10 Best Point And Click Video Game Adventures Ever

6. Broken Sword: The Shadow Of The Templars

The Adventure:

In 1996 the genre was rocked by a scholarly assassin in this smart point and click yarn. Developed by Revolution Software, Broken Sword took some of history's best mysterious bits - in this case, The Knights Templar - and crafted a tale around this subject fodder. Players take control of American in Paris, George Stobbart, and his journo sidekick, Nico, as they uncover a sinister plot resolving around the titular secret order. What separates this from the other entries on this list, as well as the similar Gabriel Knight series, is the subtle innovations. Puzzles are solved by picking up and using items, sure, but an added dimension to the game is the use of character chat icons, which feature instead of predetermined slugs of text. Unlocking more of these can be accomplished by creating a new item in your inventory, interacting with something in the environment or speaking with another character. Broken Sword went on to influence titles such as Toonstruck and even the later Monkey Island adventures. There's also that persistent web rumour that none other than author Dan Brown was inspired by this game when writing The Da Vinci Code.

Puzzling Par Excellence:

In a word: Ireland. The moment George steps off the plane onto pastures greener, he mixes with the locals of Lochmarne, roots around a pub cellar before heading of to an excavation site and into a tête-à-tête with Billy the goat.