Loved the game, few broken puzzles (Mild spoilers)

[Jamiboy]

I've played all Broken Swords through 1 to 5. I think it was a great game. I really loved playing it and the story and everything.

Only thing that bothered me in this game was few puzzles that were either way too hard or way too simple to solve. Below list of puzzles I didn't like:

1. The worst puzzle, encoding Tabula Veritatis. This made no sense. As the clue implied, you have to use "lateral thinking", but actually a psychic was needed. When I chose an answer for a symbol it would even block the view for the bottom of nearby symbols. Some symbols like city was shaped differently in different translations (makes it easy for lateral thinking). When you compare symbols for south and east for example shouldn't compass points symbols even slightly resemble each other? And the logic for Young + River = SOURCE. Because why not. Could go on forever.

2. Ave Maria was also a bit stupid. The correct George Version did not really sound like the song. Also the hint from Duanes speech buble was not decryptable unless you know notes. If there was a dusty tome for notes it would've made more sense. Then after the puzzle how did Nico play the scaffolds like a piano? Oh and does George have one hell of an ear? After pouring the liquids into the bucket was like "F Sharp".

3. Turning around Maria Magdalena in tabula veritatis room to open the closed door. It was stupid and very slow puzzle to complete. Why couldn't George stand on the platform with Maria to turn it as many times as you'd like. No, I have to step down after every few degree turn. When facing the tree to the right it actually looked like Maria was facing it, but the tree to the left Maria couldn't be turned to face it.

4. In the Castell upstairs puzzle where you played with the lights Only by adding the blue light to the right statue I actually got the correct route, but the puzzle wasnt finnish until three lights would illuminate the whole canvas first.

5. The ending puzzle in the final cave was ridiculous wasn't it? Only one object to interact with (dynamite shaped hole in a wall) and 1 of your 4 items was luckily a dynamite.


Also I have to mention two puzzles from the first episode:

1. I don't know about you guys, but the password thing in Blue Lizards back office in the beginning to see the security cam footage for the crime. The thing was obvious to find 4 digit number and the correct password was Henri's birthdate. Well guess what americans. All europe writes dates 2705 and not 0527 (and afaik we're in France). Took me a really good while to figure this out.

2. When I'm playing a story I'm finding it stupid to have references to other stories, the Aladdin thing. My mind is set in a fictionary story so I don't think about other very different fictionary stories would be involved. (maybe its just me)

Conclusion. As I mentioned I loved the title. It's pretty much equal to BS 1 and 2 because I enjoyed solving the game so much and I'm not even going to rate the best one. Obviously BS3 and 4 weren't as good, but still enjoyable. Apart from mentioned puzzles above and maybe some other I forgot to mention here. And I'm looking forward to possible Broken Sword 6 and hoping they have enough money before hand to finish the title in one piece with a bit more quality. This game coming out in two pieces wasn't a good approach, but I understand why it had to be done so. I completed the part 1 in day one and happily forgot everything by the day season 2 launched. Had to play it all again from beginning. Please comment and bear in mind these are just my opinions.

[Jeremy Winston]

I pretty much agree on all counts, but I'm more forgiving, as I'm used to adventure game puzzles being a bit out there (peanut butter/runaway, anyone?)

That said... "YOUNG + RIVER"... Young can acutally mean beginning or start (BEGINNING + SUN + END = DAY). So, BEGINNING + RIVER = SOURCE. It really does make sense.

[Jamiboy]

Yeah I am not mad at the game or anything, I loved it, but just had to use full hints on some of them and as for non native english speaker it usually adds more difficulty to solve "foreign puzzles". Haven't tried those titles you mentioned, but as a fan of adventure games I'm gonna write them down and maybe wishlist them, thanks. :)

I agree with the source part it is actually easier, but I wonder where did George get the list of answers from? Maybe with time I could've cracked it, but idk. After 10-15minutes of not making that much sense I started looking at hints and even then it didn't make that much sense I wanted to just give up on that.

[Jeremy Winston]

I also had to resort to some full hints on that. I just got tired of banging my head against the wall. I probably would have toughed it out (and hopefully solved it), but the UI was, frankly, too painful. Switching between the various objects just took way too long. (Just like the statue portion you mentioned.)

BTW, I only mentioned on title... it's the Runaway series (of which, I think, the first game was the absolute best of all of them). It's available on PC (Steam) and iOS, now, and should be fairly cheap. There's also a pack of a bunch of games by that studio, Pendulo Studios. It's a Spanish studio, so if you speak Spanish, you might want to try that version, as I hear the jokes are much better (though I was quite happy with the English translation).

Enjoy!

[rekotc]

yes, i totally agree with you, the tabula veritatis didnt make so much sense to me. For example i still would like to understand the difference between SOUTH AND EAST, and where does the DESERT symbol come from? They look not completely related to the others..

and also i didnt absolutely get the logic behing the maria magdalena puzzle.. hope you can help me out, why did it work that way? :D

[Jamiboy]

Yeah and when you picked the answers the actual answers hid the symbols beneath them and it was harder to solve when you cant see the whole symbols.

Been too long since I played the part, but I think I had no real clue. I think I had to use hints. Alot.

[RmmR111]

I did the whole game without recurring to major hints or help, and in the tabula of veritatis part i just had to search for a walkthrough, because basically where they saw "desert" i saw "volcano" and a few of them that made honestly no sense to me. it was the only thing that actually frustrated me on this otherwise awesome game