Ruben van der Leun @Burrie
Reviews
Circle of Blood (Game Boy Advance)
An extremely well-executed adventure for the Game Boy Advance.
The Good
I was surprised when I first heard that an adventure series, previously released for the PC and Playstation, was going to be ported to the Game Boy Advance. Having never had the opportunity to play this game, and being quite a fan of adventure games, I sought out this game for the Game Boy Advance. Suffice to say, this game is one of my most pleasant buys I've made so far for the little handheld console.
The game itself starts out in Paris, where George Stobbart is quietly enjoying his vacation. In the beginning, the peaceful life takes a turn for the worse when the restaurant where Stobbart is relaxing is suddenly blown up, and a single man dies in the incident. For various reasons, George feels that he has to solve the mystery. Little does he know that this little adventure will soon turn out to be a world-wide quest of epic proportions...
I am very surprised how well an adventure game works for the GBA. Broken Sword originally used a point-and-click system, but the developers chose to implent a different system for the GBA release. It reminds me pretty much of playing style found in Grim Fandango... The player controls George movement with the D-Pad, essentially making George the 'cursor' in the game. Whenever the player comes near a usable object, a small icon pops near the object in question, usually signifying what one can do with the object(ie. a pointing hand shows that George can walk towards a new room, whilst magnifying glass signifies that George can take a closer look at the object). The player interacts with objects using the A Button, whilst he can use the B Button to look at an object. The L-Pad brings up the inventory, in which the player can use an object or merge two objects together. The R-Pad brings up a nifty feature that will reveal all the hotspots within a room. Whilst this option makes the game less difficult, it also prevent the game from turning into a 'find-the-hotspot/pixel' game.
The graphics have been extremely well ported from the PC/PS versions to the GBA version. Every room is displayed with crisp detail, and characters only become somewhat pixelated when they come very close to the screen. All icons found in the game define very well what they're represent.
The sound effects and music are well represented. The music ranges from average to very good. The sound effects are somewhat average, they don't really stand out. Naturally, the GBA version does not have any speech, unlike its PC and PS version.
And of course, now I come to one of the (if not, the) most important part of an adventure game : the story. Suffice to say, Broken Sword delivers. Actually, Broken Sword delivers EXTREMELY well. The mystery starts out good, with a mysterious clown blowing up a restaurant. Once the smoke clears, you can start digging up several clues, and meet a fascinating French reporter who can aid in solving the murder. However, once the player starts digging further into the mystery, and searching for the identity of the murderer, everything gets turned upside down. Once you think that you have figured someone/something out, a new clue is revealed that invalidates your theories, and your mind immediately start to absorb all the information, and new questions arise... the story will surely hold you from the explosive start to the surprising ending.
Of course, an adventure game can't be an adventure game without its puzzles. Just like the story, Broken Sword delivers with its puzzles. They are often laid out in a logical fashion, but won't pose too much of a problem for the average adventurer. The difficulty is just right. You might be stuck for a long time in a certain scene, and just when you're about to get frustrated, you suddenly notice that one clue that you missed, and immediatley solve the puzzle and move on. Then, you might get stuck again, but once more before getting frustrated, the puzzle is solved. One puzzle I sincerely enjoyed was the mystery that a certain manuscript contains. I studied it whenever I could, and it's just so fulfilling to travel to a different location and suddenly recognize something from the manuscript that will help you solve the problem.
The Bad
Unfortunatley, Broken Sword has one thing that has plaqued many a game before : Bugs. There is a bug that will leave the player stuck in a situation from where he can't continue. If you have saved past this point, you'll have to completely restart the game... Apparently, if you travel to Spain before visiting Syria, you will encounter this bug. Luckily, I had been warned of this bug beforehand and didn't walk into the death-trap myself. This happens pretty far in the game and it could be annoying to start all over. Also, on a few rare occasions, George managed to get stuck in a location, and he couldn't move at all... saving often is recommended.
I've heard from several reviews that Broken Sword is pretty hilarious on the PC and PS version. Although several sarcastic comments from George made me smile from time to time, I didn't find anything that truly made me laugh out loud(a feat not too hard to accomplish). Mayhaps most of the jokes were cut from the GBA version, or the delivery of the voice actors manage to bring out a joke, but I didn't find anything outstanding..
Also, the game is somewhat short... I managed to complete the game in about three days. Of course, I also played this game as often as I could.
The Bottom Line
In the end, playing Broken Sword feels like reading a good book. The mystery manages to keep itself mysterious throughout the story, every character manage to possess a characteristic of its own, and plot twists often come at the right moment. Once you've finished the game, you might put it away, but you'll dig it up pretty soon to go through it again to see which plot points you missed, or just to be completely entertained by its enthralling story.
By Ruben van der Leun on September 7, 2002
Police Quest: SWAT 2 (Windows)
More of a game than an actual police simulation, which is not necesarilly a bad thing.
The Good
This can be a very entertaining and addicitive game if you understand the controls. This episode of the SWAT series seems to focus more on being a game, rather than being a realistic police simulation.
Amongst the interesting things is that there is a huge difference between the two groups (SWAT and the Five Eyes). If you play as a SWAT officer, you'll have more than enough money for your organisation, but you'll need the public's support if you want to continue. Furthermore, in the missions themselves, you'll have to be very careful. Only take down threatening suspects, and make sure to take care of the innocent people involved. Position your men well, and make sure that no one escapes. And of course, the sniper placement is very important as well... should you give him the order to fire, or better wait? Also, you'll be giving instructions to the CNT which can heavily influence the outcome of a mission... will you grant an escape vehicle to a suspect so that he doesn't kill a hostage?
However, if you decide to join the ranks of the Five Eyes, you'll be playing a total different game. Although you have a lot of volunteers for your mission, you probably will be managing your money well. And instead of coordinated plans that'll succeed, you'll need to be a master of hit-and-runs, else your organisation may be arrested. Send your terrorists in to do the job, and make sure that you have an escape route ready after you've completed your mission. Hostage missions can be very tense, but you'll be in control of them, thus you have something that'll protect you against SWAT. Don't go too roughly on them, else you might be in trouble.
Amongst the things that keep me returning to this game is the different ways on how a mission can play out. This is one of the few games in which there are several random factors that'll change a mission. The suspects can be placed on different locations, there may be less hostages being held. Most of the NPCs tend to act different as well. Sometimes, the suspect will either start firing when he sees your element, or immediatley surrender. In one mission, I had a suspect retreating with a hostage in tow, and closing the door. Whilst I was planning a strategy to recover the hostage, I suddenly heard a yell. Fearing for the hostage's live, I immediatley send in my element, and to my genuine surprise, the suspect was actually knocked down. The hostage had defended himself.
The story itself also kept me returning to this game, and made me complete the game. The SWAT campaign may look like a bunch of random missions, but as you collect evidence, you'll uncover an interesting conspiracy. If you've collected all the evidence, everything will be wrapped up in the epilogue. That there actually were several random missions in the campaign didn't bother me in the least. After all, even if there's a conspiracy going on, that doesn't mean that other petty criminals are busy themselves. The terrorist campaign also has an interesting story, although it didn't grip me as much as the SWAT campaign. Still, the final missions for the terrorist are pretty fun(which is very good, when you compare it with the nearly-impossible final mission for the SWAT campaign), and the ending is quite good.
Finally, this SWAT episode sees the return of Sonny Bonds, the hero in the first three Police games. Even 'tho he doesn't play a focal point in the storyline, and is just another one of the police officers, adding him brought a smile to my face, and it was great to work with him again, for one last time.
The Bad
Even 'tho there are many good points, there are several things that brought the game down, and probably things that didn't make it a classic.
First of all, there doesn't seem to be any management with the ammo. Each gun has an endless supplies, and although you can run out of flashbangs, you can't run out of gas grenades.
Second, the controls can be AWFUL if you haven't mastered it. It'll take you several hours of gameplay before you can be totally comfortable with the interface.
Also, your officers(or terrorists) can sometimes act pretty stupid. Although terrorists would automatically open a door, SWAT would not, so if an officer was trailing a suspect, who closed the door behind him, the officer simply refuses to open the door without ordering him to slice the pie. If you're in the middle of a hectic combat situation, this can be painful. Also, if your officers are fired upon, but you have them selected, they won't make a single move. Sierra explained that this was because the player wouldn't feel as if they're in control of their officers. This is just plain silly. An option to turn this off would've been nice. It's quite interesting to see unselected officers react when they're fired upon, as they immediatley run towards the nearest cover that they can find, and start firing back.
Third, getting evidence for the SWAT campaign can be a pain sometimes. When all the suspects have been defeated, and all the innocent people saved, the mission ends within several seconds. If you haven't gotten all the evidence in that mission, then you won't be able to complete the game. An option to end the mission when the player desires to would've been great.
The Bottom Line
So, would I recommend this game? Yes, I would. Although there are several mistakes that made it lose its appeal to many gamers, these can be outweighed once you get used to the interface. The campaigns for both sides are great, and different ways to play make this one of the entertaining SWAT games. However, if you're looking for a realistic simulation, I'd recommend the other two SWAT games.
By Ruben van der Leun on January 5, 2002