There was a time, way back on the Commodore Amiga when LucasArts ruled the roost with point-and-click adventure games such as Monkey Island. For a while, they seemed untouchable, and then up popped Charles Cecil and Revolution Software in the UK with games such as Beneath a Steel Sky and Broken Sword. The cross-Atlantic adventure game challenge was on. Formed in 1990 Revolution has gone on to have over 10 million Broken Sword players and achieved sales of $100 million. A tidy old sum indeed.
I remember interviewing Charles several times back in the day and it is now very cool to see both Cecil and Revolution preparing to release a much-updated version of one of the seminal classic adventures – Broken Sword Shadow of the Templars as it prepares to make a comeback.
Indeed, a few months back Revolution set a crowd-funding goal of £50,000 to reimagine Broken Sword as a physical Collector’s Edition – the campaign raised over £600k, highlighting the desire for this classic game to make a return and now you can watch the fruits of the hard work below.
“Point and click offers a simple interface from which captivating, challenging gameplay emerges,” says Charles Cecil, founder and CEO of Revolution Software. “But the user experience has remained unchanged since the ‘90s when Broken Sword redefined the genre. Our research suggested that gamers now prefer a more contemporary experience. Broken Sword has a hugely passionate fan base, which runs over three generations. With these graphic and user experience enhancements, we look forward to hearing from fans once the game crosses over, once again, to a fourth generation who love narrative-driven games.”
Set in a beautifully drawn recreation of Paris, the Broken Sword story was a captivating globe-spanning adventure. Now these have all been redone in 4K and, with the press of a button, you can instantly switch back and forth between these new graphics and the original 1996 look for the perfect nostalgia boost.
Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged will launch digitally on PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC (Windows, macOS, and Linux) on Thursday, 19th September 2024.
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