Broken Sword is an adventure game series created by Revolution Software. The game series revolves around the adventures of George Stobbart and Nicole Collard in fictitious stories based on history and mythology. The first two games in the series are controlled by a traditional point-and-click interface that the player uses to interact with the cartoon animated backdrops. The recently released third game is based on a 3D graphics engine that the player operates through a direct control system.

= Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars =

The first game in the series was released in 1996, published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment worldwide. George Stobbart is an American tourist on holiday in Paris in the autumn. The story opens with George s quiet coffee at a cafe rudely interrupted by the explosion of a bomb planted by a man dressed up as a clown. He sets off investigating the explosion and, gradually, he and photo-journalist Nicole ( Nico ) Collard are drawn into a globe-trotting adventure involving conspiracies, cults and murder, all revolving around the Knights Templar.

Despite the death and cults the game is a lighthearted and fun game, with high-quality hand-drawn animation and graphics. The game features a musical score composed by Barrington Pheloung, and a cast of voice actors led by Rolf Saxon as George Stobbart.

The game was a critical and commercial success, and is often today cited as the best game in the Broken sword series.

The game was released as Circle of Blood (USA), Baphomets Fluch (Germany), Les Chevaliers de Baphomet (France) and La leyenda de los Templarios (Spain) around the world.

Ports of the game were released on the Sony PlayStation and Game Boy Advance platforms, but the latter is cited as a lesser version of the game. The GBA port had a bug that made completing the game impossible.

= Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror =

The second game in the series, released in 1997, opens with George Stobbart witnessing the kidnapping of his now girlfriend Nicole Collard, followed by being tied to a chair in a burning house with a deadly spider on the loose. From here follows another exciting globetrotting adventure, this time involving an evil Mayan god and a conspiracy revolving around the forthcoming Eclipse.

Once again the music is composed by Barrington Pheloung and Rolf Saxon returns to lead the cast, with a different actress playing Nico Collard. Graphics are of the same high standard seen in the first game, with a few tweaks to the engine to include smoke effects and so on.

The game was often described as rushed citing reasons such as an unpolished storyline and linear gameplay (there is no freedom of movement from location to location, but from one another after certain tasks are completed). Even so, the game was a critical and commercial success, but on a smaller scale than the games prequel.

Released as Les Boucliers de Quetzacoatl (France), Baphomets Fluch II: Die Spiegel der Finsternis (Germany), and Broken Sword: Las Fuerzas del Mal (Spain) . The game was called Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror in all English speaking countries except the United States, where it was retitled Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror .

A port of Broken Sword 2 was released for the Sony PlayStation platform.

= Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon =

George and Nico return in the third Broken Sword game, released in October 2003 by THQ (Europe) and The Adventure Company (USA). This time the game is fully 3D, unlike the two previous games which are more traditional 2D Point and Click games. The Knights Templar return in another globetrotting adventure, taking the protagonists to Glastonbury, Paris, Cairo, Prague and the Congo.

The game has been highly criticised by fans and critics, some for the introduction of 3d graphics, and others for a far-fetched and unpolished storyline, and from others for a similar linear playing system from Broken Sword II.

Rolf Saxon leads the cast, reprising his role as George, and Sarah Crook takes on the role of Nicole Collard.

It was released as Baphomets Fluch 3: Der schlafende Drache (Germany), Les Chevaliers de Baphomet: Voynich manuscript (France), Broken Sword: El sueño del dragón (Spain), and Broken Sword: Il sonno del drago (Italy).

Ports of Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon were released on the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2 platforms, however, the PlayStation 2 version can only be found in Europe.

= Broken Sword 4 (Working Title) =

On 17th August 2005, the fourth game in the series was announced by ).

=Tech info=

Broken Sword 1 and 2 use an enhanced version of Revolution s in-house Virtual Theatre engine. While these games were originally produced for Windows, it is now possible to play them on a variety of Operating Systems using ScummVM. Broken Sword 3 is based on an engine by Renderware.

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