Broken Sword 4 - the Angel of Death

Broken Sword 4 - the Angel of Death
N/A
Metacritic
45
Steam
44.816
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$1.79
Release date
4 November 2014
Developers
Steam reviews score
Total
45 (347 votes)

When a mysterious and beautiful woman rushes into George Stobbart’s office, pleading for help, he cannot know that he will be inextricably drawn into terrifying conspiracy, and a desperate search for a nefarious artifact of great and terrible power. For George, it looks like the world needs saving. Again.

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Broken Sword 4 - the Angel of Death system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 10 / 8 / 7 / Vista
  • Processor: Pentium
  • Memory: 64 MB RAM
  • Graphics: Any video card with 64 Mb video RAM
  • Storage: 4 GB available space
  • Sound Card: Any

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
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Adventure, Casual, Indie

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lucky13.ben
lucky13.ben

As much as I would still recommend a play (especially for any Broken Sword fan), I have to agree with others that this is the weakest of the games. The actual storyline and scenery are top notch and kept me plugging away.

Aside from the little visual glitches, the main thing that really put me off ever wanting to play again were how fiendishly difficult some of the puzzles are. A walkthrough kept handy is a must! Far from the fun puzzles of the first two, these are just impossible for me without being pointed in the right direction.

As much as I greatly prefer the art of the first two, the locations are still beautiful and a blast to explore. Voice acting is also as humorous as usual and really got me smiling many times. As a Broken Sword fan, I'm very happy I've played it, but please no more of those evil puzzles and stealth sections!

Trail-Dave
Trail-Dave

Broken Sword 4 – The Angel Of Death

Emergency! Emergency! The franchise is burning! The franchise is burning!

Very late to the party on this despite being a long time Broken Sword fan.

Been a broken sword fan since my childhood. Broken Sword 3 was passible but was not a scratch on 1 & 2. 4 on the other hand I do not recommend to anyone other than a long time Broken Sword fan.

Even as a long time broken sword fan this was poor apart from a couple of references and the traditional BS comedy here and there.

The story was a grind, and Nico's new voice and avatar is jarring and inconsistent. Sometimes she says George like she always has with the French accent and sometimes is just and English pronunciation.

Plenty of graphical errors even in cut scenes with characters getting stuck or clipping.

Remember the overuse of box puzzles in 3? Well in 4 we have an overuse of Hacking mini games oh and there is a box puzzle in Phoenix too.

The best part of the game is probably Archie the tramp in Rome.

The ending is so abrupt and ends on a fade to black with little closure.

The game felt rushed and is not a good example of Broken Sword. 1 & 2 are still the best.

Trail-Dave
I hope BS 5 is going to restore the series

RW
RW

Definitely the weakest and most frustrating game of the series, which is a shame cause the story isn't bad and the locations are actually very interesting. I saw some complaints about the voice acting but apart the mob guys, it's solid all the way through, same goes for the music. Humor is a bit hit and miss but nothing cringy.

Apart from George getting laid and Maria/Nico booty, the fun ends there. The game runs like crap but that can be fixed with some commands, check the other reviews/forum. But the controls... they are beyond bad. Even trying to jump on a ledge is a challenge. And the running, ow dear lord the running. You spend more time smashing into walls due to the retarted camera angles (use the arrow keys, mouse is so broken), you can actually even completely bug the game and be stun locked walking into a corner. So yeah, save often. Like REALLY REALLY often since you can't even skip cutscenes and dialogue. And boy, is there some dialogue in this game. The Mark talks alone made me want to end my game.

And the puzzles. They aren't hard but some don't even make any sense since the solution isn't always straightforward. Now that's perfectly fine but due to slow as fuck rotating columns, you're better off just googling the solution instead of sitting there for 30 minutes constantly rotating a stone block cause the game can't integrate modern gaming mechanics. The knight shields puzzles is a good example, some just aren't explained at all and they expect you to sit there for hours rotating random shit to finally get it right. It's like solving a math equation without getting the numbers.

This game will actually make you show a pen to some random dude, whose car you spend 30 minutes trying to figure out how to get pigeons to shit all over it. A pen! But him telling you where the club is wasn't enough, you actually have to talk to him again to get it on the map. To then go to the damn club and not able to get in. TO THEN GO BACK TO THE GUY AGAIN TO GET HIS MEMBERSHIP CARD. I mean, it's shit like this you can expect over and over. Random shit that makes little to no sense, like putting C4 in a lamp socket or torching a garbage bin that's right in front of the guards. Don't even get me started on the sneaking parts of the game, utter trash. The hacking is a bore as well, I just looked up the correct ways cause couldn't be bothered.

The game doesn't make any sense, controls are shit, camera angles are shit (original Silent Hill from 10 years earlier had better camera angles, and better controls too), the ending is basically a fade to black and kind of sucks and you'll curse at yourself for being stubborn enough to actually want to finish this damn crap. In all fairness, I gave up and followed a guide for the last parts of the game as I really couldn't be bothered and just wanted the ending. It wasn't worth it. Don't buy it. Delete it. Refund it. Dig a hole and bury the disc.

Also, apparently it also crashes and makes your save files corrupt so yeah why not might as well throw that into the mix as well. And you think they couldn't fuck it up more than BS3 =(

ds9002
ds9002

Very buggy .. to the level of almost un-playable .. character got blocked about more than 10times during game. each tilme unfreezed with a lot patience and re-trials. Solutions to puzzles a bit far -etched . Lucky I used a walk-through .. otherwise I would not have the patience to finish the game. Story was good . unfortenutaely I found the game not up to standard. Not a game I would recommend.

michael
michael

This was the first Broken Sword I ever played back in 2006, and it has a special place in my heart. Some people say it's the worst of the series, but not knowing the series yet, I enjoyed it immensely, and I remember thinking it's set an example of how to do a point-and-click adventure in 3D properly. It has everything you can expect from a Broken Sword game - superb voice acting, clever writing, logical puzzles and the true spirit of adventure. The music score is remarkable. I recommend this title to anyone who appreciates a clever story-driven adventure.

Note: The character can be moved with keyboard, which I prefer sometimes. I can see they added widescreen support, but it makes the menu stretched. Not a big deal, runs well on my GTX960.

samuellincoln
samuellincoln

"Broken Sword 4" is an adventure that has excelent gameplay (it allows the user to use both the set of directional buttons and the traditional point-and-click with the mouse) and a very good story, with some very nice moments (specially in New York, Rome, Vatican and Istanbul). The soundtrack is also very good.

Personally, I thing BS4 is the second best game of Broken Sword Series. The only critic I have is about the end of the game, that seemed to be very abrupt for me. Nevertheless, the game is still excelent.

My grade for the game is 9 of 10.

Nookmorrigan
Nookmorrigan

While playing this game, it got glitchy around the Hotel in New York and when I went to uninstall it to re-install it, the game will start crashing on me none stop no matter how many times I re-install it. I ended up buying it again off of GOG just to get the game to run right.

sjmpoo
sjmpoo

The first two games were pure PnC adventuregames, perfect for enjoying on a laptop. The third one was specialiced for consoles, certainly an unpopular move among the fans, but still very enjoyable with proper equipment. So what do you do next? Well, obviously you befuddle the control interface in a way that makes it absolutely unplayable on a console, and trash the gameplay so it is horrible on the laptop as well.

Graphics are also poor, much worse than the predecessors. Fortunately the story, writing and voiceacting is still stellar, but it is very hard to enjoy a game while gritting your teeth over the gameplay.

Krusty
Krusty

I love the broken sword games they are amazing

Ruination
Ruination

Broken Sword: The Angel of Death is the prime example of how to not do a Broken Sword game.

The gameplay is cluncky and a complete frustration to control at times, where the previous game used a control scheme for gaming consoles but still made it work somehow this one failed miserably, making it frustrating to play regardless of you using the keyboard or mouse when controling your character.

The facial animations are downright creepy and hilarious, and in my playthrough I came across multiple instances where the player character's left leg would twist into weird positions.

Like many old Point and Click Adventure games sometimes there isn't a lot of direction on what you have to do, with you having to play the "guess what the developer has in mind" game in order to progress. The inventory is a complete mess with it being presented as a line at the top of the screen that you scroll through and with the game not clearing out items you will never need again it will end up being a convoluted mess. In my playthrough I also came across a bug that made the game unbeatable, this bug taking the form of a key item that somehow vanished from my inventory and I do remember having that item at some point during the game.

The story is very in style with the Broken Sword series and one of the few good aspects of the game however, the ending comes pretty abruptly without giving the game an epilogue to the events. The voice acting for the most part is pretty good as well, sometimes the dialogue comes off as being a bit cheesy but works well within the Broken Sword series.

In the end I could only recommend this game to anyone only and only if they are die hard fans of the franchise, and even then I would caution them to only play it if they can't fathom skipping a game in the series. For every one else, stay away! This game is not worth your time, I am sure there are countless other games you would rather be playing.

Sherlock Homie
Sherlock Homie

NEVER EVER BUY THIS PIECE OF SHET, BULLSHET, THE WORST GAME OF THE SERIES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Neopatra
Neopatra

Not really that enjoyble to play. Story not that intersting, jokes are not funny ( some are), character personally/development can be bland. Only play it if you really majorly into the game serise but overall skip it if you can. I found the The Sleeping Dragon to be better then this game.

Yawn
Yawn

Unplayable because of very low framerate which is a common bug for this game. I couldn't fix it by any mean.

2nd Class Janitor - Wilco
2nd Class Jani…

Tags: Adventure - P&C - Point&Click

TLDR: Return to form, marries all the best elements of the series into a very slick and well executed narrative with action and suspense. Good voiceacting. Audiovisuals have never been better with resolution support. Game obeys classic point&click conventions for controls and puzzle design seems light with focus on narrative which always served this series well.

Takes all the engine improvements from Broken Sword 3, including modern pc reosolutions support, nice quality 3D models and stable engine. Spent some time tweaking the lighting for it. Replaced all the keybinds with a simple point&click interface to navigate the environment. With a default action proposed everywhere, as well as the ability to open alternative options by HOLD right click which opens the contextual radial menu for said hotspot. Inventory is kept at the top, and this game now features a phone, which might be use for quest log, maps or journals. Seems like the game opens up with you being in charge of a bail bonds office and more or less behaving like a private detective.

Walter Blanco
Walter Blanco

This game is a disgrace but its much better than Broken sword 3

MMG Man
MMG Man

This game has some frame rate problems. Running with 1 core fixes most of the issues. The story is great!

Nahtanriel
Nahtanriel

Interesting story and fresh characters, marred by some extremely frustrating puzzle designs.
Recommended if wanting a flawed, but decent Broken Sword entry.

faber85
faber85

This is not a game, is a bug!!!!! Thanks God after the 4, there is the 5.......absolutely not a game to play!!!!

Lehelovics Lóri
Lehelovics Lóri

...so, It was long and boring. Had a few good parts, but that's all. The playstyle is a mix between BS3 and point-and-click, being bad, as a result. Storywise, doesen't really have a connection to the other games.

themetalgeek
themetalgeek

This is simply a bad game. Bad controls, bad animations, annoying loopy music, the PDA puzzles are frustrating and add nothing to the story.

S.ug
S.ug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us9drJ4CJAk

Worst in The Series, Leaves Lot to Desire

first i have to warn people that the game is not compatible with latest windows versions fully, having terrible FPS which you need to pretty much fix by running the game on Win7/8 mode while doing some adjustments to the game files to make it run better.

Even if you manage to fix out these running issues there is chance that you may get into gamebreaking bugs or the game simply will crash on you.

If i could look past all these problems the game still wouldn't be that worthy. 3D transition on the genre is almost bad as in the 3rd game, clunky movements, annoying stealth parts and objectives have poor 3D mapping which makes them hard to click. Also camera works against you when you control your character, whatever that is mouse or keyboard.

The Story is also kinda bad or should i say very rushed there are lot of elements inside the game which give you the idea that they were suppose to make this game lot bigger but for some reason didn't. Ending is also terrible in my opinion and ends in very anti-climatic way.

I Suggest watching playthrough youtube or a Twitch stream since thats lot more enjoyable experience versus actually playing it yourself. Nothing about the game is redeeming really, outside that the graphics were good for its time.

ShadowyMonk
ShadowyMonk

This game is a bug filled, totally frustrating piece of excrement (crap). It's designed for gamers who also like to poke their foreheads, over and over again, with a sharp fork.

I am always more than forgiving of a game's minor bugs and annoyances, but Broken Sword 4 - Angel of Death is actually a "Broken Game - Angel of Bugs and Exasperating Gameplay".

Why?
1) Utterly optimized for PC -- my CPU fan shrieks during gameplay.
2) Freezes on closing (frequently) and then all your desktop icons are now all over the place.
3) The timed and esp. the PDA object events are an absolute exercise in frustration and futility. (These were the final deal breakers for me)
4) Any fun gamely is quickly sucked from your soul.

Take a pass on this pile of cow dung.

Greg
Greg

The game is not very good, but the story lives up to the rest of the series. If you're playing them all, it's not bad enough to skip it.

Ugobananas (Jana)
Ugobananas (Jana)

I don't know how this one slipped its way in to the Broken Sword series, but it was a huge disappointment. I enjoyed the rest of the series, even BS3, but I'd say this one is wholly skippable but if you want to know the story, just watch a Let's Play or use a walkthrough.

Controls: Clunky, glitchy, awkward, cumbersome, etc etc etc. Every time the camera angle would shift, I'd find myself running in an unintended direction. This was especially problematic in the scenes when you have to sneak around.

Graphics: Even for 2006 they were subpar. The mouths especially. They should have just stuck with what they used in BS3, honestly.

Music: I missed Barrington Pheloung - he did the music for the rest of the series, this is the only exception - and it shows. It's just not as good without him to lend his distinctive style to the game.

Voiceovers: pretty much the same as the previous games except Anna Maria's voice actor was extremely annoying.

Story: the least-interesting story of all the games so far, but not particularly terrible.

Writing: the jokes felt really contrived in this one compared to the other games, but otherwise the writing was just OK.

Puzzles: OH MY GOD. Some of the puzzles were just ridiculously tedious. Next to the awkward controls, the puzzles ruined the game.

In summary: just skip this one.

Hoks
Hoks

Am sorry that I but I can't thump up this ones cus of the bad settings and the fact
that you need to mess with it to make it run smoothly without the drop in the frame
rate and slow downs in some areas!
I tried all the fixes and it didn't work!......then after a windows update and somehow fixed
itself and run fantastically well....when I was about down with 50% of the game.
keeping it simple - If you sell a game that you know it will be buggy then I cant recommend it.

phoniv
phoniv

This game throws a curve ball by introducing a mysterious blonde beauty as a new side kick until things get back to normal. There are moments in this game that are just right, other times it feels like its a different game entirely. I got stuck in this game a few times, even after consulting a walkthrough, thanks to the problem with hot spots, which are not always obvious. The ending is a little rushed, and fails to suspend disbelief, as it felt a little tagged on. If you played the earlier games in the series, you should give this a try, it is not that bad, just not excellent like the first game was.

Ferreor
Ferreor

Hello
I bought this game with the bundle and I am more than disapointed.
This game is simply not finished.
It is uglier than the previous episode. This game is good if you like to walk in a world of emptyness.

I recommend to watch the end on internet to understand that it is not worth playing

nauvoo
nauvoo

One of greatest digital adventures ever told, Charles Cecil is a legend!

Soponyai
Soponyai

The graphics have improved considerably since the previous episode and it is one of the most interesting story in the series. However, the controls are just as clunky if not worse. I have actually ran into game-breaking issues when the character was stuck and I had to reload a previous save. To avoid this, save often!!! Other than that, I would recommend it.

Maxie
Maxie

I'm a huge fan of the Broken Sword series and have been for a very long time. So naturally I picked up the bundle of all the games when it was on sale.

Unfortunately this one is easily the weakest, and I didn't get too far in it. I wanted to get into the story, dig into George's next adventure and see what terrible situation he was going to wind up in this time. But even on the lowest graphics settings the framerate is awful and the game runs in a very janky manner. The controls also feel a little weird. It seemed to be going for some sort of hybrid approach between free 3D movement (as in The Sleeping Dragon) while combining point-and-click from the first two games, but it felt strangely awkward to use.

I may revisit this one at some point, but I got too frustrated with the jankiness to continue. If you're going to introduce someone to the Broken Sword series, don't use this one. I'd only really recommend this if you're a diehard fan of the series. Maybe there's a mod out there to fix the weirdness, but I have yet to find it.

But as it stands right now I can't really give a full recommendation. Which is a shame because the story premise was rather intriguing.

segunnell
segunnell

I don't know why this is called the "worst Broken Sword game." I'll admit, the first two games were much better, but I think the fourth game was much better than the third in my opinion. But some of the nun jokes and the part where George breaks into a bath house felt very...dirty...if you know what I mean. Overall, it's a decent try, but probably something only a dedicated fan of the Broken Sword series could actually enjoy.

adom11800
adom11800

This game is really good and 100% Broken Sword. Don't listen to the negative reviews on here.
Firstly I wanna start by saying that this was the first time I played this game in June 2019, my dad and I tried getting it to work years ago but it wouldn't. After that for some reason, I had this game down as not really being a Broken Sword game. I guess I didn't hear many good things about it.

I couldn't have been more wrong. Everything about this game was Broken Sword, from the story, the music, the atmosphere, the locations and of course the humour. This is my least favourite game in the series and it's not the best but believe me. It's Broken Sword. I had some real good times playing this game and so glad I did and regretted not playing it sooner. It was so good to play this game after a year since my dad's passing as he loved Broken Sword too.

I enjoyed this game a lot, the story was somewhat interesting, loved the music and locations probably the most.
What I didn't like were the annoying, unresponsive controls, some puzzles were too hard or boring and the ending was rushed. But it was still interesting to watch. Facial animations weren't that great but that didn't bother me much.

8.2/10 for this game. So glad I played this game while I had the chance, not because this game was that great but because I never intended on playing this game. I didn't realise what I was missing out on. Like a missing piece I never knew was gone. Broken Sword will always be a favourite game series of mine.

Rhadamante
Rhadamante

Mostly, the same as the previous negative reviews

This game is extremely buggy and glitchy, espacially in terms of sound and video. It is what, 13 year old, and it drives my farely recent laptop nuts in term of memory/cpu usage. And yet the movements of the characters are extremely choppy
The controls are extremetly poorly designed. I had to find a solution online to just have the idea to move the cursor up to open inventory. I think I tried every single key on my keyboard before that.

Aside from the critics on the story, the fact that there are only few (2-3) sublocations by city, the fact that Nico does not appear before midgame, etc, it is really the buggy stuff which is really annoyinng.

Sometimes, the game juste freezes in a middle of a cinematic, and there is nothing you can do, except reload a previous save, if you thought to make one. This happened at least twice in the game: first time in NYC, in Alfredo's, if you go to the bathroom before doing all the actions needed before, the games freezes. Again in Istanbul, in the palace with the guard, his dog, and his tea. You will find numerous topic online complaining about this last part, none of them offering a proper solution (from "try reloading, and reloading, and reloading until you go through" or "do all the actions needed in a strict order", or even "email Revolution.co.uk to get a save after this point").

So avoid, unless you're a harcore fan of the franchise, ready to search online how to oovercome the numerous glitches.

ThePhenom
ThePhenom

Game is kinda buggy and has very low frame rates even on good system. Lags!

Athaz
Athaz

Great game, I love Anna Maria.
Sadly I can't play it on Windows 10!
Please release a patch.

cassandra_strand
cassandra_strand

Broken Sword 4 is a return in the series to being an actual point and click adventure. It's an improvement on BS3 but still has some of the same issues in gameplay. Overall though it was much more enjoyable to play through than BS3.

The graphics are only slightly improved. The main characters (George, Nico, and Anna Maria) have all been given much more detailed and smoother skins and the mapping and rigging on all the 3D models is definitely improved. Secondary characters however still had poorer quality looking skins though. Walking and running seemed more natural (more natural than BS3 not completely natural). Walk paths were better but it seems there are places characters can get stuck and not be able to move from. In fact this happened to me twice in the game both time requiring me to exit and start from a savegame. Once the character is stuck it becomes impossible to move them.

The sound is pretty good. The background music was good and matched with the locations and tone of the scenes. The voice acting was good in terms of believable acting but the accents were sometimes weird. Nico sounds different yet again and her French accent once again is on again off again sounding sometimes more French than other times. Anna Maria's voice was weird to me. Sometimes it was fine other times it sounded like she was being voiced by Jennifer Coolidge. It was like the actress couldn't decide between two different but similar accents and sort of switched between them. I found it a little irritating and grating from time to time. Unfortunately just like in BS3 you cannot fast click through walk scenes, cut scenes, or dialogues.

I liked the interface better than BS3 but it still had issues. Most things show an icon when you can interact with them but not everything. So for example you have to climb a ladder but you don't know how because when you hover it doesn't show any indication of being interactive. There are climb spots all over the game like that. There's also too small a radius in some hotspots so it's very difficult to detect them and interact with them. This leads to some added pixel hunting to find hotspots. You cannot seem to push anything that lights up all interactive spaces. I did appreciate the return of mouse controls and that my movement and interactions no longer had to involve w,a,s,d keys. I know some people prefer that but I much prefer logical arrow key movements. I hated not having any mouse control in BS3 so this felt much better in terms of game interface. Inventory is accessed by hovering at the top of the screen, main menu is accessed by pressing esc, and interactions are done using right and left click on the mouse and clicking a location using the mouse will also cause the character to walk there. Maybe there's other setup's available I didn't try any because that makes a perfectly good P&C game to me.

The story here is weak. It has some potential but doesn't really live up to it. I didn't think BS3 had a good use of it's story either but it was a stronger storyline than BS4. The writing was off and it just didn't seem as humorous. Some parts didn't seem to make a lot of sense and it felt kind of like they rushed it. For example the maps have like 5 locations outlined but you only ever access 2-3 of those locations. Why are the other ones shown? It feels like they originally intended for people to visit more locations but cut them without changing the map scenes. Maybe if they had fleshed out some more of the story and had people visit those places it might have been better. It wasn't the worst story ever but it's well below my expectations.

The puzzles in the game are okay. Most of them are pretty logical (there's a couple that didn't make much sense). Sometimes even if you have the right idea it won't let you do it till you've talked to someone or seen something else so don't give up trying what you think is right try looking around at things and talking to people and showing them things from your inventory (sometimes multiple times) before trying it again. They brought back more of those stupid move the blocks and climb the walls puzzles but at least it was not as much as there was in BS3. It was only a few so it didn't feel quite as tedious. They also added in hacking puzzles which I didn't really care for. At least they weren't too excessive though towards the later part of the game there were several that I felt were too close together in the game. They start to get annoying at that point.

They do travel to Turkey in this game and I was surprised (especially after their depiction of Syria in BS1 and Egypt in BS3) that they depicted a fairly accurate portrayal of Turkey. Granted all we see are the hotel and then Topkapi Palace but, the hotel looked fairly typical of a Turkish hotel from what I've experienced (though Stobbart got a much bigger room than I had when I stayed in Turkey). I've never been to Topkapi so I can't tell how accurately it's portrayed but the architectural elements, tile work, and layout seem fairly accurate based on historical time period and location. Some of the representations of the people seem a little stereotypical but much less orientlalized and stereotyped than BS1's representation of Syrians, so a vast improvement.

Overall, though the story wasn't great and it had some issues I found this much more enjoyable to play than BS3. If you want to play through the Broken Sword series you're probably going to play through this no matter what I say. If you are looking at this as a standalone game I don't highly recommend it. There are a lot of other much better P&C adventure games out there but hey if you got it deeply discounted it probably will still be able to entertain you enough to play through it without feeling disappointed at your purchase.

I spent about 10 hours playing through the game, used hints only a few times. At full price that put's this game at about $0.60/hr of gameplay. That's a pretty good price and if you get it discounted on sale then it makes it a fairly good value for the amount of entertainment you will get out of it but I only just barely give it a recommendation.

Kosmozuikis
Kosmozuikis

Poorly aged, but still retained that Broken Sword vibe

Broken Sword 4 is a continuation of one the best adventure game series of all time. Again you embark on an adventure with lots of things to uncover, solving puzzles and of course saving the world.

The story is really nice, maybe not on par with first two games but it's pretty damn solid. Lots of locations to explore and dangers to avoid. Using you braing will be required as always, but this is not one those games where puzzles are impossible. Mostly they're fun, but it adopted some strange design choices. Some puzzles or gameplay mechanics might feel out of place and of course the whole 3D aspect of the game is a huge let down. But still in the end it's a quite enjoyable adventure.

Graphically the game looks like absolute trash now. It didn't even looked good when it came out. 3D adventure games shouldn't be a thing. First because of aging graphics year after year. Second because of stupid controls. I'm glad with Broken Sword 5 they went back to old style and it worked perfectly. And third because these games are niche and usually have small budgets, so developers just can't afford making the graphics look good.

Get this one if you're a fan of Broken Sword series, you should still enjoy it with all its downsides. But i wouldn't recommend this game for others. It's just too dated, controls are bad and some puzzles doesn't belong the game.

Pros

    • The vibe is still there although barely sometimes
    • Story is kinda nice
    • Has some good puzzles
    • Lots of locations

Cons

    • 3D? No!
    • Some puzzles are crap
    • Controls...please just shoot me


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roc
roc

another game not supposed to be done in 3d. lousy control again just like broken sword 3. and the framerate is so horrible that it took away the fun of solving puzzle.

Dalanna
Dalanna

Otherwise an improvement from the Sleeping Dragon (better graphics, less wonky controls, familiar characters returning), but the ending honestly just ruined it all. It was far too rushed and unsatisfying considering the journey it took to get there.

Jblade35
Jblade35

Only play if you're wanting to do a complete play through of the Broken Sword series. George is his usual lovable self, Nico is reduced to a sidekick, and the ending was terrible. It made me laugh a few times and it was worth it for that, but overall it was a dull entry in the series with a nonsense, convoluted story.

geist101
geist101

While this is definitely the weakest link in the Broken Sword series, it is still a fun game with an intriguing story, fun puzzles, and George & Nico. While there were some continuity errors and the graphics were definitely not the best, I did enjoy this and I enjoyed some of the more subtle plot points. Plus this game has my favorite side character in the series. Even if this game isn't your cup of tea, it is definitely necessary to the series and the fifth game is back on the level of the original two.

Eye of the Sky
Eye of the Sky

"Yes, but also No" -- thats characterizes this whole game: Playing it was Fun, seeng its end was Naught.
Maybe the developers were rushed to finish it, i dont know. All i can say is, that the not-really-exiting ending ruined a until that point potentially great game -- just the controls are kinda wonky.
If they ever remaster this game, and add a worthy ending to it, it will only have thumbs up from me.

I just dont understand why steam says i have 40h game time O.o , my ingame saves state i have only 12

Wasimo
Wasimo

I really love Broken Sword series and George sounds the same, Nico sounds different though and i kinda hate the fact there is another girl. HAHAHHA.

But it's okay, as a game made years ago, i enjoy playing it.

Skapelboi
Skapelboi

The game is done in 3D. Technically, you might need a gamepad to ease the gameplay. But here's the thing, the puzzles could get a little overwhelming to a point where the storyline gets ignored. Nevertheless, adding sexually romantic scenes in the game is kind of a cheapshot. The only reason I finished this game is because of Nico. She's the only character that remains true till the end.

entropy3ko
entropy3ko

Broken Sword? More like Broken Game!

This game is definitively the worst of the series, but even forgetting the high standards set up by BS 1 and 2, and considering it on its own, it’s still a terrible game.

1- Terrible controls. I was not a fan of BS 3 bad controls that were pandering to the console crowd, but BS 4 has even worse controls. If BS 3 controls were bad, BS 4 controls are horrible and lack the visual cue often where you can climb or move…

2- Irrational puzzles. This game has puzzles that make no logical sense. The only logical puzzles are the hacking minigame and the puzzles to find a certain object using a manuscript… Also, in all it’s lack of logic the game itself gives almost zero hints through the dialogue. Good adventure games, like previous BS titles, always give hints through dialogue or comments by the characters and even if the logic of the puzzle is weird you can figure it out. This game is basically just a big “try everything until you get unstuck”.

3- Weak story. It’s like the writers got drunk and decided to read some of Dan Browns horrible books, watched only the lame parts of The Godfather Part III and vomited out the story that is simply bad and needless to say a steep drop from the previous 3 titles and overall not an enjoyable plot.

4- Bad and lame stereotypes. One example mean Nico says Anna Maria is not a num “because she has books on particle physics”, like nuns cannot be scientists. Well perhaps the writers are not familiar with Mary Kenneth Keller, who was a nun and became the first woman to obtain a PhD in Computer Science and other “sisters in the sciences”.
There are other and frankly some of them border on the racist side.

5- Humor is mostly terrible and unfunny. Some good jokes here and there but very sparse.

6- There is no chemistry between the characters like in the previous games Nico is always jabbing at George making her unsufferable. George is a wet lettuce.

7- Nico seems to become more a sexual object in this game. Now I am not going to give a SJW or feminist speech… it’s just a shame that the great character she was in BS 1 and 2 gets devolved to mere eye candy and nagging.

To this game credit, the graphics are very nice (and still hold up nicely) and the sounds voice acting are top notch as usual… so some standards have been maintained. Also I did like the "indiana jones" style of puzzles in a certain sections of the game... too bad most of the puzzles were not like that.

Also the Soundtrack is AWESOME. Especially the credits song. However do yourself a favor and just get the soundtrack without the game (you can find it in itunes and such)

Overall, unless you are a Broken Sword fan and *need* to play all games for completion’s sake, give this one a pass, it’s not worth it.

Claymore
Claymore

Speaking as a true fan of Broken Sword... It's a nice try, and a nice concept... but the quality is very far from the original games. The controls are super sloppy and the animation is very rigid. I'm just about to play the Serpent's Curse, let's see what you got there.

joesimpson939
joesimpson939

I would recommend this based on price and entertainment value. It does seem there are parts removed from the final cut of this game and it certainly isn't as good as the first two, but I enjoyed the humour and there are some really good problems to solve.

hannah.varner97
hannah.varner97

Definitely the worst game in the series. Controls and camera are clunky and frustrating. The game crashed multiple times so if you do end up playing make sure to save VERY often. The character also got stuck multiple times throughout the game and I needed to look up fixes to the game just to progress. The story wasn't as compelling as other games and Nico is replaced as the female protagonist by Anna Maria. Which might of been my least favorite part of the whole game. If you are a fan and want to play it to say you played the whole series - I get it. That's the only reason I made it through the whole game. But I would highly recommend playing another game.

Be warned - spoilers are ahead: Anna Maria is selfish and poorly written. Nico appears about part way through the game and she is also poorly written compared to the other games in the series. Extremely disappointed!

H1deoKoncima9
H1deoKoncima9

Don't buy this. Don't get it. Not even for free. It's an insult to Broken Sword saga and all videogames. Broken Sword 3 is bad, but this is nasty.
Puzzles are completely illogical.
In the first 30 minutes of the game, you have to stop an elevator door using a golf-club...in a room full of crates and cabinets.
And after, you have to create a bridge between 2 very close edges, closing a door, and knocking it down with your shoulder.
I can't understand how people can suggest this game with a positive review.
1/10 for me.

ufotatsu
ufotatsu

A big improvement from Broken Sword 3 with the return to point-and-click and challenging puzzles. The story line is good (in line with other Broken Sword games) and good voice acting as well. However, still not a fan of the 3D modelling but vastly improved from the 3rd game.

BauerBoy24
BauerBoy24

During one of the earlier puzzles you are required to burn an item in order to create smoke. I chose to burn a paper map. The game gave no indication that I should have used a different item and the puzzle completed successfully. Jump forward to the penultimate puzzle in the game. After much futile clicking, I decide to read a guide. Turns out I needed the map that I had burned to ashes about 10 hours prior! So there I was, stuck on the penultimate puzzle with no way to progress and no way to complete the game.

I was willing to look past the poor writing, nonsensical puzzles and overall jankiness but that pissed me off enough to leave my first ever negative review. Skip this one and play BS5 instead.

P.S. About 4 or 5 of my sessions with this game ended with me falling asleep in front of my monitor. That probably isn't a good sign either...

yomanzland
yomanzland

this is a nostalgic game. I played it when I was in college 15-20 years ago

Zyhael
Zyhael

Still wonky controls, and somehow the story is far fetched. If III was not for you then I guess this won't be too. Else if you stomached III then you'll be able to take this too.

millerhouse14
millerhouse14

Many difficult and tricky puzzles to solve and a good storyline.

Little_Writer
Little_Writer

An eternity ago, in my parents' attic room with my Playstation 2, I discovered the series "Broken Sword" with the third part, "The Sleeping Dragon". It was a great adventure game, mysterious, good story, a modern Indiana Jones. Many years later I played the rest of the series on PC, and I'm still doing that. For example, I just finished part 4, "The Angel of Death", a game I originally started in February 2016. In total I spent 15 hours in this fictional world.

Lead character George Stobbart, adventurous patent lawyer with a passion for history, meets Anna-Maria, who enlists his help to translate an ancient manuscript. Because the mafia is also after her, he helps her and becomes so involved in a plot that takes him from New York to Istanbul and Rome, with another stop-over in Phoenix, Arizona, for his partner Nicole "Nico" Collard.

The game is a typical point-and-click. You have to search the screen for items to use, and then you have to figure out a way to use them and how to overcome obstacles in your way. Sometimes it is serious thinking about the most logical solution. And more than once it is also good to remember where everything can be found. Sometimes you also have to return to locations, because certain events can change environments, and doors that were previously closed are now open, or objects can be found that were not there before, or whose usefulness was not yet known. Also a big part is talking to people about the things you find.

You can click on the screen to where you want to walk, or you can also use the arrow keys, which is actually quite handy. Only the camera angles change regularly, and then you suddenly walk in the opposite direction than you intended and you have to switch arrows. In this game there is also quite a lot of climbing and scrambling work required. The operation is not always easy and sometimes you really have to click in the right place to get the characters off the ground.

The most annoying passages are those where you have to traverse a certain area of ​​guards, and find a way to distract those guards. So you can often die in this game, but luckily you just start back at the beginning of that specific puzzle. I have made it a habit to save regularly; you never know.

When you find a gilded statue of an angel in a catacomb, you quickly discover what the story is all about. Also the game's finale offers puzzles similar to the trials at the end of "The Last Crusade". The coolest puzzles are those where you have to "translate" clues from old manuscripts. No simple puzzles, but really something to think about. And to get even more gameplay variety, you sometimes have to play a hacker game on your PDA to gain access to certain computer systems. And you even have to dismantle a bomb!

Cplunky
Cplunky

I remember finding the original release of this game being a lot buggier than this, so perhaps my judgement is somewhat clouded. Although yes, the frame rate is far from the best, which even at the time of release I remember being crap and some times the controls are a bit awkward, it is after all a 14-year-old game and there’s only so much “up-dating” and “modding” that can be done without remaking the game. Overall I find it more enjoyable than I remember despite that fact Nico seems to be shoehorned into the story and George’s irritating accents (Texan and German) but at least no one turns into a dragon in this one.

smurfas666
smurfas666

Though this one is considered the worst in the series, I liked it better than "The Sleeping Dragon". First of all it's a point & click adventure again. Some puzzles were pretty challenging and I liked that too. No more annoying box puzzles, way less stealth sequences and ways to die. The game still has a lot of drawbacks - like unskippable dialogs, awful camera movement and controls and pixel hunting. I hate when I have to consult walkthrough - it kills the "eureka" moment when you solve everything yourself - but I has to do that a few times just because I missed some items lying around.

It's better than it's predecessor, but I would only recommend this for the fans of the series.

sethkane
sethkane

If you love the broken sword franchise avoid playing this game and just watch a let's play.

BiiigDiiick
BiiigDiiick

Entertaining and fun dialogues. Drags at times.

Quellor
Quellor

Broken Sword 4 is not completely terrible, but controls and graphics are poor. Some puzzles were good and the story was alright, but overall this one I cannot recommend.

Les Whyte
Les Whyte

Utterly dreadful. Takes what was bad in BS3 in makes it worse. The controls are shocking. The characters forever walking into wall, trees etc, or in the completely opposite direction. The crate shoving is still there as well as ledge climbing and tedious mini games involving hacking computers. The manuscripts you pick up are totally undecipherable and you will die too... a lot!
When the game kept freezing at the hourglass thing, I gave up. It's no fun! I couldn't care less about what happens. I completed BS 1 (great), BS2 (V good) and BS3 (meh) all without a walkthrough. Not this time! I still didn't "get" the solutions after reading them.
Let's up BS5 restores my love for Broken Sword....

Zen_Fuel
Zen_Fuel

Very average compared to all the other broken swords, worst of them all. Similar gameplay style to BS3. Lacking the beauty, charm and flare the others did somehow. The Puzzles and story sequence are repetitive and tedious, seems to be repeating the same things in different places, lacking a lot of originality and mystery the other games offered... Character development and styles seem bland too. Not worth the time or money. If your really keen on the BS franchise then give it a go but dont expect anything, if not dont waste your time.

twazzleschlanger
twazzleschlanger

I played this game when it first came out and I recall having some issues with it back then but thought it was to do with my PC. I was wrong.

This game has too many bugs and some which destroyed my run. I had to reload my save a few times to get going again.

The puzzles are confusing and unclear at times. The hacking mini game is terrible.

The redeeming factor is the story. It's not the best of the BS series but it's interesting.

I would say if you have played other BS games and it's for a low price, go for it to satisfy your curiosity but otherwise don't bother!

captainty1
captainty1

Just wanted to drop in and offer a fix to the awful framerate:
1. Right click on the game in the library, go to properties, disable steam overlay
2. Open file explorer and navigate to the game's files (Driveletter:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Broken Sword 4\system), open the text file known as "Compat", and change m_bForceVSyncOn equal to 1 (note that the comment above it says it will help fix movie stutters, but I think it fixes everything), then save
3. Open properties again and in "Set Launch Options", write: -compat=on

As far as a game review goes, it controls way better than BS3 and the inventory is much more user friendly (just make sure to change the controls from the arrow keys to WASD and left shift for running). The graphics are a bit more appealing, but I am not far enough into the game to say what the story is like or if there are worse bugs. Just wanted to help with the technical issues!

Angelis95
Angelis95

Nowhere near as good as the rest of the franchise, but it is broken sword so have to give it a thumbs up as I am a massive fan of Georgie and Nico.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Some interesting puzzles and a solid storyline but it struggles on newer hardware. More suitable for windows 7 and older spec machines. It still retains some of the signature broken sword series notable elements (stereotypes and quirky dialogue) but isn't in the same league as previous titles. Puzzles can be misleading at times and objectives unclear and you can find yourself eating time trying to find out what to do next. More suitable for fans of the series but is acceptable as a puzzler for any casual gamer. One more thing: get some proper Irish people to provide voice acting please!!!!!!!!

talula1060
talula1060

Controls are atrocious and almost make the game unplayable. This time we can use the mouse, but it winds up being a nuisance at times because you have to keep clicking over and over to keep characters moving. I'm hoping the fifth game improves on this. The 3D graphics don't suit this game either. Bring back the candy-colored cartoon graphics we know and love from the first two games!

This game doesn't have the split second reflex tasks that constantly killed you and made BS3 so awful. However, it DOES have a series of stupid hacking puzzles that make zero sense when explained to George, but are reasonably easy to get past. UNTIL the developers decide to throw in a timed hacking puzzle that is probably the biggest complaint about this game. You are supposed to find a double sided mirror piece and it looks identical to the rest of the pieces. The game-makers don't seem to grasp the balance between challenging puzzles and puzzles that make people abandon the game for good.

Voice acting was great as usual EXCEPT for Anna-Maria. She was awful and I think may have been the same actress who played Gina in the Runaway games. She was terrible in that and she doesn't disappoint in this either. We are on the fourth actress playing Nico and this one is a bit over-dramatic and really overdoes the French accent. Probably the weakest of the four. The best part of the game is the actor who plays the drunken bum Archie. He is laugh out loud funny. He should be given his own game! His British bumbling accent is incredibly entertaining and so is his way of constantly forgetting George's name.

All in all, probably third weakest of the first four BS games. The third one remains the worst of all the games.

walker201
walker201

It's got awesome graphics and awesome sound as well.

Kek
Kek

The only Revolution Software Game i would consider "not good". The game is buggy as hell and also does not really play well. The scenery sometimes just does not exist and also some assets fail to render or are just way too low quality. Sadly i must say, this game had a lot of potential story wise but it felt so rushed at some points that i had to question myself wether or not i was missing plot points, but no, it's just that the game IS rushed. The only two good things about this game are that some riddles are quite challenging (especially the hacking ones) and that the "broken sword spirit" is still there and keeps some of that charm.

Overall: 5/10

Durrandi
Durrandi

Just skip this one. The entire game feels unfinished like this was a beta build a few years before release. While the textures are crisper than BS3, the overall aesthetic is worse than its predecessor as it is bland and has aged poorly.

The Good:
- George and Nico's dialogue is top notch as always

[b[The Bad:[/b]
- the controls are borderline unusable. Sometimes prompts show you movement options, other times they don't show anything and you have to blindly click around.
-there are no facial animations for characters. Which hamstrings the dialogue and plot.
- The game rarely gives you any goal or direction for what you are trying to accomplish. Which results in the dreaded "Moon Logic" of adventure games. Do completely nonsensical stuff to accomplish something you didn't know you even needed to do.
- The first half of the game has George partnered with new comer Anna Maria. Her voice acting is so poor, she comes off as having the emotional depth of a potato.
- Often times, the background music in the game will play once and then never again.
- the plot doesn't really pick up until the halfway point of the game. But then it falls apart in the end with unanswered story lines and mis-matched dialogue.

sabotage93thctv
sabotage93thctv

14 years and still love the game if ur a fan you will love it its not as good as others but still great

j4ck_fl4sh_3k
j4ck_fl4sh_3k

Broken Sword 4

Sadly this really is one just for fans of the series... and even then this game will test a lot of them too.

I've played a lot of this game due to PC issues... mostly being that I like to reinstall my O.S. every few months to keep my PC clean and fast as possible. Sadly this means that I've had to restart games that don't have cloud save features (This and Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag being two off the top of my head.) Simply put I've seen enough of this game up to the Turkish palace bit to last me a lifetime. Anyway that might explain why I logged up so many hours on this game.

Good Points...

+ It's a Broken Sword game, if you've played the first 3 you'll no doubt already own or have played this one.
+ The controls have some good features, like being able to use the mouse solely... (if you don't mind the pace that is).
+ The graphics a quite good.
+ It's not too long.

Bad Points...

-The voice acting is kinda weak and feels phoned in... Anna Marie and Georges interactions are so weird, hear them say things like "Hey Anna Marie, This is kinda exciting ain't it???" as if they are two kids on there first date... Sadly the game isn't all the exciting.
- Is one of them games that feels like it could crash/glitch at any moment... Once section more less in the beginning, I'm in the attic being chased by mobsters and head down a flight of nearby stairs... this way was blocked meaning that I had to turn back, however, I couldn't get past the top step and had to restart the game due to how early in the game I was (I'd not even saved once). Another part is more well-known, towards the end you'll watch a cut scene and then when you are back in control you'll find yourself stuck, you have to basically try running till you come unglued, but who would have known that without forums?
- The puzzles in this game are a real let down... I can't begin to explain how confusing some of them are... after a while I gave up and admitted I needed a walk thru, which was then in front of me all the way to the end. The worst puzzle was the end one with a statue and a map that needed to be burnt, with the problem being I'd burnt the map earlier on in a vent to create smoke... now the puzzle hints that I need a "Map and Heat to pass"... I managed to use a flyer, which I should have used in place of the map... I'm guessing that something got mixed up in development.
- The controls can be and absolute pain, walking into walls, boxes, ect.
- Felt longer then it was and left me feeling drained.

Conclusion...

For the asking price you can't go wrong... In fact, I recommend you buy the whole Broken Sword collection. This one sadly if the worst of the lot. (I like no. 3 BTW)

BrawBeard
BrawBeard

Couldn't get past opening section due to terrible controls.

TheUnsnackable
TheUnsnackable

Game gives black screen after pressing ALT+TAB.
Go to Task Manager -> End Task, game still open in background.
Restart PC -> game prevents restart.
Still restart -> game still prevents restart to the point where I have to hold the power button.
Restart PC -> open game -> progress lost.
I AM MAD

Patrick M. Bateman
Patrick M. Bateman

This brings back memories. I remember playing this when it was first released.
Big fan of the Broken Sword series.

Clakkers
Clakkers

Great fun - simply - distracting, story telling at a simple level without the carnage of online MP games. lol

cardonesreneaccel
cardonesreneaccel

The game is unnecessarily complicated, and one has to really think outside the average box to solve some of the puzzles here. Nonetheless, the story element is the usual engrossing, informative and highly entertaining. Definitely worth the (extra) effort in solving the puzzles
.

Harris
Harris

I'm a huge fan of the Broken Sword Franchise. I've played the first 2 countless times over the years, I noticed that the third and fourth games had mixed reviews but I assumed this was due to the change from 2D to 3D.

However I played the third and I enjoyed it so I was going into the fourth game expecting to have a good experience.
I've got to tell you it failed for a few reasons for me.

1. The controls, you can use the mouse completely unless you want to run, which 90% of the time you do, then you have to hold down the control button. Which to me is ridiculous why not just have that as a double click it would have made my life a lot easier.
2. The story is the weakest of the series by far, it fails to grip you and by the end you're just hoping it'll end.
3. The Anna Maria character honestly has no personality. And in general some of the voice acting is really bad.
4. Some of the puzzles are ridiculously difficult or make no sense. I get its a puzzle game and I like tough puzzles but trust me when I say you will have to use a walkthrough on a couple of these or at the very least a pen and paper.
5. The ending. No spoilers but I was waiting until after the credits like a marvel fan before realising that this was genuinely the end of the game.

There's a load of other reasons but it just seems like less thought was put into this game then the others especially the first two.

A bit of a blooper I notice as well is when you meet a Character from the first and second game. George says that the first time he met him was in South America which isn't true that's the second time, the first time is in Syria. I don't know maybe George needs to brush up on his geography

Anyway I would say its a 5/10. Only worth playing if you are a fan of the Broken Sword Series and want to complete the whole franchise.

Gunner
Gunner

a hybrid of the point and click of the first 2 games and the platform puzzler that was the 3rd

the ability to move your character around the setting is almost completely pointless and to force its relevance they have included several dodge the guard puzzles that add absolutely nothing to the games. unfortunately most of the difficulty in this game comes from actually figuring out what you have to do, the actual doing of it is usually blindingly obvious. the hacking mini game is probably the highlight as its one of the few times you have a clear idea of what you have to do, what tools you have to do it and the puzzle is actually how to use the tools to solve it

tgoldman
tgoldman

The old BS games were much better. This one was very glitchy. I had to go to the walkthrough way too much because what you were supposed to do made no logical sense - there was no way one would every think to use a particular item, the story line seemed truncated at times. The camera angles were sometimes difficult to navigate. Too much walking when it really wasn't necessary. I like the older BS games and these types of games in general but i was super dissapointed with this one.

Fuckface
Fuckface

Just really bad. I''ll assume this is the worst in the series because it couldn't get any worse than this one.

cheezwiz_69
cheezwiz_69

The graphics are good for its era, but the controls are frustratingly clunky, and they don't let you customize them, other than up, down, left and right. Also, camera angles just plain suck. They make it hard to see where to go and what objects are clickable--to the point that it makes the game at worst unplayable and at best not fun.

Sulcus
Sulcus

It is kind of janky and has pixel hunting nonsense but if you like Broken Sword games it is worth playing.

Chapter 3: Crying Black Man
Chapter 3: Cry…

Personally my favourite broken sword but they are all outstanding. Can be played entirely with the mouse, put the keyboard down you are making things more difficult for yourself! mouse wheel to run

ChipDMh
ChipDMh

I started this series because of the original art style, nice background work and somewhat silly and likable characters. It's been a downhill after the second game and when I thought the third was a mistake, I'd rather play it twice over than this one ever again. I could hardly find any positive notes aside from the story and history itself. The dialogue was off putting, some puzzles hardly made any sense and the controls were heavy, buggy and got messed by camera. Had to reload the game a few times when the character would start looping in a walking animation when he/she couldn't pick up an item or talk to a person...
The only solace I found from this game was Archie's dedication and sincerity.

Legend75
Legend75

Play this game only if you are a series fan and you HAVE to finish every BS game. I wanted to start the 5th one so I felt obligated to finish this one before moving forward.

I think this is my second negative review on Steam since I don't review games that I don't like and I don't like hurting the feelings of the developers :) (SERIOUSLY!) This time though, I feel that it is the developers who have hurt my feelings and made me doubt myself.

I have finished countless p&c adventure games through the years. I usually don't use guides. The only game that I needed to use a guide for (several times) was the original Discworld game. At least it was a wacky game with a strange universe where all strange things could happen.

I am 6 hours in the game and I feel useless. Most puzzles don't make any sense. Broken sword 3 was a much better game in all aspects other than the graphics and the numerous-box pushing puzzles. It goes without saying that there is no comparison with the first two titles and I am sure that the fifth one will be much better.

Most probably Revolution just published game and didn't develop it and the lesson here is that you should be very careful with your IP.

myron
myron

I am torn between whether to recommend this game or not. The story is pretty good and it is long, however, there are just too many issues that get in the way of enjoying the adventure.

First of all, I ran into several bugs along the way. There were several places I would take an action and the game would freeze instead of moving on. The only choice you have at that point is to throw away your progress and reload. Sometimes it happened again at the same place, other times you have to do things in a different order.. The worst bug, that almost ended my game, was a trigger point error where George kept trying to walk forward to activate an item but then stepped back. I finally figured out that I could change the screen resolution to get past that point.

Many of the puzzles are just not logical. Even reading the explanation in the walkthrough for one of the major ones at the end it still didn't make sense. I couldn't figure out how they deduced the solution from the drawing and the puzzle itself, and you cannot reference the drawing while in the puzzle. Another referred back to something on a picture I don't remember seeing. Some puzzles did have clues in a manuscript, but once in the middle of the puzzle you couldn't refer to the manuscript.

The first two iterations had a hint system and using that I could get past any puzzle I was stuck on. This one doesn't have a hint system, so if you cannot figure out a puzzle you have to find a walkthrough online. In the end I used the walkthrough more than I figured things out on my own.

I don't like that you cannot skip dialogue or cut scenes. When I got stuck the one time I had not saved after a long cut scene. I restarted from a save and walked away for over 5 minutes and came back to find them still talking with no way to skip.

I also don't like that you get a huge inventory by the end of the game and cannot access it from the middle of a dialogue with a person. You have to get out, find the item in your inventory and use it to interact with the person. If you know you need the person's assistance on a task, their head icon shows up in your inventory, you cannot just talk to the person.

The autorotating viewpoint can be a real pain as well. You are moving in one direction and your entire viewpoint changes. Suddenly your character is moving in a different direction and you clicked to tell them to go the wrong way.

ur Game Buddy
ur Game Buddy

I thought that Broken Sword 3 was poorly made with its controller only movement and pushing boxes puzzles. Well, this part takes the cake as being the most boring. Anna's character is as bland as an NPC could get. The locations look mediocre at best and the story seems rushed especially towards the end with a final confrontation being just awful.
As for the puzzles, some were alright, but the last ones in Vatican were so obscure or over-complicated that I had to check them up not wanting to waste more time on that game.
This game needs to go back to its 2D roots. Well, at least I could play this one with a mouse.

Blodwynn
Blodwynn

I tried, but this game is the worst of the first 4 games. I just stopped playing, because its just... I dont even know how to put it. Huge ass places, pixelhunting like "what I didnt click yet". Everything looks dark, gloomy and boring. This game totally lost it's broken sword vibe. I'll try the 5th game at one point, but probably will never finish this one.

colinjellicoe1892
colinjellicoe1892

I love the whole of the Broken Sword Games

superoap
superoap

There are far to many bugs in this program ,especially with the movement controls.

Anonymous
Anonymous

I'm a huge fan of the Broken Sword series, although Angel of Death is my least favourite. This game generally has a good story line, likeable characters, beautiful graphics, and a good soundtrack - like the other BS games released so far. For me, the ending of 'Angel of Death' is too abrupt and feels a little rushed, and some of the story could be better panned out (e.g., Nico seems to fly from Rome to Arizona and back after a 'mission' all within 12 hours or so). Overall an enjoyable game though.

Kool Klean
Kool Klean

Just play the game in 24hz not 50 or 60hz and the game runs nice and smooth.
No Auto save, so I had to start all over again.
Lost an item some how, I tried a piece of string on a fan while it was moving and then turned it off, the string was not in my inventory anymore, I read a guide that says turn the fan off first and then put the string in the fan, so I had to load my save that was another start the hotel all over again moment.
Just got handed a usb drive and it is not in my inventory either (I don't know if this is a bug yet).
Moving around is a pain, just back tracking is so awful that it makes the puzzles even more unbearable just from bad control.
There is a satisfaction in completing a puzzle, but is also really annoying too, especially when you guess the puzzle correctly but you need to talk to someone first, or right click a door to kick it down rather than left click the door to open it, its so specific sometimes that there is only the devs logic to guess and their control scheme order to guess, it's not a puzzle sometimes its a backwards button sequence that just takes multiple guesses rather than a good think.
I can't recommend it just because it's so annoying to play. More annoying than enjoyable, and just as annoying even when you complete the puzzle due to the annoying guessing game.
I'm sure you'll play it any way if you want to try the whole series.

Elbin
Elbin

This game still continues the 3D experiments from the 3rd game, and I want to say it does it better except I remember getting crashes and such. If you liked the 3rd, I recommend this one since the setting and story are still cool. If you didn't like the 3rd one, stop. Personally, I like all the Broken Sword games including this one!

Ghastkill
Ghastkill

If you are a fan of the series then it is worth playing this one even if just to tick it off of the list, as although it may not be anywhere as exciting or inspiring as the others, it does live in that universe and it's nice to see what george and nico are up to....having said that, the graphics and controls are super clunky, it has it's share of bugs ( not game breaking ) and some of the puzzles are not based in any kind of logic at all..and has Nicos voice been changed?

The story is pretty decent so far, it has very funny parts and it has managed to keep my attention, even if the phone hacking to get past certain points in the game is super jarrrrring.

Don't expect anything incredible and you won't be disappointed, it is definitely the weakest link in the chain but I don't think think that means you should skip it.