Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged – PS5 Review

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Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged, is a remastered point-and-click game by York-based devs Revolution. Originally released back in 1996 on PC, this game is the first in an amazing adventure series of 5 that follow the exploits of an American tourist named George Stobbart and French photojournalist Nico Collard.

Back Once Again With The Point & Click Master

Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged was digitally released this September on PC, PS5 & Xbox X|S. The Reforged release on Nintendo Switch has been delayed until October, with date TBA. The forthcoming collector’s edition (physical) was fully funded on Kickstarter within 30 minutes of going live and appears to be shipping around the end of March 2025. I was lucky enough to play the PS5 version and was intrigued as to how it would play on a controller.

Gameplay

When it comes to point-and-click games, there are many classics to choose from. From Simon the Sorcerer and Monkey Island to Day of the Tentacle and Manic Mansion. The Broken Sword series, to me, is still one of the best out there in terms of storyline, puzzles, characters and locations.

Remaster Baby!

The Reforged version is a remaster of the original Shadow of the Templars game, taking the graphics from 480p to 4K as well as cleaning up the original audio. All of the background graphics have been stripped down to their line drawings and repainted. Sprites have also been redrawn, and expressions added, along with better lighting effects.

While I love this genre of game, I initially stumbled across Broken Sword when it was given out for free via Apple’s 12 Days of Christmas promotion back in 2010 (Directors Cut). Yep, I confess, this was also the first point-and-click game I ever played on an iPhone. It worked well and couldn’t have come at a better time when I badly needed a distraction from life.

Beginnings

The story begins with George minding his own business outside a French bistro in Paris. Suddenly a clown walks into the bar, snatches a briefcase and drops an accordion, which then detonates. Poor George is left buried beneath debris before rising to his feet and beginning to check who is ok, along with piecing together what happened

Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged can be played in a couple of ways. One allows you to see on the screen what areas you can interact with. While the other, and my personal preference, leaves you to discover your own way around.

P&C Basics

The controls are very easy to get on with and there is a well-thought-out tutorial to teach you the basics. As anyone knows with point-and-click games, the moving and opening of an inventory is never the trickiest part of the game. It’s the understanding of what interacts with what and also the ability to locate the smallest detail on the screen.

By talking to all of the characters that you meet, you reveal little titbits of information. You also discover items that need to be used when in other scenarios. The story gains momentum as you begin to explore your surroundings and report back your findings to Nico and the police. Your adventure will take you over to Syria as well as Ireland as the plot thickens.

Back To The Future

At any time you can seamlessly click the R3 of the controller and switch between the original version of the game and the Reforged. The difference is incredible and one of those moments where you do not realize that the low-res graphics was how the game looked all those years ago.

Graphics & Audio

Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged looks amazing with its lovely 4K graphics. However, I did notice in certain scenes, such as the Parisienne sewer, that the remaster was much darker than the original. For a moment I was unsure that there was a walkway in an area. That is until I clicked R3 to swap between the versions and then a lot more detail was revealed. The remastered scenes also look a lot cleaner than the original which oddly felt on occasion that a little of the charm was lost. Perhaps it was just me harbouring on to the old a bit too much.

The animations and characters are very fluid and this helps with expressing how the characters are feeling. Where before you had the voiced dialogue and pixelated graphics, it was great seeing the character’s faces change with more passion to them.

When it comes to audio, the remastered original character lines do not have any hiss to them like they once did previously. There does seem to be the odd difference in volume at times but that is not massively concerning. Overall everything is fully voiced as it was, leaving you to immerse yourself in the storyline.

The soundtrack by composer Barrington Pheloung is still just as incredible as it ever was. And it envelopes the gameplay and story with its accompanying orchestral score perfectly.

Longevity

You are looking at around 11 hours to complete Broken Sword – The Shadow of the Templars: Reforged. Being a point-and-click game the only replayability is to enjoy the story once more!

Final Thoughts

Charles Cecil and co. over at Revolution Studios know a winning formula when it comes to the narrative-style genre of games. I feel that releasing the Reforged version is a way of bringing the games to the modern audience. Hopefully, they will continue going through the series, especially with the 6th installment – Broken Sword – Parzival’s Stone in the works.

I have loved the nostalgia that Shadow of the Templars brought about. Nostalgia but with the comfort of playing on my PS5 from my sofa. I certainly hope that others also share the same feeling and keep their support going for the studio.

Broken Sword – The Shadow of the Templars: Reforged receives a Thumb Culture Gold Award!

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

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Jason

Atari ST, PC & PS4 Pro gamer, Father and Rock legend.
Can normally be found lost somewhere in Bolivia during his spare time!
PSN: Psycho_sparky

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