The Broken Sword Name Confusion

[SakSquash]

In a different post on these boards, there was some confusion about which broken sword title was US and which was European. I think this link may clear things up:

http://www.allgame.com/cg/agg.dll?p=agg&SQL=GRH|||||6382

In the first paragraph, it says that Circle of Blood is the US title and Shadow of the Templars is European.

On a side note, why did BS II get such bad reviews? I just finished it a while ago, and I thought it was great!

[Glenn Epic]

On a side note, why did BS II get such bad reviews? I just finished it a while ago, and I thought it was great!

I've been wondering the same thing. For me personally Im a bigger fan of Broken Sword 2 even though it didn't quite hit it off with the critics, well not as well as Broken Sword 1 did anyway.

[vansau]

I thought the game's controls were actually pretty shoddy, and I didn't like the puzzles very much. The graphics were great, though.

[Robert_Cath]

On a side note, why did BS II get such bad reviews? I just finished it a while ago, and I thought it was great!

I think it's because BS2 was shorter than the BS1, and the end had too many puzzles. I personally like first part more, even though the second part had also a great story, especially with those three stones which were at the different parts of the world

[SakSquash]

I thought the game's controls were actually pretty shoddy, and I didn't like the puzzles very much. The graphics were great, though.

Shoddy?! It was point and click!

[fov]

Shoddy?! It was point and click!

But the icons you used to manipulate the environment were different, and IMO less intuitive in BS2 than in BS1 (but that could be partly because I had gotten used to BS1's controls).

-emily

[CalaveraCafe]

BS2 is Great.
Short, but sweet.
I liked it.

[Steve Ince]

But the icons you used to manipulate the environment were different, and IMO less intuitive in BS2 than in BS1 (but that could be partly because I had gotten used to BS1's controls).

-emily
Sorry, but what difference? Am I missing something?

[ragnar]

On a side note, why did BS II get such bad reviews? I just finished it a while ago, and I thought it was great!

In my opinion, BS2 had not as good story. I missed the whole research bit of BS1 and it felt less worked through. BS2 isn't bad, but nowhere near the masterpiece of BS1.

[MDMaster]

I think the whole thing is down to:

Broken Sword lets you choose which path to take, which places to visit; while BS II sticks you on a railroad track until the end where you can't choose anything. Except for that, I'd say both games are enjoyable and fun adventures.

Although I know some people who actually prefer the third chapter over the first ones.

[fov]

Sorry, but what difference? Am I missing something?

They worked the same way, but the icons themselves were visually different... no?

I'd have to load the games up to compare them but this is what I remember. Maybe I'm mistaken? Specifically I remember the icons for saving, loading, and restarting the game to be different and I always had trouble picking the right one. But I thought there were also slight differences in the behavior of push, take, etc. (Obviously you'd know better than I would...)

-emily

[Steve Ince]

They worked the same way, but the icons themselves were visually different... no?

I'd have to load the games up to compare them but this is what I remember. Maybe I'm mistaken? Specifically I remember the icons for saving, loading, and restarting the game to be different and I always had trouble picking the right one. But I thought there were also slight differences in the behavior of push, take, etc. (Obviously you'd know better than I would...)Not necessarily - I've had a sleep since then. :)

The save and restore screen may have been different, but I'm pretty sure that the in-game icons were the same. I'd have to check to be sure, though.

[nordic_guy]

The pointer in BS1 was a hand, but the pointer in BS2 looked more like an aim or something?
Anyway, for me, the worse thing about BS2 was how limited it was. For example, in BS1 when you had a conversation with people, you could ask them about anything in your inventory as well as oher things. You couldn't do this in BS2.
I know it's not a huge difference, but little things like that can take something away from the game.

[RLacey]

The pointer in BS1 was a hand, but the pointer in BS2 looked more like an aim or something?

I'm pretty sure that it was an arrow in one and a crosshair thing in the other - I think. But I do remember the save/load buttons being new in BS2, because in BS1 you pressed either F5 or Escape to bring up the menu, and there wasn't an option in the inventory thing.

Also, the inventory moved from the top to the bottom of the screen, and objects you could ask about were added to the talk menu.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I like BS2 - it's more compact that BS1, and *much* easier, but still worth playing. The fact that there was no interaction in the final section, and that the game ended when you walked through the final door, was the most annoying thing for me, but I still loved BS2.

[Steve Ince]

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.Now I'm not so sure... Damn! I'll have to check this weekend, now.

[RLacey]

Now I'm not so sure... Damn! I'll have to check this weekend, now.

Well, I could check now, but I don't have enough hard disk space free to reinstall *anything* at the moment.