Despite the good start, the locations and puzzles become less enjoyable towards the games' climax
User Rating: 7.5 | Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror PC
In the first Broken Sword game, the tourist George Stobbart is a witness to a murder and teams up with the French journalist and soon to be girlfriend Nico Collard. Their investigation takes them throughout Europe and they get wrapped up with a complex plot involving The Knights Templars. After a long time apart, George is re-united with Nico, and they visit Professor Oubier's house to investigate a Mayan stone that Nico had picked up whilst investigating a drug's ring. Again, it's not quite as it seems, they get attacked, Nico is kidnapped, and they get involved in a Mayan prophecy involving the God Tezcatlipoca. Their journey takes them to many places throughout the world, but the main part of the game takes place in South America. The game plays exactly like the last, a point-and-click adventure, picking up an assortment of items and using them to solve puzzles and progress the game. The dialogue is still brilliant, and George is a very likeable character. This time, there are some parts where you play as Nico, but these are rather short (Nico is only playable in the Directors Cut version of the first game). The first part of the game is brilliant but as the game progresses, the locations aren't as good and the puzzles within them got more obscure and less enjoyable. There are a couple of places you can die too, so it is important to save, and a bug with the boar puzzle can mean you can't progress at all. Although The Smoking Mirror isn't as good as the original, it is a good attempt and is still an enjoyable point-and-click adventure.
