Broken Sword 4 - the Angel of Death (2006)

Classic broken sword with better graphics and story line. Some clues are still weird but overall great.

I should have written this review back when I had just finished the game, but I was so annoyed at the game that I decided to leave it alone.

What are my annoyances? For one, no hint system… this game DESPERATELY needs a hint system. Half the time the solutions make NO sense at all. I played most of the game with a walkthrough guide open. The puzzles were so unfun most of the time that I’d rather just follow the walkthrough instead of even attempting to solve it.

The puzzles I liked were those classic Indiana Jones puzzles where you have this ancient text that gives you a riddle, and you have to apply that to the current room you’re in.

Massive con on the other hand… unskippable dialogue. Remember I mentioned ancient texts that give you a riddle? Well… did you forget something from the final line? Well, now you have to sit through the entire monologue from George reading the text. One puzzle: it was actually so difficult to keep it all in my head that I had to write down what he was saying so that I could read it on my own when solving the puzzle.

The Hacking minigame was fun at first… until it became so complex that I—without a hint system—had to just look up the solutions on the internet.

I feel the jokes rarely landed. There is SOME fun in this game, I would recommend this game if you get it on sale and have a walkthrough open.

No outfit changes anymore. The last game put a high standard, I guess, with several outfits per playable character.

There is a glitch near the end of the game where your character spawns in a corner with your companion standing next to you… so you can’t get out. Restarting that level won’t fix it. It took me a while to find a solution. In fact, this seems to be a quite common bug and for some reason, the only solution recorded was in a franchise review, somewhere in the middle of the video. I made a short 1-minute video in hopes that if someone gets stuck, they can quickly find the solution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7-1KF00piI
Basically, just run downwards.

The final puzzle… I still have no idea how you’re supposed to solve it. The solution in the walkthrough says to look at the ancient text… but the solution image it shows is NOTHING like the clue in the text. I looked it over many times, and it just… I don’t see it at all! I DON’T KNOW! I mean, I solved the puzzle since I just copied the walkthrough, but I don’t understand how we get to that solution using the in-game clue in the ancient text.

This game is so annoying that even writing this review is starting to make me mad. I BARELY recommend this. Like I said earlier, get it on sale if you must play all the games. The 5th game is MILES better than this. So either power through this game, or straight up skip it and play the 5th game, you won’t be missing out on much.

The series started off strong but then tried unsuccessfully to change its winning formula. In this entry, there are too many spatial puzzles involving the pushing/pulling of boxes, and not enough adventure game puzzles. I made it just over 5 hours before deciding to uninstall it.

Control system is fiddly
Can't skip dialogue
The crypt is buggy at the hourglasses and after falling down the pit
Lame ending with no conclusion to the plot that is uncovered

I understand why this game is disliked, it definitely lacks the charm of the 2D games, but the story and writing are good. I personally enjoyed it more than 3.

stalls at start

I bought this as part of the series bundle and went in positive after the horrible gameplay that was 3, because I've really enjoyed the story thus far and figured being able to use a mouse again would be helpful. I even saw the negative reviews about the controls but wanted to give it a chance. After struggling with movement for 20 minutes but still determined to make it out of what seemed like the tutorial level, the final nail in the coffin for me was my attempt to go across a tiny ledge inside the warehouse and suddenly not being able to go forward or back, no matter where I clicked or with right or left clicker. I'm done. I'm going to watch the game online somewhere and stay optimistic for 5, because 5 looks great.

I really enjoyed that game, I don't remember having any issues with the game play (played it originally when it fist released). Working my way though all of them atm 1-5 looking forward to replaying this one.

Wow, that was bad. I'm a completionist, in the sense that once I start a series I want to see it through. So, yes I played this for like 20 hours. It sucked. They clearly ran out of time or money for this game before they shipped. Gone are all of the great things that brought the first game to life. This is the first time I've played through the Broken Sword games, and so far this is hands down the worst out of them. Not just only the worst of a good franchise, but a legitimately bad game in it's own right. The puzzles lack logic. Many of the puzzles are not presented properly. Some items you have to interact with are off screen and you have to walk away to see them. The controls are extremely janky. The conversations aren't very funny. Humorous dialog about inventory items is sparse. Lacks depth. The women in the game are portrayed as stupid for most of the game and just stand around doing nothing. Nico doesn't look anything like Nico, and George doesn't look quite like George. They just completely missed on all points. Just loads and loads of problems like this, and they never stop. It's a poorly crafted game that screams "development troubles". I'm so glad I'm done and moving on to Broken Sword 5.

I love Broken Sword immensely and the 4th entry in the series, was the one, I never quite managed to finish, when I played it many years ago. On my current series playthrough though, I hate to admit: I don't think it's worth playing. I say that, having recently played through the 3rd game, which I would recommend in spite of its aging and issues.

Broken Sword 4 has little of what Makes Broken Sword special, besides it's main character George Stobbart and his witty sense of humor. The puzzles are poor, the writing is poor, the voice acting, gameplay, characters and animation is poor. The game feels like rushed fanfic and while it was directed by Charles Cecil, it is very hard to believe so.

Were you ever to decide to play through Broken Sword as a series, I wholeheartedly recommend you play entry 1 and 2, then 3 if you really dig it the vibe, and finally 5. Skip this entry entirely. There is nothing in it you need to know for the 5th game; it is not worth it.

Bad adventure game!
2/10

- Bad sequel.
- Bad directing.
- Bad animation.
- Uninteresting storyline.
- Several stupid storyline twists.
- Lots of boring conversations.
- No final ending.
- Bad game controls.
- Climbing mechanics.
- Stealth mechanics.
- Unable to skip cutscenes, conversations and comments.

Not recommended even for fans of the great classic "Broken Sword" dilogy!

P.S. How to run "Broken Sword 4: the Angel of Death" on Windows 10/11 without lags (freezing)!
1. Open the Steam library.
2. Right Mouse Click on the game "Broken Sword 4: the Angel of Death".
2. Open "Properties".
3. Go to "General, LAUNCH OPTIONS".
4. Write "-compat-on" (without quotes).
5. Enjoy (or don't enjoy) the game.

€ PRICE / QUALITY

☐"IT'S A TRAP!"(Admiral Ackbar)
☐ "That'll do, pig. That'll do."(James Cromwell)
☑ "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!"(Philip J. Fry)

PC REQUIREMENTS

☑ Minimum
☐Medium
☐High
☐ Extreme

GRAPHICS

☐Cheap
☐Acceptable
☑Masterpiece

GAME TIME (hours)

☐0>2
☐2>5
☑5>15
☐15>30
☐30>50
☐50>75
☐75>100
☐100>?

STORY

☐ None
☐Bad
☐Good
☑Amazing

DIFFICULTY

☑Simple
☐Easy to learn, hard to master
☐Hard
☐Blackhole (FiolaSoft Studio)
☐Impossible

BUGS

☐Game itself is one big BUG
☐Bugs destroying the game
☐Bugs
☑Few little bugs
☐Perfect

It's worse than 1 and 3 and 5, but better than 2. You can really feel the money running out as you get through the game. I played the steam version a few years ago and it worked well enough. Couldn't get it working this time. The GOG version worked out of the box for me.

This is still to this day the most disappointed I've been in a squeal. The Broken Sword games are some of my favourite games in general and I still can't wrap my head around what Revolution was thinking with this sequel. I haven't got much playtime in the steam version (bought it as a collection) but I did play this when it was first released in 2006.

The theme feels off, the story feels like pound land Davinci code and worst of all the characters just don't feel like themselves besides maybe George who is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Feel free to skip this for the MUCH better 5th game which feels like a much more faithful squeal, hell nothing about this game is referenced in it.