Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse

Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse marked the series' return to the roots of the classic point-and-click genre after the previous installments experimented with controls adapted to consoles and touch devices. Revolution Software decided to finance the game through a crowdfunding campaign, which clearly showed that there is still great interest among longtime fans in a return to the series' traditional style with hand-drawn 2D graphics.

The player again guides the two main characters, the American tourist George Stobbart and the journalist Nico Collard, this time in a story revolving around a stolen painting and a conspiracy reaching back to medieval religious sects, a theme well known from the first installment of the series. The gameplay sticks to the tried-and-tested formula of exploring the environment, collecting and combining items and solving logic puzzles, complemented by the typical English humor in the dialogue that has made the series famous since the nineties.

The hand-painted background graphics together with the traditional puzzle design impressed critics and fans as a faithful return to the style that made the series famous, and the game was received as one of the best sequels since the second installment. For players who grew up on the first Broken Sword, the fifth chapter offered a nostalgic yet modernly crafted experience that proved the classic adventure still has a firm place in today's market.