RSS
January 11, 2011 | | Comments 1

Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Remastered in Review – The shard may be mightier than the sword

In my interview with Charles Cecil (creator of Broken Sword: Director’s Cut) I asked him about the chance of other BS games coming to the iDevice. At that point he was still uncertain, but with the success and acclaim for his superb ports, it’s no wonder he followed through. And while Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror does not boast the additional content of the first, the sequel has enough neat tricks, tweaks and updates to make it shine anew on the iDevice platform.

As with the original, The Smoking Mirror is a classic point-and-click adventure game, and it’s one of the most renowned in the genre. The story takes place shortly after the first Broken Sword, when George is forced to return to America to tend to his dying father. Meanwhile the restless Nico finds some new adventures to keep her busy, and in the process, she gets caught in a journalistic investigation of drug trafficking that quickly turned into a race against time to stop the resurrection of a bloody Mayan god. Stobbart to the rescue!

Broken Sword 2 features everything that made the original a part of adventure hall of fame gaming. Taking control of either George or Nico you’ll be faced with numerous challenges that only your wit can handle. This said the puzzles are all quite logical and even if you’re a purist and don’t want to use the helpful contextual hints system, you’ll rarely find yourself stuck for too long. The Smoking Mirror limits you to only a handful of locations at a time (whether this is a blessing or a curse is for you to decide) and rarely more than a dozen items in the inventory, making the game accessible to both casual and hardcore players.

The writing of The Smoking Mirror is pure genius . This is one of the rare games where I read through each and every hilarious line. Each of the characters has a style of their own and the added facial expressions make them even more apparent. The graphics have been carefully ported from the original PC version and look great on the Retina display, with only a few spots where the age becomes a bit more evident. And, of course, all of the newly added stuff (i.e. facial animations) fully support the iPhone 4 high-quality display. The voice work is superb and if you have the option, opt for playing with the headphones on to fully enjoy the game.

Broken Sword 2 features the same superb interface that made the previous Revolution titles a model on the App Store, with full touch controls, convenient hints system and an added extra bonus of a diary to help you keep track of what’s going on. But the developers did not opt to sit on their heels and went a step further, adding full Game Center support with achievements, an unlockable digital comic detailing some backstory and a first for adventure games – Dropbox integration for seamless savegame shifting between various devices. Because, as I haven’t mentioned yet, The Smoking Mirror is a universal application, you can enjoy it on the iPad at home and in the palm of your hand (iPhone or iPod Touch) on the road all for one single tasty price.

Designed by the mastermind, The Smoking Mirror sees the return of our favourite heroes in adventure gaming heaven – gorgeous graphics, witty dialogues and inventive but logical puzzles on a new platform. The updated graphics, facial animations, Dropbox and GameCenter integration and the release as a universal application are all just icing on the cake of another perfect release by Revolution. Regardless of whether you’re a fan or a newcomer to adventure games, whether you’ve played the game through 5 times or never heard of the series before, Broken Sword 2 is one of the must have games for any iDevice.

With this I declare  Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Remastered officially touched!

App Summary
Title: Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Remastered Developer: Revolution
Reviewed Ver: 1.1 Min OS Req: 3.1.3
Price: $6.99 App Size: 694.40MB
  • Great graphics
  • Genius writing and puzzles
  • Our favourite couple back in action
  • Dropbox savegame handling integration
  • Universal application
  • Somewhat limited set of locations to explore at any one time

appstoreicon

Can’t get enough of the adventure genre for the iDevice? Take a look at these TMA articles/reviews!

Share
Apple iTunes

Filed Under: Adventure • Featured • Games • Review