Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror

Review

by Joshua Roberts

Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror is Revolution Software's follow-up to their extraordinary graphic adventure Circle of Blood (called Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars in Europe). Like its predecessor, The Smoking Mirror is a visually beautiful game that puts its two central characters, George Stobbart and his girlfriend Nico Collard, in pursuit of the truth behind an age-old myth. This time, the two reluctant adventurers must travel the world in a race to stop the return of Tezcatlipoca, the legendary Mayan God of Death. Unfortunately, the similarities to the original all but end there.

Although the game begins on an exciting note -- Collard is kidnapped and Stobbart finds he's tied to a chair in a burning house -- it quickly deteriorates into a series of easy puzzles and humorless gags. While Circle of Blood featured a sprawling story of mystery and wonder offset by Stobbart's timely wit, The Smoking Mirror relies almost entirely on poor jokes to hide its hopelessly inadequate plot. In the original, George provided the comic relief against a serious and intriguing backdrop; here, the backdrop itself tries for humor but instead falls flat. (The tribe of Central American Indians enamored with their recent discovery of underwear is just one of many unnecessary and distracting gags.)

Missing is the real sense of depth and intrigue that made the original so exciting and gone, too, are the difficult puzzles. While Circle of Blood was hardly an Einstein-level challenge, it was certainly intricate and thought provoking and most puzzles required a degree of consideration before the answer became obvious. Not so with The Smoking Mirror. The majority of puzzles are painfully easy with the few that aren't generally spoiled by the rest of the game's inadequacies.

It's not totally bad, of course. Like its predecessor, the graphics are impressive, as are the animated cut scenes that pop up as the story progresses. The ability to play as Collard in offsetting chapters is also a nice feature and would have been a great way to drum up suspense with the cliffhanger endings if the game had been more intriguing as a whole.

Really, that's the heart of the problem. The most intriguing thing about The Smoking Mirror is how it could possibly have been created by the same folks who came up with its predecessor. If you're looking for a really great graphic adventure game, give Circle of Blood a try but resist the temptation to pick up its sequel. Like the game's title implies, it's all smoke and mirrors and very little substance.