Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror (1997 Video Game) User Reviews

A competent story, an unpolished game...

[TheHande · 7/10 · 30 November 2006]

The Smoking Mirror continues the exciting adventures of George and Nico this time pitting them against the Aztec Death-God Tezcatlipoca. Broken Sword has almost a movie-quality to it, being notably more linear than its predecessor, but the story is still quite interesting none the less.

The game unfortunately is not very challenging and the puzzles are incredibly simple for an adventure game. The game over-all seems to suffer from a lack of polish (which is an unfortunate trait seen throughout the series). Though the opening still manages to capture the dark essence of the first game, the latter half is a miss mash of elements that don't deliver quite evenly.

Broken Sword 2 also has a very unbalanced graphic output, but over-all a better soundtrack than its predecessor as well as classically lovable characters. Not the best, but neither the worst game in the series.

Excellent Game

[sstumbke · 6 May 2002]

Broken sword 2 is an excellent point and click game but it is not as good as the original game, the main problem with this game is that it is not long enough. The thing i thought was great about it was that you could control another character, i would recommend playing the original before playing this.

I would give this game 7/10

A fine adventure, but not as good as BS1

[action-6 · 17 April 2000]

George Stobbart returns in Broken Sword 2, after beating all the bad guys in Broken Sword 1. George`s girlfriend Nico receives an old stone by mail, and the couple travel to professor Ovier`s house. However, George is knocked unconscious and Nico is hit by an arrow containing poison. When George wakes up, he is trapped in the burning house, a poisonous spider is heading his way, and Nico is gone.(!) After escaping the house, George sets out to find his girlfriend, but as in BS1, he accidently enters a dangerous world of mystery and death. BS1 had a proud and excellent story about the Knight Templars, now it is about drug traffic and 3 secret stones. The story in BS2 is not as got or gripping as in the first game, but is nevertheless interesting. The graphics are sharper and clearer than in BS1, so it is now easier to spot where you are going to execute the famous puzzles of the series. The locations are beautifully drawn and very detailed, and the music follows in the steps of the game`s older brother. Check out BS1 first, then if you like that, come back to BS2 for more. Good game! 9/10

Good Sequel But Doesn't Quite Match The Original

[bs3dc · 14 February 2007]

"Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror" continues the adventures of George Stobbart and Nicole "Nico" Collard pretty much where they left off at the end of the first game, except that George has returned to Paris after going home to the USA to attend his dying father. Once again Nico has managed to get herself into trouble and only George can get her out of it...

The setting of Central America feels a bit more original these days when about every second novel published is about the Templars. The list of locations is impressive and extensive, with London, Paris, Marseille, the Caribbean and Quaramonte City (fictional Central American country) among the destinations. The improved music by the same composer - Barrington Pheloung - is much more varied to reflect the surroundings.

There are few differences in the game-play and the graphics, so it should be easy to pick up for George Stobbart fans. The major deviation is that now there are segments when you can also play as Nico. Rolf Saxon makes a welcome return as the hero, but sadly the voice actor for Nicole changed which I think is the shame, not because the replacement is bad, but it takes away some of the continuity. Few other characters make their return, but the most unbelievable is Dwayne and Pearl Henderson who just happen to be in Quaramonte City the same time as George and Nico, and reminded me of Sheriff J.W. Pepper's unlikely reappearance in the second of his two James Bond films.

The linearity is much greater compared to the first game as frequently movement is restricted to one or two rooms until you have done everything you need to do to progress to the next scene, a far cry from the numerous locations you could visit at once in Paris in BS1. One problem I had was that it was possible to do things in BS2 that would mean failing the game later on, which did not occur in the earlier adventure and did not occur to me until many hours of frustration had me reaching for a walk-through (which I didn't need to complete BS1).

One of the last great 2D adventure games, Broken Sword II is well recommended to any fans of adventure games with a strong storyline, good voice acting and logical puzzles.

Disappointing sequel: has its moments

[niz · 26 January 2000]

While BS2 is a pretty good adventure game on its own merits, in comparison with the classic original it suffers badly. The puzzles are less well balanced, either being absurdly easy or frustratingly obscure. It is much more linear (you don't get any sense of exploring a city, as you did with Paris in the BS1), and the story is much weaker. My heart sank at the moment when I heard that George's quest was to "recover the 3 magic stones and bring them together at some-place-or-other"... hardly a classic plot. On the other hand, it looks good, and this time round you get to play Nico!