Classic point-and-click adventure series Broken Sword is set for a two-pronged return after a decade away; boutique U.K. studio Revolution Software has announced that it is working on a sixth title, Broken Sword — Parzival’s Stone, as well as a full 4K remaster of the 1996 original, The Shadow of the Templars.

Both games are in development for console, mobile, and Windows PC. Broken Sword — Shadow of the Templars: Reforged is set for release in early 2024, while Parzival’s Stone is undated, but further off.

The Broken Sword games are light, conspiratorial adventures with a historical bent, very much in the vein of the LucasArts classics of the early 1990s like The Secret of Monkey Island, but with gentler humor and (arguably) more logical puzzle design. The games follow American patent lawyer George Stobbart and French journalist Nico Collard as they trot the globe, solving riddles, investigating conspiracies, and uncovering ancient secrets.

Parzival’s Stone will reintroduce 3D graphics to the series, after a return to the original 2D in 2013’s fifth, Kickstarter-funded game, The Serpent’s Curse. But series creator Charles Cecil has dubbed the new graphical style “Super 2D” as it attempts to recreate the look of the original games by applying hand-drawn textures to the 3D geometry. It will have a classic, point-and-click adventure game interface.

Parzival’s Stone will send George and Nico on a quest for the mythical Holy Grail — “but not as one might expect,” according to the press release. Their quest will take them to Montségur in the South of France, former stronghold of the Cathar Christian sect, and pit them against tech entrepreneurs, government agencies, and energy corporations in a story that also involves Nazi treasure hunters (but of course) and quantum physics.

The new version of the first game — in which George witnesses a bomb attack on a Parisian café, drawing him into a mystery involving the Knights Templar — notably updates its hand-drawn, animated-film-style visuals from 640x400 pixels to 4K resolution with fully redrawn assets. This enormous task was accomplished with a mixture of human artists and A.I. techniques; Revolution head Charles Cecil told Polygon that the tiny studio “just simply couldn’t afford” to remake the game without using A.I. The game’s audio will also be upscaled, a few minor changes made to story and characterization to fit modern sensibilities, and gameplay improvements brought over from the currently available Director’s Cut version.

Cecil said that, if the reissue of Shadow of the Templars is a success, the intention is to follow it up with a remaster of the second Broken Sword game, The Smoking Mirror, using the same techniques.

https://www.polygon.com/23838090/broken-sword-6-bs1-remaster-trailer-release-date

1 year ago

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Thanks for this news. I've only nibbled at the first one on Wii, but I like it.

1 year ago
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Looking forward to it

1 year ago
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played 1, 2 and 3 but i didnt like the graphics of the latest ones, i somehow dislike it so much even tho the story is pretty nice

1 year ago
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Not just the graphics, but it was also part action, go back to part 5 and you will certainly enjoy that again.

1 year ago
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thanks Lugum, will do. also, good luck with your sweet purr, i read its not easy for ya, but i got the feeling you´ll make it possible

1 year ago
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Thank you, i want too, but ithere are just so many doubts.

Also just not anyone helping me out bin real life, giving advice, knowing/finding a good place, it's why this forum is my letout.

1 year ago
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Thanks for sharing the news! I love 1, 2, and 5. The 3D ones (3 and 4) I can't remeber so well, but I think they were a bit clunky.
For the remaster if they're reviewing the machine learning output and touching it up by hand then I'm fine with that, it's the output that matters. I'm also not really sure how much I'd be willing to pay for such a remaster, as I personally don't feel the need for it. But I'll be all over the new game.

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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👍👍👍👍👍👍

1 year ago
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Ah yes, let's remaster the first game once again ignoring the 4th game on Steam at the same time, shit's literally unplayable and runs at 5-15fps. And then there is a GOG version that runs perfectly fine.

1 year ago
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Read the news yesterday and got excited.
Love the whole series !

1 year ago
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Still haven't played them. I don't generally get hyped about remasters or remakes.
But Spyro Trilogy wasn't too bad.

1 year ago
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I liked Broken Sword 1 but the sequels got progressively worse. BS2 was not as good as 1 and had a rushed ending. BS3 had me bored and not caring by the final act. I took a break after 3 and then didn't touch 4 after seeing the poor reviews. I'm not sure there's going to be a ton of interest in a remake of BS. It always seemed more of a niche series.

1 year ago
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But 5 was a pure point and click adventure again which in my opinion was very decent.

1 year ago
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I like playing games in order so I don't want to play 5 without playing 4 first but I lost interest in Broken Sword after 3 so ¯\(ツ)

1 year ago
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the plot of the fifth part does not mention 3 and 4 in any way, but it does mention 1 and 2.

1 year ago
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but the second half of the game was clearly done either in a hurry, or there was not enough money, because everything there is not very good - constant black screens "a little later" instead of some smoother transitions, several terribly long puzzles just to drag out time, the gallery of characters disappeared somewhere... well, it is there from the first part of the game, but it just stops filling up.

1 year ago
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Reading this news be like:

It seems that Reforged will launch without any of that added content, though that may change in the future. "If and when we bring the Director's Cut stuff across - which we might well do - then we can give people choices to which they play," Cecil says. "but at the moment the offering is just Broken Sword."

Yay, they're remastering the original, not the Director's Cut! They must've realized changing things was a bad idea and decided to bring back all the cut content of the original!

a few minor changes made to story and characterization to fit modern sensibilities

Oh, god, please no!

1 year ago*
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Oh no indeed. I wonder what checkboxes they think they need to mark.

1 year ago
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Broken Sword even had sensibilities?

1 year ago
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Maybe they want to change Andre Lobineau's character, I think his character was quite abusive towards Nico.

1 year ago
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Oh the excellent news, thank you Lugum !!

1 year ago
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