Broken Sword II: Remastered

[ThunderPeel2001]

This time with 100% less "Director's Cut"...

http://www.dotemu.com/en/download-game/753/broken-sword-2-the-smoking-mirror-remastered

I'd like to play, oh yes!

[Kolzig]

Awesome, this one goes to my evergrowing list when it hits GoG!

[syntheticgerbil]

I'm guessing they got less of a professional to do the faces this time around? They look pretty mediocre!

[ThunderPeel2001]

I'm guessing they got less of a professional to do the faces this time around? They look pretty mediocre!

Not sure, last time it what Dave Gibbons. Pretty professional.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Awesome, this one goes to my evergrowing list when it hits GoG!

I was going to say the same, but then I noticed: It's 4.99 Euros and DRM free... Why wait for GOG?

[Kolzig]

Well, I seem to need to make an account at dotemu, so I really don't want to be spreading my buying all around. I'd like to keep it to Steam and GoG for now to have big game libraries for me, but in as few places as possible.

[Thrik]

I'm guessing they got less of a professional to do the faces this time around? They look pretty mediocre!

Same guy AFAIK, some professional comic artist. The George face looks to be the same one from the director's cut, and I wouldn't say the others are of a lesser standard.

Personally I think he's done a pretty good job of matching the style the actual original game used for close-ups, with the exception of George weirdly enough who I thought looked way better in the original close-ups:

http://gscanner.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/BrokenSwordShadowoftheTemplars-1.gif

Quite disappointed that the remainder of the game seems to feature its original low-resolution art, though. What exactly makes this worth having apart from the comic panels?

[toblix]

Is this the same version as the iOS one? It has the faces and everything.

[syntheticgerbil]

Personally I think he's done a pretty good job of matching the style the actual original game used for close-ups, with the exception of George weirdly enough who I thought looked way better in the original close-ups:

Hmmm... strange. I guess I should have taken the time to look and see it's still Dave Gibbons, but for whatever reason the faces this time around seem more clunky or less detailed. I just rechecked and compared both new versions. It's possible he was not the one digitizing his images, since they kind of seem like the work of some amateur Photoshop this time around. The line quality is pretty clunky.

[Thrik]

They don't seem bad to me. The style is definitely a divergence from the first game's re-release, but it still looks well done and seems more in line with the game's own style.

I really don't like the drawing they used for George in both games. The hair is a complete mismatch to how it appears in the game and original close-ups, and it just generally looks a bit lacking in character.

Kind of lame that the shape of the waiter's hair in this shot is more akin to how it was originally depicted than in George's own drawing (which has some kind of lame attempt at detailing on the hair that destroys its intended shape):

http://www.dotemu.com/sites/default/files/screen2_7.png

[ThunderPeel2001]

It's possible he was not the one digitizing his images, since they kind of seem like the work of some amateur Photoshop this time around. The line quality is pretty clunky.

Surely you mean Illustrator?

[Thrik]

Surely you mean Illustrator?

No, no — it's clearly CorelDRAW!

[syntheticgerbil]

I don't know, possibly Illustrator? The art may be flat color but it doesn't appear to be vector to me because the black lines on the characters faces have a lot of tapered edges which are obnoxious to do in Illustrator, but I ultimately can't tell without higher res screens.

It's also possible it's just really clean scanned ink art that Dave Gibbons did, but since the lines appear so chunky looking, I was getting the feeling it was someone drawing over maybe his pencils in Photoshop? I don't really know, just a theory.

[Thrik]

I've got no idea what software was used and don't really think it's relevant, but for what it's worth the illustrator next to me at work has a ginormous Wacom and he seems to be able to easily adjust stroke width by using less pressure while drawing — I'm guessing this is how someone like Gibbons would draw nowadays.

[ThunderPeel2001]

They look like vector to me, I'd put good money on it. They're clearly not scans. I'd guess they took Gibbon's hand drawings, scanned them in, and then got someone to "tidy them up" by drawing over them in Illustrator.

That's my guess (I wonder if we'll ever know?).

[Roderick]

I have great memories of Broken Sword 2. It might be the lesser of the two games, but damn if it isn't atmospheric and cool. I might just play the original, who cares about high res graphics?

[ThunderPeel2001]

I have great memories of Broken Sword 2. It might be the lesser of the two games, but damn if it isn't atmospheric and cool. I might just play the original, who cares about high res graphics?

Hi-res graphics and superior music and audio quality, I think. Also, surely BS2 > BS1, right?

[Thrik]

Oh god yeah, BS2 is my favourite. It's the locations, man — so wonderful! What a game.

As for the remaster, I would bloody hope the audio is improved because the visuals look exactly the same to me in those screenshots on Steam. Other than the GUI and heads obviously, but it's still kind of crummy. I'd love to see places like the beach home and jungles brought to HD life.

[Roderick]

That's the first time I heard that opinion. Usually it's the other way around and BS1 is considered the better game.

BS2 came out only a year after the first one to ride the wave. Though that is a very impressive feat in itself for such a polished title (go Revolution!), I felt that it also made the game a little more off-balance (there are areas where there's nothing but conversations for an hour, and the ending was lacking).

[Thrik]

I thought it was quite a widespread stance that BS2 is the better game, myself. Hands up, people!

[ThunderPeel2001]

I thought it was quite a widespread stance that BS2 is the better game, myself. Hands up, people!

Same here. I've never heard anyone else suggest otherwise.

[Nappi]

Broken Sword II got a bit worse reviews at the time but that was probably because it was "more of the same". I enjoyed both of them very much and honestly don't know which one was better. Broken Sword II is definitely not definitely better than Broken Sword I, though.

I played Director's Cut version of the first game and the normal version of the second. The Smoking Mirror could certainly have used some of the improvements of the Directors Cut, such as highlighting points of interest. It also had one or two incredibly broken puzzles which are not likely to be fixed in this remastered edition.

[Ben X]

Broken Sword II got a bit worse reviews at the time but that was probably because it was "more of the same". I enjoyed both of them very much and honestly don't know which one was better. Broken Sword II is definitely not definitely better than Broken Sword I, though.

I played Director's Cut version of the first game and the normal version of the second. The Smoking Mirror could certainly have used some of the improvements of the Directors Cut, such as highlighting points of interest. It also had one or two incredibly broken puzzles which are not likely to be fixed in this remastered edition.

Which one's the goat puzzle in? I think that's 2, isnt it? I read that Cecil is deffo all over fixing that one.

[Patters]

Which one's the goat puzzle in? I think that's 2, isnt it? I read that Cecil is deffo all over fixing that one.

1..

[Nappi]

Yes. It was in the first one. Still don't know what was wrong with it in the original game (which I haven't played).

The bee one was in the second one and I suspect it isn't fixed because there is no such thing as that infamous bee puzzle.