Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
Encyclopedia
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars is a point-and-click adventure game released to the PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

 on November 5, 1996. It was released on the PlayStation in December that same year and on the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...

 March 19, 2002. It has also been ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...

 to the Mobile phone, and re-released to the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

, PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

 and Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

 as a director's cut
Director's cut
A director's cut is a specially edited version of a film, and less often TV series, music video, commercials, comic book or video games, that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit...

. According to Charles Cecil
Charles Cecil
Charles Cecil MBE has worked in the interactive entertainment industry for 25 years. He is currently operating as Managing Director for UK based company Revolution Software which has released such critical and commercial hits as Beneath a Steel Sky and the Broken Sword series...

, it sold around a 1,000,000 copies in the mid-90's. It was followed by Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror
Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror
Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror is a point-and-click adventure game released for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation. The remastered edition has been recently announced by Revolution Software and will be coming to iOS devices in late 2010 with Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows ports following in...

.

Gameplay

The game is a traditional point-and-click adventure, where the player has to logically come up with answers and solutions to riddles and problems that he or she encounters during the course of the game.

Audio features of the game include recorded Foley
Foley artist
Foley is the reproduction of everyday sounds for use in filmmaking. These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. The best foley art is so well integrated into a film that it goes unnoticed by the audience. It helps to...

 and sound effects, orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

l music and recorded voices of voice actors. The game graphics are animated in a style which resembles classic animated films. The game was directed by Charles Cecil and the original score
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 was composed by Barrington Pheloung
Barrington Pheloung
Barrington Somers Pheloung is an Australian composer, now living in England. He is one of the most prolific television and film composers in the UK, known for his wide range of compositional genres....

.

The game features a cast of voice actors led by Rolf Saxon
Rolf Saxon
Rolf Saxon , is an American actor living in London.Saxon was born in Alexandria, Virginia. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England where he was awarded the Gold Medal on his graduation, and also studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco,...

 as George Stobbart.

Extended story in the Director's Cut

The game opens in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 with journalist Nicole Collard receiving a request to go to Palais Royale
Palais Royale
Palais Royale is a dance hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on Lake Shore Boulevard at the foot of Roncesvalles Avenue on Lake Ontario. Originally built as a boat works, it became notable as a night club in the now-defunct Sunnyside Amusement Park, hosting many prominent 'big band' jazz bands...

 to interview a famous media tycoon and potential candidate for President of France, Pierre Carchon, also famous for his lecherous behaviour. A mime hangs around outside Carchon's home, whom Nico ignores and carries on inside the house. She meets Carchon's wife, Imelda, and Carchon reveals he knew Nico's father very well, Thierry Collard. Soon, there is a noise in the drawing room, Carchon investigates only to be shot. Nico rushes to the scene to see the mime over Pierre's corpse. She is knocked to the ground before she can do anything and wakes up to find Imelda going to call the police.

After persuading her that she wants to find the truth and help, Imelda allows Nico to access Carchon's room, which contains an elephant carving exactly the same as that of Nico's father and a stone cylinder, which contains a hidden code of letters. On Carchon's corpse, Nico discovers a ticket stamped "Bateaux de la Conciergerie" and goes to investigate the dock. By using the letters on the cylinder, she discovers a secret office area where Carchon and many others met for business. After writing her story up and publishing it, her editor tells her to drop the story at which Nico becomes angry. However, she receives a mysterious phone call from a man called Plantard who tells her he needs to speak to her about her story.

Original story

The next day, an American tourist George Stobbart
George Stobbart (video game character)
George Stobbart is the main character in the Broken Sword adventure game series by Revolution Software. He is voiced by Rolf Saxon.Stobbart currently lives in New York City, USA and works as a bail bondsman....

 enjoys a coffee at a Parisian cafe and sees an old man entering the cafe with a briefcase. Almost immediately, a clown arrives with an accordion, who steals the man's briefcase and drops his accordion. The accordion detonates and blows the cafe up. George manages to survive and investigates the cafe. He is soon interrogated by Augustin Rosso, a renowned police inspector who utilizes psychic techniques to question witnesses. George then meets Nico outside the cafe taking pictures, who explains that she was meant to meet the old man, Plantard. After agreeing to help with her story, George traces the clown's steps to the nearby sewers. Acquiring the clown's nose and a scrap of material, he exits the sewers and meets a war veteran, who explains a man exited the sewers before with a briefcase. Showing the scrap of material prompts the veteran to reveal the killer dropped his jacket and gives George the tailor's name and phone number. George attempts to find out more from the tailor, Todryk, but without the killer's name, Todryk is uncooperative.

George goes to Nico's apartment and she discovers an address inside the clown's nose for the costume shop where it was purchased. George goes there and learns the killer's name, Khan and that he hired both a clown and a pixie costume. Todryk then tells George of the Hotel Ubu, the killer's accommodation. Outside the hotel are two shady characters, Flap and Guido, who search George's pockets searching for something important. With the help of an English aristocrat
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...

, Lady Piermont, George obtains an ancient manuscript from the hotel safe, which Khan deposited. While infiltrating Khan/Mourlin's hotel room, he also finds a matchbook from the Club Alamut, which seems Middle Eastern. After evading Flap and Guido who are searching for the manuscript and returning to Nico, she deduces the manuscript is related to the Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

, a wealthy and powerful order of knights wrongly accused of heresy and burned at the stake by the Inquisition. The plan was hatched by Phillip IV of France and Pope Clement V in a bid to gain the Templars' amassed wealth but the treasure remained hidden. On the manuscript, there are several pictures: A knight with a sword and a bull, between them a gem is balanced on a tripod; A knight with a crystal ball; A man weaving on a loom with a ship in the background; a woman looking at a looking glass to see three bearded faces. Seeking help at the Crune Museum, George discovers the tripod on the manuscript is in the museum itself, being discovered in Lochmarne, Ireland. Nico explains a professor named Peagram had an excavation in the village.

George travels to Lochmarne, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 and questions a man named Sean Fitzgerald about working at Peagram's dig. Fitzgerald reveals they found a hidden Templar chapel beneath the local castle ruins and Peagram entrusted a package to him, to be delivered to a 'Jacques Marquet'. Fitzgerald panics and attempts to flee, only to be run over by a Ferrari driven by a man in a pixie costume (Khan). George offers to fix the landlord's beer pumps and goes into the cellar, discovering Sean's package, a gleaming gem that Peagram discovered, identical to the one on the manuscript. Making his way inside the castle, George uses some plaster of Paris to open a secret door where he discovers a mural of a hanged man with 'Montfaucon' underneath. Meanwhile, Nico attempts to find out more about her father's involvement with Carchon. She deduces quickly that Imelda is in danger and rushes to Palais Royale to save her. Nico is too late but the dying Imelda gives Nico a key, which fits the box her father gave her. Nico opens the box and finds out the truth. Her father and Imelda were lovers and her father worked for the government as a sort of spy against Carchon's secret organization.

Back in Paris, George tracks down Jacques Marquet to the Hagenmeyer clinic. Posing as a doctor George gains access to Marquet's ward and finds him suffering from serious wounds. Marquet reveals he has hired Flap and Guido to steal the tripod from the Crune Museum. Another doctor soon intercedes and George exits. Soon, Marquet's ECG machine goes haywire, prompting security to bust open the door. They discover Marquet has been suffocated and the bogus doctor has escaped. George then asks Nico's old colleague, Andre Lobineau at the Crune Museum for his help with the manuscript. He also reveals Montfaucon
Montfaucon
-Places:*In Switzerland**Montfaucon, Switzerland, in the canton of Jura*In France** Montfaucon, Aisne, in the Aisne département** Montfaucon, Doubs, in the du Doubs département** Montfaucon, Gard, in the Gard département...

is a place in Paris. George hides in an Egyptian sarcophagus
Sarcophagus
A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...

 until nightfall when Flap and Guido attempt to steal the tripod. George is successful in distracting them until he loses consciousness, when another unidentified thief breaks through the skylight and steals the tripod. Back at Nico's, Nico reveals she herself was the thief and gives George the tripod. George goes to Montfaucon and enters the sewers, where he discovers a secret meeting of important people including a Nobel Prize winner George met at the hotel, claiming to be the Templars. They discuss that they are looking for the Sword of Baphomet and that one of them, Klausner has gone to Syria to get a lens. George deduces that Plantard and Peagram were members of this organisation as well. The player also assumes Carchon was involved too. As they leave, George uses the tripod and gem, which splits a beam of light and lights up letters spelling 'Marib'. Nico explains Marib is a village in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

.

George travels to Syria and discovers that Khan has already been here and asked about George and Klausner. A taxi driver named Ultar offers to drive to Bull's Head where Khan requested to go. Exploring Syria, George meets Duane and Pearl Henderson, an American couple looking for ancient souvenirs. He also deduces that the crystal ball on the manuscript is in fact the lens that Klausner was meant to obtain. George finds a statue on a stand belonging to a boy, Nejo. George sells this to Duane for $50, allowing George to pay to go to Bull's Head Hill. At the Bull's Head, George finds Klausner's corpse and takes the lens. He also discovers an idol with three bearded faces (Baphomet) and a Latin inscription describing Britain. Khan then arrives and holds George at gunpoint but George manages to escape jumping off the cliff onto Ultar's truck.

Back in Paris, Andre has deciphered part of the manuscript and it leads to the De Vasconcellos family in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, who were once connected with the Templars. George travels to the Villa of the family, discovering only the Countess and her gardener Lopez remain. Sneaking past Lopez, George manages to convince the Countess of his intentions and she leads him to the De Vasconcellos mausoleum, where George discovers a chessboard puzzle. Solving it opens up a panel with the De Vasconcellos chalice inside. The Countess entrusts it to George and wants him to find her missing ancestor Don Carlos.

Back in Paris, George travels to Montfaucon where the local priest polishes the chalice. Meanwhile, George uses the lens on the statue in the church and looks through it to discover a hidden image of a burning man. The image on the chalice matches a tomb in the church, and George deduces that it is in fact Don Carlos' tomb. Andre reveals that an idol of Baphomet has been discovered in Paris. George visits the site, and manages to create a copy of the guard's key using the remaining plaster of Paris, soap and paint. He gains access to the excavation and puts the chalice near the idol where the reflection shows the image of a church with a square tower. George visits the Countess again with Biblical references on Carlos' tomb. They show the way to a secret area inside a well where George discovers a chessboard mural with a river running through it.

With the clues they have (the river, the church and the Latin phrase), George, Nico and Andre work out that the Templars are heading for Bannockburn in Scotland. George and Nico catch a train there, but Flap and Guido are aboard having followed them. George discovers Nico along with an old woman are missing. He reaches the guard's carriage where the old woman (Khan) throws Flap out of the carriage while Eklund (the bogus doctor who killed Marquet) is knocked out after shooting Khan. George and Nico reach the church in Bannockburn and witness the Grand Master of the Templars acquiring a strange power from two huge Baphomet idols (the Sword of Baphomet). Inspector Rosso is revealed to be in league with them as well. After trying to tempt George into their ranks, the Grand Master orders Eklund to kill them, but Eklund is killed by Rosso, who is then killed by the Grand Master. The couple try to escape but are blocked by Guido. Nico saves the day when she throws a handbag of C4 (from Khan) onto some burning gunpowder. They manage to escape as the church explodes which kills Guido and the Templars and presumably the Grand Master.

Afterwards, George and Nico return to Paris and go on their first date on the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...

.

Director's Cut

On March 21, 2009, Ubisoft released a special edition of Shadow of the Templars for the Wii and Nintendo DS. The special editions are extended versions of the original. Unlike in the original, players control Nico for selected portions of the game. In addition, new puzzles designed specifically for each platform. The Wii version is titled Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut and features new character artwork by Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons is an English comic book artist, writer and sometime letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries Watchmen and the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything"...

 during conversations and a new first person view for certain puzzles. Unlike the original game, the updated version also allows for multiple solutions to puzzles and a new co-operative mode for two players. In the DS version, there is no spoken dialogue, only subtitles. A version for iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

 and iPod touch
IPod touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...

 was released on January 20, 2010. In May 2010, a version with higher resolution and a digital comic was released on the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

. A PC version was released on August 27, 2010 on various digital distribution services. It Wii version won an Europian Games Award for Best Adventure.

Reception

PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...

US
awarded the game a score of 80/100, and praised its "thrilling blend of quality puzzling, sumptuous graphics, and intelligent story line". The magazine criticized its voice acting, however; the reviewer said, "Although the actor portraying the main character does a good job, [...] many of the characters are so completely off the mark -- and, at times, so annoying -- that you’ll probably switch the text subtitles on and turn the speech off". The reviewer summarized it as "an entertaining game that may not blow everyone away, but if you’re a traditional adventure fan that yearns for the days of old, it’s an adventure you can rely on".

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK