A couple of nights ago I laid awake during the night and my thoughts turned to a game that I once played on my Windows Mobile smart phone a few years back.  While I could picture the game in my mind, I couldn’t for the life of me remember the name.  As it turned out, the game was named Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars. What I regretted the most was that my phone died before I got very far into the game and I was unable to complete what was turning out to be a game that was as humorous as it was challenging.

Imagine my surprise when, just the following day, I was to told about a Director’s Cut version of the same game that had now been ported over to the iPhone.  Despite the fact that the game was priced at $6.99, I didn’t hesitate logging into the iTunes store and purchasing a copy.

The difference between the version of the game that I played on my old phone and the Director’s cut is easy to see from the very beginning.  While the earlier game followed the progress of George Stobbart, and American tourist in France, as he attempted to solve the bombing of a café in Paris, the Director’s cut not only contains that complete story line but also follows the efforts of Nico Collard, a character that was only seen briefly in The Shadow of the Templars, as she attempts to solve the murder of a Parisian luminary. I can only assume, since I have not had time to progress too far into the game thus far, that the two story lines will overlap more as the game progresses.  This additional story line adds a considerable amount of new content, so even those that have already played the original can find something new here.

As far as game play in concerned, the game used a simple “point and click” (or “point and tap” on the iPhone) interface in which you interact with various items located in absolutely beautiful hand painted backgrounds, often with conjunction with items that you have added to your inventory.  During the course of following the story line you are not only challenged by various puzzles but are also entertained by some of the best wry humor that I have experienced in any of the dozons of iPhone games that I have purchased to date.

If I had any complaints at all about the game it would be the price.  While the introductory price was $6.99 when it was released in the iTunes store earlier this week, I would think that far more copies will be sold once the price drops some.  As much as I like the game I think a price of $4.00 would be far more reasonable.  That is particularly the case for those that purchased the original.  It would be nice if the “director’s cut” additional content could be added as an in-app purchase  for an “upgrade” price.