I'm a big fan of point-and-click adventure games. As a PC gamer for much of my life (until 2017 or so), I've played various adventure games from various eras over the years.

On Evercade, we've got a few games in the genre. Of course, Operation Stealth and Future Wars. But let's not forget about Dracula: The Undead, Nightshade, Cosmic Spacehead, and Batty Zabella (which we'll be talking more about soon). Due to the d-pad controls on Evercade devices, they can be a little hit or miss for some folks.

Most of the games were designed for d-pad inputs, so those are okay. But Operation Stealth and Future Wars are a little divisive on a platform without mouse support. I managed alright with them, but could definitely see where folks were running into issues. Especially because those older games were more likely to have timed actions or "pixel hunting" to find a nearly-invisible item and both of those things are made more difficult without a mouse.

So when Blaze announced the Broken Sword collection, I was excited...but a little wary.

Broken Sword is of a newer era of adventure games than the aforementioned Delphine ones. You're not going to get to the end of the game and find you didn't pick up the hairpin on the first screen and so can't beat the game. But they are still best experienced with mouse controls, so I wasn't sure how I'd feel about it.

I had played Broken Sword 1 on PC back in the day (and more recently, about half of it on GBA), but had never played Broken Sword 2. So I was pleased to be able to revisit a game I enjoyed years ago, and try for the first time another game that promised to be a good time.

These, we learned, were the Playstation versions of the game and not the PC versions most folks think of with these games. Which meant the controls and presentation would be...as good as could be expected for that, but would "as good as could be expected" be good enough?

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars

If you aren't familiar with this game, it's a point-and-click adventure game with beautiful art and animation, solid writing and voice acting, and a pretty good story. It's a classic and for a reason.

You play as George Stobbart, an American everyman vacationing in Paris when he gets caught up in an international conspiracy and attempts to unravel it with the help of a local journalist. Point and click your way through various scenes, picking up objects, talking to folks, and solving puzzles.

It's tough for me to gauge some of this, having played the game 1.5 times before, but I think it'll be pretty straightforward for newcomers to the series. You won't need to worry too much about pixel hunting or obtuse moon logic to make your way through the game. And if you get stuck, there are plenty of great walkthroughs available online.

But this game lost a little something in translation to the Playstation. The resolution isn't quite as high, so the graphics and animation aren't quite as crisp or impressive as you may remember if you've played the PC version. But, mostly, it's the same game I remember.

That being said...

The version included on the cart is the NTSC Playstation version. So while it's definitely different than you remember if you played on PC, it's also pretty different than you remember if you played on Playstation in a PAL region. Ultimately, what this means is that the game is a little juddery and hiccupy and just weird around player and NPC animations. The effect varies by scene - presumably based on the number of actors present. Ultimately what you'll find is that your cursor will disappear for a couple seconds while it queues up animations, which may play sped-up or otherwise weirdly.

The game isn't "broken." Or at least no more broken than the original game was on Playstation in North America (you can see it in action on Playstation here and compare it with the Evercade capture of your choice).

How does this impact the gameplay? That's gonna depend on your sensitivity to and tolerance for this kind of thing. For me, I mostly didn't notice it. And in cases where I did notice it, it mostly didn't bother me or impact the game.

However, there was one spot where the hiccups made it difficult to make a timed action, forcing me to replay the interaction 3 or 4 times. And there was one (particularly large) scene where the gameplay wasn't impacted per se but the amount of hiccuping was pretty annoying and slowed everything down.

Other than that, I didn't have a problem. But over the years, I have learned that I'm a little bit less sensitive to things like this than many players, so your mileage will for sure vary.

But to be sure, this is not the best way to play Broken Sword. If these hiccups are going to bother you or if you really, really need a mouse for these types of games, I really wouldn't blame you picking it up on PC instead.

Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror

George and Nico are back for another globe-trotting adventure. And this time without all of the weird hiccups and animation issues from the first entry!

Graphics-wise, it also looks a lot closer to its PC counterpart. And with smoother gameplay and animations, it was very pleasant to play. Surprisingly, I found this game a little shorter than the first one, taking me just under 10 hours as opposed to 12-ish hours for the first game. Though your experience with either will vary based on your experience with adventure games, usage of walkthroughs, etc.

I don't have much else to say about this game other than "it's like the first game but without all the jank." It also has fewer timed reactions, so even if you don't love the d-pad, you'll still mostly have a fine time controlling things here.

One warning is that there are a few more instances of "pixel hunting" in this game than the first one. Instances where you will have two exits or two items within just a couple of pixels of each other. It can be tough to tell that they are actually different items, which can leave you stranded sometimes. There was one case I needed to resort to a walkthrough because there were three items on a table but I was only finding and interacting with two. It took a bit of maneuvering to find the third one even once I knew it was there somewhere.

Otherwise, another great point-and-click adventure. It's a classic for a reason.

Wrap Up

The Broken Sword Collection is another instance of a classic PC franchise coming to Evercade via Playstation versions. Which makes sense for the console to do - controller configuration is sorted, storage size is less of a concern, plus they've already got Playstation emulation pretty-well sorted.

Drawing fans of these franchises to Evercade with these carts can be a bit of a double-edged sword, I think (not to be confused with a broken sword). Many players will just say "hell yeah" and enjoy the game. Other players, though, will start up the game and get the uncanny feeling of "this isn't what I remember, something is wrong here" and may not be able to get themselves past that, even if they really do try.

For the most part, Playstation ports of PC games were making certain concessions: resolution, performance, controls, etc. In 2023, some Evercade players found themselves having a difficult time adapting to the framier Playstation version of Duke Nukem 3D or having trouble playing with a control pad. In much the same way, folks may a tough time getting on with these versions of Broken Sword I and II.

But if you can get your hands around the controls and can look past some jank on the first game, Evercade is a perfectly fine platform for experiencing these classic games. Either for the first time or returning to them after many years. If you're new to these games, the handy manual even comes with walkthroughs for the first scene of each game to help get you going.

If none of the caveats above have scared you off, I heartily Recommend this cart. But if you'd rather pick up these games on PC, I wouldn't blame you (just avoid the Director's Cut from what I hear). Either way, if you're a fan of point-and-click adventures and haven't experienced these classic games before, please do me a favor and play them already - whatever platform you do it on.