Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror Remastered (PC) Review

In 2010, Revolution managing director and Broken Sword mastermind Charles Cecil re-played The Smoking Mirror and found a series of improvements he could make; some of the backgrounds were pixelated, the FMVs and voice performances sounded a little sloppy by modern standards, and some of the dialogue now felt a little out of place. These issues were fixed by the team at Revolution, and a wealth of changes was brought in.

Long-time partner Dave Gibbons created some new artwork which served as an interactive comic (and fills in some of the blanks between Shadow of the Templars and this title), enhanced graphics were introduced with facial animation, and higher quality music was included. The biggest addition, though, was probably the inclusion of a diary and a hints system. The diary allows keeping track of where you are in the story without getting lost meaning that it's possible to leave the game a week or two, come back, and know where you left off - very handy.

The hints system works well too, which is fortunate, as some of the puzzles can be categorised under 'O' for ohmigodreally?, and this does a good job of trying to help people come to the conclusion without outright giving the solution. But enough about the mechanics of it all, how does it play? Well, to be honest, the same as before - only it looks much nicer now!

The story, set six months after the conclusion of the first title, sees George and Nico investigate Professor Oubier, who is in possession of a curious Mayan stone, when the pair gets ambushed, Nico gets kidnapped, and George is left tied to a chair as the building is set ablaze. Thus begins a globetrotting, wisecracking tour of Europe and the Americas as the two heroes race to solve this Mayan mystery.

The voice acting, as in the original, is still great, and George and Nico play off each other very well; George is just the right mix of brains and brawn, while Nico serves as the compass throughout the journey, using her connections and smarts to compliment George's skills. Yes, some of the puzzles are frustrating at times, but all is forgiven because you're drawn into this great world full of character, atmosphere, and intrigue. Even if unaware of this game, it's worth checking its remastered version out - even if it it's just to check out more of Gibbons' fine work.