Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars -- The Director's Cut (Wii, 2009)

"Paris in the fall…" these are the words the original game opened with and we remember that autumn in 1996 like it was a real-life adventure we all experienced. Broken Sword has always been the perfect combination of a warm lovely holiday and an adventure of mystery and murder! Well over a decade later the game is being brought to a new generation of gamers on the Wii and DS, but this is no direct port of the PC and PlayStation classic. The Director’s Cut includes hours of new gameplay.

Those with fond memories of the game will be perturbed to find that great opening “Paris in the fall” sequence has been moved along and the game now opens with an entirely new sequence where you control our hero, George’s love interest Nico. Nico’s tacked-on adventure offers a chance to delve deeper into the game’s incredibly deep plot.

New players might get a shock when the game moves into the original content, and suddenly the voiceover sound and cut scenes get a bit murky and show their age. Once you get past these surface annoyances, though, it becomes clear that Broken Sword is still one of the best point-and-click adventures ever made and will enthrall you for hours now as it did back in the day.

Our American tourist hero George Stobbart stumbles into a murky world of religious history and conspiracy that existed before The Da Vinci Code was even a glint in Dan Brown’s eye. The pointing and clicking, now done with a wiimote or a DS stylus, improves upon the PC mouse with helpful icons and object manipulation. A new helpful hint system and a diary keep players on track too. That Parisian autumn will come flooding back for those who were there – and for the newcomer, a wonderful trip awaits you.