One of the most notable adventure games released in the 90’s surely was Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror. Revolution Software’s game hit the PC back in 1997, and it’s likely anyone who was a gamer back then has fond memories of playing this adventure game.
Unlike the first Broken Sword game (which was known as “Circle of Blood” in the US and debuted a year earlier) which dealt with Templar conspiracies, the sequel was based on Mayan mythology. It took protagonists George and Nico to Central America, the Caribbean and several European locations, as they tried to unravel the mystery of the “smoking mirror”.
Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror was berated upon release due to it not quite living up to the original game, but was still an atmospheric, jolly good for those who played it back in the day (me included).
It’s a good thing, then, that the game is getting a remastered edition early next year titled “Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Reforged”. It will be released on PC and consoles (PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch).
This is the second Broken Sword game to get the “reforged” treatment, coming after the release of Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged last summer.
“The Smoking Mirror has always been one of our most loved games, and with Reforged we were able to enhance it in ways that respect the original while making it shine for modern audiences”, said Charles Cecil, CEO of game makers Revolution Software in a press release.
It remains to be seen whether this Broken Sword 2 remaster will end up being a hit, but last year’s Broken Sword Reforged game was not only rapturously received, but also was a top seller, as Charles Cecil said in a recent interview with gamesindustry.biz.
“It’s just as well it did, because the game went so horrendously over budget that if it hadn’t sold well, we would’ve been in deep trouble”, said the man.
In the interview Cecil spoke about his company Revolution Software’s past woes, and the difficulty of making ends meet while working with big publishers like the now defunct Virgin Interactive and THQ. “We have been on the edge many, many times”, Cecil said.
And of interest to many adventure game aficionados, he also spoke of Broken Sword 6, the long-awaited next mainline entry in the series which fans have been waiting a long time to play.
However, it seems the game is still in the drawing board. And while it’s clear that it will see the light of day sometime in the future, Revolution is obviously worried about how much it will cost, with Charles Cecil saying that “what we won’t do is go charging into Broken Sword 6 without knowing how it’s funded, because that would be a recipe for disaster”, in the Games Industry interview.
The man also admitted that while they have “a substantially designed game, we have substantially designed characters, and some of the dialogue written” the UK studio hasn’t “done very much [with it] for quite some time”. So this means that even though the last mainline game (Broken Sword 5) was released 12 years ago, fans of the series will still be waiting for quite some time before Broken Sword 6 hits the shelves.
George and Nico will be returning in Broken Sword 6 (pictured), but Revolution will be releasing Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Reforged first.
Even though it might still be a long ways off, the sixth entry in the long-running series will be titled “Broken Sword: Parzival’s Stone”, and we’ve only seen the briefest of teasers for it (and part of it was an ad for Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged).
According to the game’s Steam page, “sinister medieval cabals” will be involved, while the game will deal with quantum physics in some capacity too… It will feature locations like Berlin, but this will be another globetrotting adventure in which our intrepid heroes George and Nico will be searching for perhaps the greatest of all mythical treasures – the Grail.
But as stated earlier, sadly the game’s release date is still nowhere in sight. Thankfully, though, fans and newcomers to the Broken Sword series have the Broken Sword 2 remaster to look forward to, one which will hopefully be as good as the “reforged” version of the first Broken Sword was when it arrives next year.