in a meat factory. more precise, im in an office with a big safe.
i can see that there are glass windows to my left.
i can see that the safe has wheels.
i put 2 + 2 together = make the safe fly outta the windy. should be a result.
but no, in order to do anything here, your not allowed to jump the gun or use proper common sense.
im clicking on the safe, then im right clicking on the safe.
if i right click i get 2 options, LOOK or ACTION.
ok pc game, i want to throw the safe out the windy, i choose ACTION.
" oh no that wont work here " says mr stobbard with 2 b's.
so wtf do i do now? how do i get this safe out the windy?
i go online and look up a walkthrough.
seems like i cant have foresight and i must click on the windy im trying to send the safe through first. then, and only then can i get the 3rd option to send the safe out the windy.
its things like this that really do my head in.
so to sum it up, the puzzles are lazy and dont work properly.
they are overcomplicated and most times dont make any sense,
eg - the receptionist locked in the cleaning room.
the game is not immersive even if it is built on an emmersion engine.
oh the irony.
the dialogue is long winded and doesnt make any sense most of the time.
the movement controls are a puzzle in their own right.
so, thats it, my review of the game.
its just like broken sword itself.
long winded, lots of errors, and boring.
games developers should take steps forward and not backward.
bs 1 can never be copied or updated.
move on, come up with new idea's and stop reverting to your back catalog.
( that comment was also aimed squarely at the prodigy ).
thanks for reading.
dave.