Revolution Software had always positioned the Broken Sword series as a trilogy. After the release of the third installment in 2004 and the subsequent downsizing of Revolution's staff, another game featuring the plucky American lawyer George Stobbart and his smart, sarcastic sidekick Nico Collard seemed unlikely. That's why the announcement last August that a fourth Broken Sword game is in the works came as such a pleasant surprise.

There are some changes this time around, as much of the work (art, programming, etc.) has been contracted out to a company called Sumo Digital. But Revolution's Managing Director Charles Cecil is the common thread that ties Broken Sword: The Angel of Death to the rest of the series, as he wrote the story and is overseeing the game's development. Adventure Gamers spoke with Cecil at length about the game back in March, but E3 was our first experience seeing it up close and personal.

We met with Cecil in a meeting room provided by THQ, the worldwide publisher of Broken Sword 4. The game was demonstrated for us on a large wide-screen monitor with surround sound and the accompanying lights of the Philips amBX system (see sidebar). Although this might not be a typical set-up for the average gamer, it underscored the game's inherently cinematic nature. Even in its unfinished form, this game looks and feels like a movie, a quality that is in line with the epic storylines that have graced the previous Broken Sword games.

It's clear from Angel of Death's opening sequence that although the development team has changed a bit, the Broken Sword experience has not. Once again, George is faced with an ancient conspiracy that has emerged after centuries of subversion. After showing us a brief segment of the introduction, which involves ancient Egyptians, hieroglyphs, and the rise of the Angel of Death, Cecil switched to the opening gameplay sequence, which is set in modern day New York. George Stobbart is down on his luck. After being questioned extensively by the government over his involvement in Broken Sword 3's mystery, he's been blacklisted by employers. The best job he can get is as a bail bonds clerk in a bad part of town. He enters the building where he works unaware of the two men—mob types in dark suits—who are watching him from across the street. "Do you think he's packing?" one asks the other, as George makes his way inside, out of the rain.

Once indoors, George is met at his office door by a sultry blonde who we later learn is named Anna Maria. She says she needs his help; someone is after her because of a manuscript in her possession. Before she can explain further, there's a commotion outside George's office door, and he and Anna Maria have to find a way to escape. This is a classic Broken Sword convention, a time-pressured situation in which the player must think fast, but Revolution has approached it a bit differently this time around. Due to the negative feedback fans expressed over having to make split-second decisions in BS3, the developers have tried to maintain the same feeling of pressure while lengthening the time in which the player has to make a move. In this case, the characters have plenty of time to scramble into an adjoining room, push a piece of furniture against the door, and climb through the ceiling to safety.

Unlike Broken Sword 3, which also came out for consoles, Broken Sword 4 is being developed for PC only, and Cecil told us the development team is making the most of the PC's technological capabilities to bring the game screens alive. Although character expressions, lip sync, and some animations were not yet in place when we saw the demo, the characters are well-drawn and very detailed. The rest of the graphics, which were met with some disappointment when the first screenshots came out a few months ago, were not drastically improved, but Cecil stressed that these, too, are a work in progress. Between now and the game's release, lighting, camerawork, and ambient effects such as mist and rain will all be tweaked to create a more cinematic atmosphere. One such effect that we did see in action Cecil dubbed "pigeon AI"; a flock of pigeons on a rooftop move out of the way as you approach them, and fly off if you get too close. (Cecil assured us that this is not gratuitous… there's a pigeon puzzle later in the game!)

We heard a bit more about the story than seems right to give away in a preview, but suffice to say George and the beautiful Anna Maria work together to decipher the ancient manuscript she has, with the goal of finding a long lost treasure. About a third of the way through the game, though, George gets himself into a situation he can't get out of without the help of—who else?—his feisty French ex-girlfriend, Nico. That's right; in spite of Revolution and THQ's vague answers when the first information about Broken Sword: The Angel of Death was revealed, Nico is in the game, and we're told she plays a significant role. We saw Nico briefly; long enough to see that despite a new hairdo and a new voice, she has the same wit and spunk as always. The Broken Sword series has always featured a fair amount of sexual tension between George and Nico, but the introduction of Anna Maria promises to introduce a new angle to that relationship—and, potentially, a more mature storyline than the previous games have had.

Due to time constraints we didn't get to see too many of BS4's puzzles. Cecil showed us how George and Anna Maria make their way out of the office and away from their pursuers by climbing, pushing something that resembled a crate (but Cecil promises the game isn't full of crate puzzles!), and working together to move a heavy object out of the way. We also got a very brief taste of a puzzle involving the central manuscript that seems like it will work well to integrate the underlying mystery with the gameplay. The manuscript contains passages, images, and patterns that need to be deciphered in order to progress, a convention reminiscent of Gabriel Knight 3's "Le Serpent Rouge."



Like Broken Sword 3, this game has real-time 3D graphics with fixed cameras. At a glance, the interface appears similar as well, with icons appearing on the screen when you right-click that represent what you can do. Unlike BS3, however, the controls are not solely keyboard-driven. Broken Sword 4 gives you three ways to manipulate the playable character: using the same keyboard controls as before; using a point and click interface similar to that of the earlier Broken Sword games; or using a "point and drag" interface that is mouse-controlled, but appears to be a bit more tactile and hands-on than standard point and click. Whether or not gamepads will be supported has not yet been decided, but with so many control options, use of a gamepad certainly isn't necessary.

Broken Sword 4: The Angel of Death was originally announced with a summer release date, but that has been pushed to September, for what Cecil assured us is a good reason that hasn't been announced yet. It's hard to wait, but from what we saw at E3, the end result will be another iconic adventure starring the mismatched pair George and Nico, and that should be enough to excite any Broken Sword fan. And the fans are, first and foremost, who Cecil hopes to please. "Our core audience is the fans of the series, so it's important to us that we communicate with them, listen to what they say, and give them what they want," Cecil told us. If our E3 demo is any indication, they're well on their way to following through on that promise.