Two B's and two T's !!
It was the late 1990's and I was house-sitting for a friend. Having completely exhausted his lamentable video collection I desperately need another activity to stave off mind-rotting boredom. So looking through his PlayStation collection I found a sad and lonely scratched disc with no casing, titled 'Broken Sword - The Shadow Of The Templars'. I could not resist finding out why such a game had been discarded, I mean, how bad did it have to be to warrant such shoddy treatment?
But on loading I was immediately greeted by a beautifully narrated artistically drawn intro that immediately captivated me. No loading screen, no options, this was more like a movie than a game.
And I was quickly drawn into the game's intriuging mystery, the cleverly drawn graphics and its depth of narrative quality. Before I knew it I had fallen in love with a sexy journalist, decieved the law, pursued a killer across three continents and narrowly escaped death by thuggery!
George Stobbart, the game's unlikely hero became a cult hero of mine and along with many other brilliantly realised characters had a plot to rival that of 'The Da Vinci Code'. I found the 'point n click' system perfectly implemented, and the puzzles were solved using methods ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. Frustration turns to complete elation when you solve a particularly difficult section.
To give this widely respected title a review score of 5.9 is highly questionable. Computer games do not have to be all reflexes and hand-eye co-ordination pumping action gore fests. They can be intelligently written, historical thrillers; these seem to be all the rage these days!
Do yourself a favour, ignore the detractments and do like I did one dreary afternoon in the late 90's - take a chance on the ugly duckling.