Swordbreaker The Game Review

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Choice based games are ten-a-penny these days, there are so many titles that allow you to direct the narrative and choose an ending depending on your choices. Visual novels are choose your own adventures with not a lot of action and but a fair bit of interaction. Games like Mass Effect or The Walking Dead have a story that is branched over 2 or more games within a series. Bladerunner on the PC is one of the earlier games I remember with a lot of replay value because of how many choices you could make, more recently Heavy Rain, Until Dawn and Detroit: Become Human have offered the player what feels like hundreds of choices that could sway the story one way or another. A long time ago I enjoyed the classic Choose Your Own Adventure books, you picked a character, you rolled dice and made choices that dictated where the adventure took you which including dying within 3 page turns! Swordbreaker The Game is a choose your own adventure.

Swordbreaker The Game follows an adventurer who begins his quest in front of a castle. Each scene is a well-drawn series of stills with some text, practically every scene requires some kind of choice to be made. The choices are usually between 2 or 3 options, sometimes a few more depending on the situation. Something you’ll find with Swordbreaker The Game is that there are multiple choices that will lead you to your demise. Luckily, you have 3 lives, so if you do end up dead, then you do have a chance to choose a better option, however if you lose those 3 lives then the game ends.

In Swordbreaker The Game there is effectively variations of 3 different kinds of endings you are aiming for depending on how you act and survive until the end. You can be a hero, a killer or a coward regarding your choices. This seems to be split up by helping people, killing those asking for help or just running away from a situation. There are certain people who if you help can return the favour little on as a choice that appears in a later scene, however the scene can still be navigated through without the need of the help which limits the effectiveness of these additional choices you can add. Thankfully, if you die there, it keeps a record of how many scenes you’ve encountered and how many death scenes you have come across, which is a lot. A guide is accessible which acts as a road map so you can see the branches of your choices, and it’s quite easy to identify which scenes you have already viewed.

Graphically Swordbreaker The Game is illustrated with a lot of detail and looks like you’re on a hero’s quest. Text appears at the bottom, but sometimes you need to scroll down to read the whole narration, more of a technical annoyance. There are a few musical tracks that run throughout Swordbreaker The Game, the death knell, which sounds when you choose an option that results in your untimely death is a personal favourite. Unfortunately the only voice acting to be found is in the intro, it sets the scene perfectly, it’s just a shame the voice acting isn’t present when playing Swordbreaker The Game story. There’re numerous paths you can take in Swordbreaker The Game, so there’s a reasonable amount of replayability, but Swordbreaker The Game is pretty limited in terms of interaction. The plot of Swordbreaker The Game is unfortunately not that interesting, especially at the 5th, 6th etc. time of asking, there’s a few attempts at comedy but it doesn’t quite hit the note in that respect.

Swordbreaker The Game is a choose your own adventure title, which is mildly fun to play. If you’re a fan of simple choice driven narratives or visual novels, then Swordbreaker The Game is the kind of experience you would enjoy, for the rest Swordbreaker The Game will not change your mind on this genre. If you’re an avid choose your own adventure reader, then Swordbreaker The Game is a quick fix, but the uninteresting story and miss hit humour that makes Swordbreaker The Game a pretty average title.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo Switch code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.

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Swordbreaker The Game Review
  • Gameplay - 6/10
    6/10
  • Graphics - 7/10
    7/10
  • Sound - 5/10
    5/10
  • Replay Value - 7/10
    7/10
User Review
0 (0 votes)
Comments Rating 0 (0 reviews)
Overall
6/10

Summary

You’re a hero, there’s a castle, time for some adventuring in Swordbreaker: The Game!


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