Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse - Part II Review

The camera slowly pans over the rolling yellow and green hills of Catalonia, a Spanish community nestled between France and the Mediterranean Sea. In Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse, George Stobbart and Nico Collard leave London and Paris behind, traveling to this quiet landscape after deciphering clues hidden within a painting that stands at the center of a murderous conspiracy.
Mere hours before they stepped out onto the Spanish countryside, they were rescued from atop a burning building, set alight by one of the game's key antagonists: a man whose true identity and purpose remain unknown. As George and Nico are standing at the dilapidated entryway of the Castell del Sants, the tragic epicenter of the story, the pensive calm is shattered by gunfire aimed at them from inside the building--out of the frying pan and into the firing range.

George is visited by a nightmare from the past.

The two protagonists leave the first chapter with the elusive painting La Malediccio in hand. The enigmatic Gnostic imagery that enshrouds the canvas has led George and Nico to the aging castell, where they hope to decipher the meaning behind its cryptic symbology. They are soon led to a gorgeous town in the scenic Spanish mountainside, and later, to the parched amber sands of modern-day Iraq. The game discards the urban sprawls and embraces nature, a move that bolsters the impact of the already impressive aesthetics. The hand-painted environments range in scope from imposing mountains, which are home to soaring eagles, to archaic monasteries and Gnostic shrines stained and cracked with age.