Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (1996)
Charles Cecil and Revolution Software's Hand-Animated Knights Templar Thriller Starring George and Nico
Directed by Charles Cecil at York-based Revolution Software and published in September 1996 (titled Circle of Blood in North America), Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars elevated European point-and-click adventures to cinematic prestige. Pairing American tourist George Stobbart and Parisian photojournalist Nico Collard across Sullivan Bluth-trained animation and Barrington Pheloung's orchestral score, it popularized Templar conspiracy thrillers years before The Da Vinci Code.
Paris in the Fall, Don Bluth Animation Pedigree, and Barrington Pheloung
Opening with Rolf Saxon's iconic narration—“Paris in the fall, the last months of the year, and the end of the millennium”—before an accordion-playing clown detonates a café bomb steps away from vacationing patent lawyer George Stobbart, Broken Sword immediately distinguished itself from slapstick LucasArts comedies through grounded suspense and dry trans-Atlantic wit. Charles Cecil researched Foucault's Pendulum and The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, hiring Dublin layout artists Eoghan Cahill and Neil Breen from Don Bluth's shuttered animation studio alongside Inspector Morse composer Barrington Pheloung, whose dynamic chamber strings accented every revelation.
Neo-Templar Intrigue, the Lochmarne Goat, and Enduring Remastered Editions
Partnering with sharp-tongued French journalist Nicole “Nico” Collard, George tracks medieval manuscript clues from Montfauçon's sewers to Syria's Marib cliffside, Spanish noble villas, and Scotland—including Lochmarne Castle's notorious “Goat Puzzle,” an unexpectedly real-time charge-dodging bottleneck that entered British gaming lexicon as one of the medium's toughest obstacles. Selling over one million copies across PC and PlayStation, the classic inspired a 2009 Wii and DS Director's Cut featuring new Nico chapters illustrated by Dave Gibbons, followed in 2024 by the 4K hand-redrawn Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged.