For those of you who don't know, Broken Sword is one of the greatest games ever developed. It had an amazingly likable main character, an amazingly sexy set of pixels named Nico, a plot that oozed with conspiracy and some truly memorable scenes. The game is one of the few I could label as "Timeless". The graphics were a cartoony 2-D, so even the original PC game doesn't have the "Bad graphic overload" you get with older titles, and the story is better than most games nowadays.
The (original) game began with George sipping coffee outside of a cafe, as it promptly explodes. The cafe that is, not the coffee. Though I think the coffee was probably injured, being in such close proximity...sorry, got sidetracked. However, this isn't the original game, this is the Directors Cut, with all new fancy Wii bits. The game here begins with Nico Collard, struggling reporter for La Libertie, going to interview a man about some murders. This sets off the chain of events that make up Nicos side story, which is all new for the Wii/DS versions. It's nothing too interesting, but it does give us a peek into Nicos private life, which in turn strengthens the story marginally.
Other extras include new puzzles, new dialogue and edited sequences. The new puzzles are a fairly disappointing affair. The Wii version absolutely fails to even function at some points, requiring great patience to get the thing to work as opposed to figuring the puzzle out. For example, one puzzle has you twist a safe combination by twisting the Wiimote. However, my wrist can only twist so far, meaning I can't do a full turn in one swift movement. But if I stop turning, then the game freezes for 5 - 15 seconds. This, on top of the new puzzles being fairly simple, makes me wonder if it'd be best to have just left them out.
Speaking of just left out, some of the rerecorded dialogue is silly. Not the actual dialogue, but the placement. In the new sequences? Fine, can't help it. In the middle of an old sequence? Well, sorry developers, but you have better recording hardware this time round, you get a horrible jar when George suddenly switches from old recording to new recording mid dialogue. But that's not the worst of it; there's a different voice actress playing Nico. She's a good girl, the acting isn't bad, but the two voices are different enough to make the new/old cuts sound ridiculous.
But, at the end of the day, this game is Broken Sword. It's Broken Sword. That's all I can say. No matter how much the directors cut tacks on or changes, at it's core, it's Broken Sword. It's one of the earliest games I remember playing, and even today I can still laugh at some of the lines. It's a game I've replayed countless times, and the Wii version isn't so much inferior to the PC version, just different.
If you've never played Broken Sword, shame on you. But this is the perfect chance to repent. Now they need to re-release the second game and I can officially regard the Wii as a viable console.
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