Circle of Blood

The Good
| Where's My Hat & Whip? |
Well, this isn't Indiana Jones game, but close enough. You've been assigned a role of George Stobbart, an american in Paris. Holiday, vacation, job, he doesn't give them much of a distinction, but when a bomb blew out the café bar he was spending a pleasant evening in (it was actually noon or morning, but sounds better for the review), he took that a bit personal. And ever since, he's bound to find the trouble. So, what would a normal fellow do? Perhaps thanking God he's still alive. But not our George, he picked up his remains and set off after the phantom (again, it was clown, but sounds more interesting this way, vbg). Due to game's further progress, you'll visit locales all around the world and will see how one may confuse George for Indy... he's restless, he'c charming, and he's always where the trouble is. Only he doesn't seem to be interested in the relics, though.

| Upper Cup of His Personality |
Well, I remember playing this game first as it got out. I had some semi-version of it without voice-acting (that was actually a good thing in this case scenario, but we'll come to that later), and after playing the game for some time I officially decided I don't like it not one bit. And the whole clown charade was waaaay out of my point of interest (can't really see what people see in circuses, I can't stand them, unless perhaps Guybrush is performing his cannonball act). However, as I got this game years later, it all started to change slowly, and I realised that George has one helluva personality... and we had some great things in common. For starters, we both really don't like clowns and mimes ;)) Well, as I started to like him, playing started to grow easier and by now it's one of the finest adventure game franchise I've came across (not the finest, but great nonetheless, at least this original is).

| Adventure Away! |
Good riddance smaller companies didn't all gave up on the adventure genre when LucasArts withdraw in his corner. By the time this game came out, I gotta admit that adventure games were scarce (or maybe I got so much used to see LucasArts adventures every year out that I felt like some link was missing) and as hardware became more powerful and soon after 3d graphic accelerator cards came out, the more real-time action was able to infiltrate our games. Still, somewhere behind, companies kept developing adventures, and this one was using it in style, using high color SVGA graphic (hm, actually, it's 8-bit color, but it looks much better) yet remaining on fully hand-drawn art, in a 2d point-and-click style using 3rd person perspective (my favorite genre even now). The graphic art is really beautiful (mark the word beautiful, I'm not referring to technical marvel, but something that is really sightfully pleasing) and everything, from background to sprite animation was great. Of course, it was nothing new, we got used to such quality with LucasArts, but they were no longer leading the genre so we had to look elsewhere for the results. Particularly neat touch are cartoonish animations every now and then (short but sweet), so it kinda adds a feeling like you're in some well done cartoon, and Scooby will pop-out anytime now.

The Bad
| And Revolution Software Created Woman |
Well, as much as this sounds great in theory, on the screen it was a big cast aside. Nico (probably Nicollete, lol), the reporter, the most annoying creature in the game. Yes, she is good looking, and yes it's nice to have a sidekick or someone to call at your side, but the voice-acting they used for her ruined 99% of this game. I don't mind the french accent, but... well, something's really weird about it to say the least. LucasArts never ever used bad voice-acting in any of their games, and they used several different accents to emphasize certain characters. It's not the quality of sound in this game, it's the voice itself. It's like she's mocking at you all the time, and with that bad attitude, I really wonder why George put up with her for so long. I mean, she's a reporter for Pete's sake, can it get any worse than that?

The Bottom Line
| The Sum of All Fears |
Nothing to fear from this game as long as you can turn your head the other way whenever Nico's doing all the talking. Aside from that, this game is a real adventure in a true sense of that word. You won't be fighting your way out like Indy does most of the times, but you'll be handshaking to Mr. Death on a regular basis. The story gets interesting, but in the end, it's not the final revelation that counts here, it's the journey itself. You get to visit many different places, meet interesting characters (and animals), and start to appreciate the effort put in this game altogether. And if interested enough, even better, the trilogy's out there as we speak.

The Good
I was surprised when I first heard that an adventure series, previously released for the PC and Playstation, was going to be ported to the Game Boy Advance. Having never had the opportunity to play this game, and being quite a fan of adventure games, I sought out this game for the Game Boy Advance. Suffice to say, this game is one of my most pleasant buys I've made so far for the little handheld console.

The game itself starts out in Paris, where George Stobbart is quietly enjoying his vacation. In the beginning, the peaceful life takes a turn for the worse when the restaurant where Stobbart is relaxing is suddenly blown up, and a single man dies in the incident. For various reasons, George feels that he has to solve the mystery. Little does he know that this little adventure will soon turn out to be a world-wide quest of epic proportions...

I am very surprised how well an adventure game works for the GBA. Broken Sword originally used a point-and-click system, but the developers chose to implent a different system for the GBA release. It reminds me pretty much of playing style found in Grim Fandango... The player controls George movement with the D-Pad, essentially making George the 'cursor' in the game. Whenever the player comes near a usable object, a small icon pops near the object in question, usually signifying what one can do with the object(ie. a pointing hand shows that George can walk towards a new room, whilst magnifying glass signifies that George can take a closer look at the object). The player interacts with objects using the A Button, whilst he can use the B Button to look at an object. The L-Pad brings up the inventory, in which the player can use an object or merge two objects together. The R-Pad brings up a nifty feature that will reveal all the hotspots within a room. Whilst this option makes the game less difficult, it also prevent the game from turning into a 'find-the-hotspot/pixel' game.

The graphics have been extremely well ported from the PC/PS versions to the GBA version. Every room is displayed with crisp detail, and characters only become somewhat pixelated when they come very close to the screen. All icons found in the game define very well what they're represent.

The sound effects and music are well represented. The music ranges from average to very good. The sound effects are somewhat average, they don't really stand out. Naturally, the GBA version does not have any speech, unlike its PC and PS version.

And of course, now I come to one of the (if not, the) most important part of an adventure game : the story. Suffice to say, Broken Sword delivers. Actually, Broken Sword delivers EXTREMELY well. The mystery starts out good, with a mysterious clown blowing up a restaurant. Once the smoke clears, you can start digging up several clues, and meet a fascinating French reporter who can aid in solving the murder. However, once the player starts digging further into the mystery, and searching for the identity of the murderer, everything gets turned upside down. Once you think that you have figured someone/something out, a new clue is revealed that invalidates your theories, and your mind immediately start to absorb all the information, and new questions arise... the story will surely hold you from the explosive start to the surprising ending.

Of course, an adventure game can't be an adventure game without its puzzles. Just like the story, Broken Sword delivers with its puzzles. They are often laid out in a logical fashion, but won't pose too much of a problem for the average adventurer. The difficulty is just right. You might be stuck for a long time in a certain scene, and just when you're about to get frustrated, you suddenly notice that one clue that you missed, and immediatley solve the puzzle and move on. Then, you might get stuck again, but once more before getting frustrated, the puzzle is solved. One puzzle I sincerely enjoyed was the mystery that a certain manuscript contains. I studied it whenever I could, and it's just so fulfilling to travel to a different location and suddenly recognize something from the manuscript that will help you solve the problem.

The Bad
Unfortunatley, Broken Sword has one thing that has plaqued many a game before : Bugs. There is a bug that will leave the player stuck in a situation from where he can't continue. If you have saved past this point, you'll have to completely restart the game... Apparently, if you travel to Spain before visiting Syria, you will encounter this bug. Luckily, I had been warned of this bug beforehand and didn't walk into the death-trap myself. This happens pretty far in the game and it could be annoying to start all over. Also, on a few rare occasions, George managed to get stuck in a location, and he couldn't move at all... saving often is recommended.

I've heard from several reviews that Broken Sword is pretty hilarious on the PC and PS version. Although several sarcastic comments from George made me smile from time to time, I didn't find anything that truly made me laugh out loud(a feat not too hard to accomplish). Mayhaps most of the jokes were cut from the GBA version, or the delivery of the voice actors manage to bring out a joke, but I didn't find anything outstanding..

Also, the game is somewhat short... I managed to complete the game in about three days. Of course, I also played this game as often as I could.

The Bottom Line
In the end, playing Broken Sword feels like reading a good book. The mystery manages to keep itself mysterious throughout the story, every character manage to possess a characteristic of its own, and plot twists often come at the right moment. Once you've finished the game, you might put it away, but you'll dig it up pretty soon to go through it again to see which plot points you missed, or just to be completely entertained by its enthralling story.

The Good
I thought the graphics were REALLY well done. Its all cartoon animated , no pixelated images at all.

The story really got me in. Its not a serious game , but the plot is interesting all the same.

The controls were fairly easy , you really have no trouble with them at all.

The game mixes humour in just enough to make it uplifting , but not too much as to wreck the serious aspects of the game. (Im not sure if you know what i mean by that)

The game is a long and challenging one, you travel all around europe in your searches.In fact , one of the longest (and most enjoyable) i have played.

The Bad
The LAME ending. It spoiled it totally.

The cd changing was slightly annoying.

Thats about it.

The Bottom Line
You dont want to see it end.