The Hand Of Glory (Part One)
As anyone who listens to the podcast knows, Broken sword: The Shadow of the Templars was my first adventure game and remains my favourite game of all time. Everything from the story, the characters, the writing, the puzzles and the graphics have left a lasting impression unlike any other game I have ever played. Clearly I’m not the only one who still has an affection for that game as last year Madit Entertainment announced their first game, The Hand of Glory, was to be inspired by Broken Sword. On June 9th 2020 the first part of the game was finally released. Is this game a glorious release? Let’s find out!
From the outset you can see that this game is indeed heavily inspired by Broken Sword. We have a wise-cracking main character who needs to travel the globe in order to solve a mystery and stop a conspiracy that could have devastating consequences for the world. The main character also speaks in the past tense whenever you interact with an object or hotspot much like George Stobbart did. You even hear bells ringing whenever you find a clue similar to Broken Sword. But while this game is indeed heavily inspired by Broken Sword these similarities are mostly cosmetic and crucially, the game has its own identity which prevent it from being just another Broken Sword clone.
You play as Lazarus Bundy, a once famous Miami police detective. Having just failed to capture the serial killer known as “Blowtorch” he comes across a newspaper story about a local missing heiress named Kathrin Mulzberg. Hoping that this can help revive his career, he sets out to investigate the disappearance and hopefully find the girl before it’s too late. Needless to say things escalate from there as we meet evil villains and we come across a mysterious object that could shape the future of the world.
The story zips along and kept my interest all the way through. The dialogue sparkles and doesn’t overstay its welcome. The game’s tone remains light throughout while the story itself is fairly serious. We also meet some wacky characters such as a conspiracy theorist, a kiosk owner who pretends to be a Frenchman and a very strong but stupid goon and his rather psychotic mother who you need to escape from a few times throughout the game. While some characters are simply there to help move the story along, other characters play a surprisingly major role in the game. There are some nice twists along the way that should keep the player guessing. As mentioned above, this is just part one so by the time we get to the end the story doesn’t get resolved. The developers mentioned that the reason they split the game into two parts was story related as they wanted the ending of part one to sit with the players for a while rather than jumping to the next scene immediately. While the ending was certainly surprising it did seem to come very suddenly with little warning and it’s a dramatic shift in tone that the game possibly doesn’t entirely earn. Some more hints throughout the game may have helped prepare for the tonal shift but here’s hoping this is addressed more fully in part 2.
In the game we also meet an intern, Alice Sharp, who agrees to help us with the case. She mostly serves as a type of Google as she helps find out more information on locations or other characters that we come across. There is great chemistry between the two characters and there is an amusing running gag where Lazarus continuously attempts to guess why she has a single lock of grey hair. We also get to play as Alice where we learn she is studying Kinesics, which is the study of non-linguistic bodily movements, such as gestures and facial expressions. In the game this is put to good use as we observe the characters closely and use that in order to get what we want. For example, we may see a character fidgeting so we can tell him that if he helps us we can help calm him down. This was especially interesting and it’s just a pity we didn’t get to play as Alice more often. Again hopefully we will play as Alice more in the second part.
The game is typical point and click which is intuitive and easy to navigate. The exits are clearly marked and there is an in-game notepad which help to keep track of your objectives. You can also click on the inventory icon at the bottom left of the screen and it’s never intrusive. You can also see all the hotspots available if you hit the Space key which quite frankly all adventure games should have. You can also save at any time except for cut scenes. The puzzles are usually the traditional inventory combination type with just the right amount of difficulty for the most part. Unlike in other adventure games, you usually know what you need to do and you just need to figure out how to do it. The puzzles are creative but logical at the same and there was never any moon logic that has plagued so many other adventure games. There are also a few logic type puzzles which are more difficult. For example, one involves a bingo card, another involves a piano and another involves moving some chess pieces. Thankfully they are fair and while one or two of these took me a little longer than I would have liked, the solution to the puzzles is usually simpler than you think. You have everything you need in the game and you don’t need to learn how to play the piano or chess in order to resolve the puzzles. That said, a type of hint system would have been nice in particular for more casual players who may find these puzzles frustrating.
The voice acting is of a good quality and the voice actors of Lazarus Bundy and Alice Sharp in particular do a great job portraying their characters. Likewise the orchestral music really helps the game come alive with a really catchy theme tune and suitably tense and relaxing music when appropriate throughout the game.
The game also features beautiful 2d hand drawn graphics which are very detailed. There are some beautiful cut scenes and the game also has a hot spot finder which removes pixel hunting. The entirety of this game is set in Miami which allows the artists to demonstrate their artistic skills on diverse locations which range from Miami city centre, the police headquarters and a hut by the swamp. Part 2 will be set in Italy so I’m looking forward to seeing what locations we visit there.
This game took me about ten very enjoyable hours to play which is more than a lot of other adventure games especially since there is more to come very soon. While the ending had a rather dramatic tonal shift, Alicia may have been slightly under-used and a hint system may have been welcome for some of the more challenging puzzles, these are all very minor nitpicks in what is an otherwise truly excellent game. Since this is just the first part of the game it’s difficult to know exactly how good the game will end up being. We will find out when the second part is released later in September this year whether this game can indeed become our adventure game of the year but for now with the charming 2d graphics, gripping story, puzzles with the right amount of difficulty and creativity and beautiful soundtrack and high quality voice acting, part 1 is highly recommended for any fans of the genre.
Pros
Good story with well written dialogue which is neither too long or too short
Puzzles are creative and logical with the right amount of difficulty
Nice use of kinesics, study of non-verbal behaviour, which is integrated well into the game
Good voice acting particularly for the main characters
Surprising depth to some of the other characters
Intuitive point and click gameplay with hot spot finder which removes pixel hunting
Gorgeous 2d hand drawn graphics
Beautiful orchestra music with cathcy tune which brings the game to life
Cons
Tonal shift at end is rather sudden that is not quite fully earned
Story not resolved as this is just part one.
Alice Sharp is under-used
Some of the logic puzzles could have used more guidance or hint system
========================================================================