Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror

This game is a bit of a mixed bag. I really like the main characters and it has some genuinely funny moments but there are weird tonal shifts. One moment characters are bloodletting themselves to please an ancient Mayan god, the next you are walking around asking people to comment on the panties you found.The big issue with most point and click adventures is whether or not the puzzles make sense. Again, Broken Sword 2 is hit or miss. When your goal was clear, the puzzles made sense and had just the right amount of challenge. But many times you were put in a situation where there were no clues as to what you even should be trying to do. A few times a puzzle’s solution involved talking to a random person one more time after you thought you had exhausted all your dialogue options. Thankfully, there is a pretty robust in-game hint system. Spoiler alert: you never need to use the panties.

Despite the flaws, all the chaotic threads come together in the climax and I ended the game thinking that I wanted to play the sequels.