Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (also known as Circle of Blood in the United States) is a 1996 point-and-click adventure game developed by Revolution Software. The player assumes the role of George Stobbart, an American tourist in Paris, as he attempts to unravel a conspiracy. The game takes place in both real and fictional locations in Europe and the Middle East.
Charles Cecil began researching the Knights Templar for the game in 1992, and production of the game began in 1994. It was built with the Virtual Theatre, Revolution's engine which was also used for the company's previous two games. Cecil wrote and directed the game, while Eoghan Cahill and Neil Breen drew the backgrounds in pencil and digitally colored in Photoshop. The game is serious in tone, but also features humor and graphics in the style of classic animated films.
Critics lauded its story, puzzles, voice acting, writing, gameplay and music. It achieved commercial success as well, with one million copies sold by the mid-1990s. After its initial release on Windows, Mac OS and PlayStation, it was ported to the Game Boy Advance, Palm OS and Windows Mobile. The game spawned a number of sequels collectively known as the Broken Sword series. From 2009 to 2012, a director's cut version was released on Wii, Nintendo DS, Windows, Mac OS X, iOS and Android from 2009 to 2012.
Read more about Broken Sword: The Shadow Of The Templars: Gameplay, Plot, Development, Reception
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