Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: remastered – iPad app review
Category: Games
Price:$6.99
TiP Rating: 4/5 stars
Release Date: 01/05/2011
Version: 1.1
Seller: Revolution
Rated: 12+
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later.
App Store Description:‘Broken Sword – the Smoking Mirror: Remastered’ sees the return of George Stobbart and Nico Collard in the sequel to the App Store #1 smash hit ‘Broken Sword – the Shadow of the Templars’, widely
praised as the best adventure available for iPhone/iPad.
Summary: A fun, yet challenging adventure game with a lot to live up to following the first installment of the Broken Sword games.
Review: Everyone who’s seen Indiana Jones movies will have felt the desire to unearth some incredible historic relic, and go an adventures. That’s precisely what this game allows you to do. Starting in France you discover an old Central American pot, which gradually draws you in to a more sinister discovery. The game begins with Nicole being kidnapped, and your character, George, being tied to a chair in a burning room. After the escape you begin your quest to discover exactly what is going on. With each new clue you end up further away from where you thought you would be, and the mystery continues.
The game works fairly simply. When in a level, you have to explore the area you are in and find clues. You can interact with people and objects, and collect items that can be used in discussion or as tools later on. To investigate an area you drag your finger around the place until you see blue circles, when you tap the blue circle you get two options. You then look, utilize, or pick up objects. When a circle appears on a person you can choose to chat to them, you often get most of your answers and clues just from talking to other characters. To move your character, you just tap where you want him to go, and he walks.
On screen, in each corner is an icon which leads to certain options. In the top right is the help icon, signified by a question mark. It gives hints if you get stuck on a certain level, and gives you basic advice about how to use the game. In the bottom right is the diary which keeps track of all your achievements and holds clues to how to advance in certain areas. In the bottom left is the bag containing all the items you have collected. In the top left is the settings tool, this allows you to save or restore games, give feedback, or even save your achievements, and game to dropbox, meaning you can have access to it from another device without losing progress.
Graphically, the game looks pretty nice. The hand-drawn look of the backgrounds and animations give the game a really good feel. The sounds work well with the app, with voiceover artists used for the conversations between characters. I would say though, that some of the accents are terrible, but again, it kind of works for this game.
The negatives for me are there because I played the first game. I found the sequel game’s story lacking in depth compared the original game. As its a story/adventure based game, this is something that could have had more effort put in to it. The mystery and suspense just weren’t there as much this time around. Despite this, the game is still playable, and has a habit of getting me hooked until the early hours of the morning, I get that sucked in to wanting to find the answers. It’s a great game, and is definitely worth your 7 dollars. It’s certainly worth it if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch as well as an iPad as it is a universal download. Download it once and have it on all your iOS devices.
