Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror Remastered

Broken Sword II
Version: v.1.3
Compatibility: iOS 3.1.3
Price: $6

A lot of the games I seem to be playing lately are the older variety of games. Even though I have a PS3, I've been playing PSOne games. The same goes for my Wii and indeed now my iPad seeing as the old wit of George Stobbart has made its way to my tablet. The point and click genre appears to be made for the touch screen revolution with Telltale games storming the app store with their new Jurassic Park series, Back to the Future and Sam and Max. So how does Broken Sword stack up?

The first feature I commend it on is its Dropbox support. Although I didn't use it very often, I carried over my save from iPad to iPhone and back when starting to play. It worked extremely well though the game doesn't work too well on the iPhone since clicking is very finicky. That's right, the controls are very wonky for a point and click. Howso you ask? The problem is that the original game required two types of clicking, left and right. Left interacts while right observes. This iOS variety works by clicking on a point of interest once and it presents the option afterwards. Clicking on the icon is hit or miss and you can not hit it right at first which cancels the transaction. Then attempting to hit that sweet spot again to bring up the option will miss and your character will end up walking away or worse, going to a new screen.

At some points in the game precision in movement and timing plays a factor. They are far and infrequent but when they happen, prepare for frustration.

My other gripe is a small one. They added new images during conversations of character avatars. They feel out of place but are not a huge deterrent. The proper voice acting and dialogue is still here however and that alone is well worth the money. George Stobbart is one of the characters that came before Drake (but after Indiana Jones) that fall under the adventurer with sharp wit. The core experience that the game stems from is here in its entirety and despite the frustrating controls is easy to lose yourself in. The beautiful visuals and incredible soundtrack (put on the headphones, it's one of those games) makes for an interactive movie experience that uses the best parts of the iOSs hardware to recreate a classic game.

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