Bl33t Skillz

A reunion with a bolshie billy in Broken Sword 5

FORMAT PS4 / PUB REVOLUTION SOFTWARE / DEV REVOLUTION SOFTWARE / RELEASED 2014 / SCORE N/A

Usually, in OPM Towers, it’s the stare of the Goat Of Shame that fills us (Ben), with existential dread. But in this point-and-click adventure, as protagonists George and Nico arrive at a villa in Catalonia hunting down the latest MacGuffin, they cross paths with another belligerent billy that has us shaking at our knees.

But why does the sight of an old kid do this to us? Well, it’s because of the infamous Goat Puzzle in the original Broken Sword. In the ’96 original, bumbling hero George needs to get past a goat that keeps headbutting him whenever he approaches it. You have to fool the bugger into wrapping its chain around a plough, a speedy trick that throws many a gamer, including us, for a loop.

So when ol’ goatface returns in the PS4 sequel, tied to a tyre in front of a broken car, no wonder we’re so apprehensive. Are we due for another bruising encounter? Unfortunately for George, someone is firing shots at him from afar, so simply avoiding the grazing menace isn’t an option. Instead, he needs to somehow distract the beastly creature, so then he can break off the wingmirror on the car and shine a light into the gunner’s eyes.

Of course this is incredibly convoluted; this is a point-andclick-game, after all. It’s both a tough puzzle to crack, requiring a different type of logic to the original goat-based puzzle, and a lovely little homage to the fans who made the fifth entry in the series possible via a Kickstarter.

Still, despite Broken Sword’s two best efforts, there’s only one goat that truly haunts our (Ben’s) nightmares… and he’s looking at us (Ben) rightnow. Shudder.