Before I went on holiday (which seems like an age ago, incidentally) I bought myself Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars – The Director’s Cut.

I have reasonably fond memories of the PC original and the feeling had always persisted that I was perhaps a bit harsh on it when I reviewed it, so I welcomed the chance to play it again in a slightly different format.

First things first – the ‘enhanced’ Director’s Cut doesn’t include the original (or indeed any) voice-acting. Perhaps the storage capacity of a DS cartridge doesn’t allow it [that’s right, dumbass – someone who knows something about anything] but it doesn’t seem right to read George’s moronic outbursts rather than hear them.

What we do get is an extra section early on where you get to play as Nico, some additional touch-screen puzzles, and some new close-up animations of each character (provided by Dave Gibbons) during conversations. In summary – not a whole lot to get too excited about.

Still, the original game still holds up pretty well, and aside from the sound it loses little in translation to the smaller screen. But another play-through reminded me that it’s full of little annoyances that get in the way of you being too fond of it. Perhaps they could have taken the opportunity to review some of the script along the way – particularly George’s more aggressive or tasteless remarks that came as a bit of a shock first time around.

Worth a look for DS adventure fans – but only at a knock-down price, I reckon.