GAME NEWS – Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged Is Out Now!

By Marty Mulrooney

Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged brings the classic 1996 point-and-click adventure to modern PCs and consoles. With 4K remastered visuals and enhanced audio, along with a whole host of quality-of-life improvements, there has never been a better time to join American tourist George Stobbart and Parisian photo-journalist Nico Collard in their quest to bring the Costume Killer to justice. Read on to watch the launch trailer – which riffs off the iconic original trailer and comes complete with a suitably atmospheric voiceover – and find out more!

Broken Sword: Reforged was released today – 19th September 2024 – and is out now on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S for £24.99, with the Nintendo Switch version due for release in October 2024. I have played the PC version for almost 50 hours over the past few months, and I can honestly say it’s fantastic! Switching between the ‘Original’ graphics and the ‘Reforged’ graphics never gets old… it’s a kind of magic!

However, I won’t be writing a review, as I’ve actually been working with Charles Cecil and the Revolution Software team in an advisory capacity – and I’ve also had the privilege of being asked to write the instruction manual and the art book for the Kickstarter rewards. Remember when PC games used to come with a nice thick manual that you could really get stuck into during the car ride home? I wrote one of those for Reforged!

Taken from the official Renaissance PR press release:

In Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged, you will:

Step out onto the streets of Paris as American tourist George Stobbart finds himself embroiled in a mysterious journey of intrigue and jeopardy.

Enjoy a globe-spanning adventure, exploring exotic locations, solving ancient mysteries, and thwarting a dark conspiracy to reveal the secret truths of the Knights Templar.

Voyage through the game’s iconic locations illustrated in beautiful 4K (on supported formats) on PC and contemporary consoles for the first time ever.

Listen to enhanced audio as Revolution delivers the finest, most stunning version of George and Nico’s original adventure to date.

Switch between the original 1996 version of the game and the new reforged visuals at the click of a button.

Play the game the way that you want to – choose between a ‘traditional mode’ for people who enjoy adventures the way they used to be, and a ‘story mode’ for those who want subtle hints to ensure they never get frustrated.

If you want to read more about the history of Broken Sword, you could do a lot worse than checking out this interview with Charles Cecil that I conducted for the game’s 25th anniversary. I also interviewed George Stobbart voice actor – and my good friend – Rolf Saxon in 2015 to celebrate Broken Sword 5 hitting consoles, which you can read here.

Oh, and I recently edited and contributed to a book about the history of Revolution Software written by studio co-founder and talented programmer – and another good friend of mine – Tony Warriner (check out our 2012 interview here). The book is out of print now, but you can still buy a digital copy here.

So, there you have it! If you’re playing Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts!