Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse Reviews
Pure fan service in every sense, which ensures an enjoyably nostalgic adventure but also means a number of flaws that wouldn't be tolerated in other circumstances.
Part mystery, part comedy, this is a classy point-and-click with dazzling art, charming characters, and crackling dialogue. Although slightly overlong and occasionally slow, it feel surprisingly fresh.
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse returns the series to its former glory with excellent storytelling and characters.
A solid return to form for a long-running series with a proud heritage -- though right now it's left frustratingly hanging and thus may provide a better experience once it's all wrapped up.
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse is a great point&click adventure, a heir worthy of the first two original game from Revolution Software.
Review in Italian | Read full review
A witty, sometimes challenging point and click adventure that will charm new players and delight existing fans.
With the second part added, Broken Sword 5 could certainly reach beyond three stars – but, until then, it's wise to remain agnostic about Charles Cecil's latest offering.
Broken Sword 5 is a reminder of just how entertaining point and click adventures can be. It might have been a while since they were the cutting edge of the industry, but they are still capable of great stories, gameplay and humour. Broken Sword 5 is an instant classic and well worth playing through.
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse - Part 1 is thoughtfully constructed with low-pressure environments and the promise of a global thriller with a supernatural curse reaching back to Biblical times. It's strung me along this far, so I'm ready for part 2, but part 1 is doing very little to hint at any major payoff for this sleepy but good-natured point-and-click adventure.
[I]f you like point and click adventure games with mystery, good puzzles, humor, and a little bit of history, Broken Sword 5 is exactly what you're looking for. It stays consistent with the genre it helped invent and does so almost flawlessly, coming highly recommended to fans of the franchise.
This first episode of Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse is a noble attempt at recapturing the spirit of a classic from a bygone era, that doesn't quite reach the same lofty standards as the original.
It's always a pleasure to meet George and Nico again in their latest adventures to date. The Switch version contains some new features, especially two modes of gameplayand a renewed interface. We only regret a less successfull final act, than before and some illogical riddles which need to refer to the game help.But if you never have played this game, this ''ultimate'' version is an excellent opportunity to discover it.
Review in French | Read full review
Whilst point and click games may not be to everyone's taste, Broken Sword 5 manages to weave in a sense of mystery and a bunch of puzzles, which allows it to appeal to a wider audience. Even veteran puzzlers may find themselves stuck for a little while at some points in this adventure, but there are hints throughout the game should you feel you need the extra help. You are thrown straight into the excitement of the murder, and the story only gets better the deeper into the game you get. Although the conversations are often slow and drawn out, the characters are amusing and the game constantly pokes fun of itself and is never too serious, even given the subject matter. Players of any of the previous games should feel right at home here, and for fans of puzzles that may be a little outside of the box, there is plenty to keep you entertained. There's a lot of fun to be had here and it will definitely get the cogs whirring in your brain, even if it doesn't quite hit the mark all the time.
Veterans of the genre (or series) will no doubt enjoy Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse for what it offers. It's an interesting story, has a plethora of puzzles that need to be solved (regardless of either being too easy or difficult at times), and is simply fun all the way to the closing credits. The few issues I did experience will vary on your love for the genre, and once you've completed it there's really no reason to run through the game again.
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse is an entertaining title with a few disappointing aspects, including linear puzzles and awkward animations, which makes for a lukewarm revival. If you're a fan of the adventure genre, you'll probably be able to overlook most, if not all, of the shortcomings listed above with very little difficulty. Newcomers, on the other hand, may wish to spend their money elsewhere.
Broken Sword 5 will slowly worm itself into your affections if you expose yourself to its ever so gentle humour for long enough. Whatever the opposite of subversive is, this is it, and there's something bizarrely, stupidly funny about Stobbart's straight-delivery of an idea that his trap of putting a biscuit inside a matchbox is good enough that he might fall for it himself.
It can't shake its past, running as it does through every beat of its game design, for better and worse, but The Serpent's Curse concludes satisfyingly, wrapping in such a way that has one just about forgiving, if not forgetting, its more frustrating moments. Players experienced with '90s adventure games will no doubt revel in how Broken Sword 5 moves in some maddeningly mysterious ways, and happily muddle through its poorly-paced first half. But those short on patience and with a low tolerance for bad acting (and worse accents) should seek out the aforementioned superior Switch adventures before investigating this curious concoction of mostly redundant old-school sensibilities mixed with flashes of evergreen flair and modern HD artistry.
Despite Broken Sword 5 feeling like a game made for Broken Sword fans, with tons of references, recurring characters and threads from previous games slipped in, it's hard not to appreciate what Revolution has achieved here. It isn't the best adventure game released in recent years, but it's charming, fun and a worthy update of a four-year-old title that you might have overlooked.
Genre fans will of course be happy of this revival, but the writing isn't as good as we hoped.
Review in Italian | Read full review
It is safe to say that Broken Sword 5 on the Switch is the ultimate version of Charles Cecil's Adventure game. Being able to switch (no pun intended) between handheld and console mode is a great feature for a game such as this one. And the addition of brand new bonus videos is a nice touch for fans of the franchise.
Review in French | Read full review