My impression is that most of you are very much ‘adventure game people.’ I’m not even much of a video game person and the reason I was so thrilled about Thimbleweed Park isn’t so much that I was an adventure game kid as I was a Maniac Mansion (NES) kid. It was the one point and click game I ever played or was even aware of as someone who grew up on consoles with friends who played consoles and none of us having computers until we were older.
So 10 or so years ago when I gave Monkey Island a shot, I loved it! Then Monkey Island 2, I loved! I also really enjoyed The Dig. I did not like Day of the Tentacle. I wasn’t as into some other games I tried. And then when Thimbleweed Park happened, I loved it. So maybe I’m a Ron & Gary guy and the Dig was an anomaly.
All this to say, someone made a post about Broken Sword in the point and click adventure fans facebook group and suddenly I felt this great urge to play it. “I will like this one!”
No. Not at all. I don’t think I’ve gotten very far. I’ve left France and only really started in Ireland, but the game feels like such a chore and like there are no decisions or puzzles. I just walk around talking to people endlessly. And in doing so, I’m not given options of anything fun to say and like a robot I must just walk up to every person and pick every topic or item icon to speak with someone about. The couple times someone mentioned something that I thought was a clue and would keep in the back of my head, a moment later the game literally told me “yes, this is a detail to remember.” I played for hours and hours and there was one really simple puzzle to open a sewer cover, another where the solution to getting a key was just “talk to the woman in the same room and she will do everything for you,” and then another where I had to throw an item out of a window so that I wouldn’t get murdered (figured out, easily, after the first time I got murdered).
It was around this point when I had spent my entire night playing it where I started saying things aloud like “Anthony, why are you wasting your free time with this? It’s not even fun and this is the only free time you’ve had in two weeks.”
Once I got to Ireland and solving the first puzzle turned out to be “just talk to everyone over and over until one of them finally (it felt like an eternity) tells the truth” I just gave up.
Is this game as beloved as I sense it is? If so, does anyone think I’m missing something?
I´d say it´s a very slow game at the beginning, and it only really grabs you once you get into the whole Knights Templar topic. Then you probably will get more out of the dialogue bits as well. And if you can figure out the goat puzzle on your own which is coming up really soon in Ireland then you´re really good! Better than most who played this fact. Most likely you´re gonna curse the time you spent trying probably.
It´s a really good but flawed game. If you get bored try the remake, which has an built in hint system. You´re mostly missing out on a real great story and some nice scenery.
But the gameplay parts, yeah…you haven´t really seen the worst parts yet.
If you wanna play something that it is as fun as Monkey Island or Thimbleweed Park, try Simon The Sorcerer. That one is a winner on just about every level. Flight Of The Amazon Queen comes close, if you wanna play Indiana Jones that is Indiana Jones in everything but the name.
As for Broken Sword you probably have to develop an interest in the story first. So if you enjoyed reading the works of Umberto Eco or Dan Brown you probably get more out of that one eventually.
Well, I’ve played Broken Sword only recently, not in the 90’s.
So, I was well-trained with playing adventure games.
And I felt like you, it wasn’t bad at the beginning, then I felt bored.
I abandoned it after a while, and didn’t feel the need to continue playing.
Isn’t that valid for all Revolution Games? The puzzles are weak or easy and you have to talk a lot with other characters. So they are mostly interactive stories IMHO.
I had heard about it being a great game, so around 5 years ago I decided to give it a go. I played for a while and didn’t enjoy it, so I stopped playing.
BUT I had done that with other games before where I had quit early, but then went back later and played them some more and they became some of my favourites, so I decided to give it a fair shot and play it some more, as I figured it would get better and grow on me…
I played for hours, same as you, and found it all very tedious. I kept thinking that it MUST get better at some point, because so many people rate it highly, but I was also thinking that it’s going to have to make a HUGE leap in interest to get going.
Eventually I got to Ireland, where I looked around, talked to some people and then went, “nah, I’m not going through any more of this, this is mind-numbing”. And it really was mind-numbing, like sitting through someone’s amateur radio play or having to do uninteresting chores.
The general topic and idea of it are not things I’m that interested in, so that didn’t help, but it also just didn’t seem gripping in any way.
I thought it was boring and then it crashed on me. I didn’t have motivation to make it work. But I did like BS3 I think (the 3D one) although I’m not sure how it aged, probably not very good.
It seems like you didn’t play Zak McCracken or Loom, make sure to check those.
I’ve played only part of Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon. I enjoyed the characters and voice acting but MAN, the puzzles got me after just a short while. The specific one that made me quit was having to use the bottle opener to jam open an elevator door. I mean, REALLY? I was trying to figure out how to move this nearby fallen pillar (or whatever it was) to accomplish my objective, and it turned out to be the totally wrong thing the whole time! Then there were the insane loading times (I was playing this on Xbox), which to be honest probably caused more of my dislike than the puzzles did.
Still, I am curious about the rest of the Broken Sword series, especially now that I’m more into adventure games than I was back then. I’ll have to revisit this thread if I get too frustrated.
Broken sword’s puzzles aren’t good (there are only a couple of good ones), and the structure is too linear.
Interestingly, there were two potentially good puzzles (disguising as a doctor, walking on the ledge in the hotel) but they are not implemented as puzzles. They solve themselves by just clicking. the character automatically takes the correct action (enter window, wear coat ). for the second one , the character even says “this could be useful to disguise as a doctor” or something like that. Oof.
The graphics is amazing though. The only hi-res game I like.
I also agree that Day Of The Tentacle was not as good as the two monkey islands (or fate of atlantis): though the puzzles are as good as monkey2, the graphics is just too flat and deformed, and the settings are not exotic enough for my taste. (though interestingly the background artist, Peter Chan, is the same as M2)
I really liked that because it’s a completely different art style than the other games used at that time. DOTT is more like a playable comic or Bugs Bunny cartoon (visually).
The puzzles are weak or easy and you have to talk a lot with other characters. So they are mostly interactive stories IMHO.
