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Broken Sword: The Angel of Death

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7.0 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 31 critic reviews
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Based on 16 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: THQ

Developer: Revolution Software - Sumo Digital

Genre(s): Adventure

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: February 19, 2007

Summary

(Know in the U.S. for some reason as "Secrets of the Ark") When the forces of ancient worlds, and past forgotten myths battle against the power of old friends. When current emotions clash with past regret, and when some guys in York design cunning puzzles, write funny scripts and orchestrate the type of music to make the hair on the back of your next stand on end, it can only mean the fourth instalment of Broken Sword has been born. After reluctantly battling dragons, Mayan gods and becoming a Knight of a long lost Holy Order, unwitting hero George Stobbart settles down to a life of mundane 9-5 office work. Who would have thought that a mysterious and beautiful woman would enter his life; a woman whose sudden disappearance draws him into a desperate search for a nefarious artefact of great and terrible power. (Well apart from those guys in York, that is) Emotion, humour, time pressure and puzzling combine for the latest Broken Sword Adventure and unfortunately for George, it looks like the world needs saving one more time. [THQ]

Also On Metacritic

GAMES: Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror Circle of Blood

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Just Adventure

Not a perfect game. It suffers from patchy controls, dull and unremarkable locales and an ending that is a bit of a let down. But it also has some gorgeous 3D graphics, top notch voiceovers, music and dialogue, and an ultimately engrossing storyline which is well paced and will keep your interest piqued.

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The New York Times

While its old-school design is unlikely to win many new converts to the genre, it is still, flaws and all, the best adventure game to come out in several years.

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Game Chronicles

With a compelling story, complex puzzles and great voice acting, I couldn’t ask for more. The controls were a bit frustrating at time but all in all a great experience.

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Gamer's Hell

While hardcore fans of the adventure genre may want something more challenging and less linear, casual fans or newcomers can certainly enjoy what Secrets has to offer and not be disappointed in the least.

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AceGamez

An engrossing story that's backed up by excellent visuals and sound that immerse you within the game's setting and locations.

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GamingExcellence

As an adventure game, Secrets of the Ark is a very good one, assuming you can get over the hurdles and high degree of difficulty some of the puzzles require.

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Pelit (Finland)

The Angel of Death manages to keep the adventure genre alive. Budget and/or time constraints show: the game is quite rough around the edges. It is also too linear although the puzzles are good and varied. Why cannot the dialogue be fast-forwarded? [Dec 2006, p.82]

Quandary

As it is, it was a damn fine fortnight of adventure, and George will no doubt be back on the strength of it.

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PC Format

Needs some polish, but otherwise, this is a true return to form. [Dec 2006, p.104]

Computer Games Online RO

Not what we’ve hoped for, but it’s a step ahead and may be one of the best adventure games released this year.

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Games Master UK

A fine adventure game, although not the best Broken Sword ever, and is well worth adding to your inventory.[Dec 2006, p.98]

PC Zone UK

It's hard, its opening acts don't match the quality of those which follow and some characters grate - but as a modern rendition of a traditional formula, The Angel of Death has both pointed and clicked wisely. It's another nail out of the adventure gaming coffin. [Oct 2006, p.58]

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Worth Playing

It's not a masterpiece, but it's hilarious, brilliantly moody, and worthy of attention from any fan of adventure or humorous games - or graphics effects nerds.

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GameSpot

Secrets of the Ark is a little too in love with itself, but this is still a first-rate traditional adventure with a great story and mostly commonsense puzzles.

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GameShark

The puzzles will definitely make even seasoned adventure title players flex their brainpower a bit, but given that the vast majority of the puzzles make some sort of logical sense even players new to the genre should be able to think their way through to the solution with little help.

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GameZone

There isn’t anything exceptional about this game, but it compares well to most adventure games being released today. Fans of Broken Sword won’t be disappointed.

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Gaming Nexus

Yet another solid adventure game from The Adventure Company. Nothing spectacular, but it’s still a fun way to scratch the adventure game itch.

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Strategy Informer

Top marks for creativity, but the occasional flaws, bugs and, to repeat my oxymoron, lack of unnecessary depth, make it look like the game could have done with another 6 months of fine-tuning.

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PC Gamer UK

It's still intelligent and sometimes witty. But this time it's ringing with emptiness. [Nov 2006, p.94]

PC Gameworld

I don't see anyone anticipate a co-worker saying, "man, I wish 5pm would hurry up and get here. I want to get home and play Secrets of the Ark" in the near future. But I can see the adventure fans finding something of value buried in there somewhere with Mary of Magdalene.

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Adventure Gamers

A decent new adventure in the (hopefully ongoing) Broken Sword saga, but its erratic quality prevents it from fulfilling its own potential, making it best suited to existing fans of the series.

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Jolt Online Gaming UK

To put it simply, The Angel of Death is an exceptional 2D point and click title masquerading as a fairly good 3D counterpart. There is simply no reason why George now resides in a new multi-dimensional world, bar entertaining its weakest element – its physical challenges.

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Eurogamer

It's a great game in so many respects, and we're overflowing with admiration that Revolution stuck to its purity of vision about what an adventure game can and should be about in the mid noughties. But when you're sat in front of the monitor filled with rage because of some utterly obscure puzzle, you'll have to question whether consistently busting a player's balls in so many ways is the right approach these days.

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2404.org

I would only recommend it to the most dedicated of adventure game fans, particularly those familiar with the previous games in the series.

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Game Over Online

I was a little annoyed when the ancient mysteries ended up revolving around the Knights Templar and the Ark of the Covenant. Haven’t those two things been involved in enough ancient mysteries without trotting them out for yet another?

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PC Gamer

In fact, everything about SoTA feels done in a perfunctory and barely interested way. [July 2007, p.58]

Games Radar (in-house)

A solid-if-not-spectacular entry, and fans will appreciate that they haven't been forgotten and will doubtlessly eat this up and ask for more. But anyone who hasn't already invested hours in the three previous Broken Sword games will have a hard time seeing Secrets of the Ark through to the end.

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Sydney Morning Herald

Deliberately lacking ambition, this is an encore that will please patient fans, but also reminds us why the point-and-click adventure is now an endangered species.

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Total Video Games

If you have the perseverance to stick with puzzles that have been designed to test the patience of time itself, the slow introductory pace and continuous struggles with the game's interface (the genre's weaknesses as a whole) then Broken Sword 4: The Angel of Death probably provides everything you're looking for.

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Edge Magazine

Time and again in The Angel Of Death, a perfectly obvious solution is ignored in favour of an absurdly contrived one, and whenever a puzzle hinges on the responses of NPCs... these prove bizarre and unpredictable. [Nov 2006, p.84]

games(TM)

There’s a fun story to be experienced here, but it’s constantly halted by the lack of progression. Any notion of pace, suspension of disbelief or immersion is constantly shattered by obtuse puzzling, aimless wandering and wooden, static performances. [Nov 2006, p.104]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

lello V. gave it a4:
Poor game-the previous title (dragon) was clearly better. The plot is incredibly dull, and the story moves at the speed of plight. The death knell for this once glorious franchise?

[Anonymous] gave it a4:
Blant graphics, really cliche storyline, nearly no Nicole at all, tucked in puzzles, weird path finding. Worst game of the series ever. No wonder they republished it under a different name without the Broken Sword logo on it. Fans of the series, avoid!

Mika H. gave it a9:
A good game. Holds its own very well. Aside from couple of illogical puzzles and slightly annoying control scheme, this is a very good piece to the Broken Sword saga.

Ben M. gave it a9:
Very good improvement of Sleeping Dragon, but still not perfect. I'm a big point and click fan and this was the best BS yet. The puzzles stopped main gameply though.

Dave E. gave it a0:
I'm sure many others new to the point and click style will offer the positives to this game, so as a BS veteran, I'll stick to the negatives, that for me, far outweigh any positives, and make this the worst of the point and click style BS's by some distance. Another dip into 3D and another disappointment. This game was rushed out, probably a couple of months too early. The environments are large, empty, and few in numbers. Take the Vatican, Salami Factory and Turkish hotel locations - only two mute guards at the Vatican, two men at the factory, and only a "busy" receptionist and waiter in the hotel. They've just stuck in the bare mininum to get through the game, and it looks very poor and unrealistic - adventure games released 10 years ago gave more depth than this. And the cause is probably the 3D - that aspect means the locations *have* to be bigger, and take a *lot* more work to get right in terms of content. They just haven't done it. The player rewards are woeful. Take the final scenes. Without giving away any spoilers, the ending is possibly the worst ending to any game I have ever played, and even if you fail to save the day you don't even get a cutscene showing what terrible events occur, just another 3 minute long loading screen and right back into the very last 'puzzle'. They couldn't even be bothered to put in a real enemy for you to be fighting against. The (often) lengthy conversations are poorly done - just the same frozen viewpoint of the two characters for minutes on end. Farenheit showed how a 3D game can keep lengthy conversations interesting. Revolution should stop worrying about trying to turn BS in a role playing game in 3D (which requires a ridiculous spec of graphics card - for nothing more than a Point and Click game with very average graphics that still runs slow for 90% of people!) with dodgy control, and get back to what made it so engaging in the first place - the art of storytelling and creating atmosphere. And they'll only manage that by going back to 2D.

Edlismange D. gave it a10:
Much better than 'The Sleeping Dragon', in terms of everything really. The interface is near perfect, I can't remember any of the bugs (there were only a couple) as they were so minor and easy to work around. The plot is told well, and got me a lot more involved with the game. Although some of the puzzles seemed unnervingly hard, I never felt the urge to use a walkthrough, so the difficulty level is just right. It just seemed as though a lot of care had gone into the game, it is quite long with lots of detail and memorable characters. It is also pretty funny at times. Definatley a classic for adventure fans. There'd better be a sequel.

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Broken Sword: The Angel of Death

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