Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars

Chase a deadly conspiracy from a Paris café to ancient secrets across Europe. Revolution Software's Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars was a 1996 CD-ROM release; the whole of it — Paris, Ireland, Spain, Syria, voice acting and all — plays from this page for nothing, with no disc, no install, and no account. Hand-painted backgrounds, an orchestral score, and a conspiracy plot that has aged better than most thrillers of the decade. A touchscreen will run it, but George's cursor has two buttons for a reason, and the right one is how you examine anything.

How to Play Broken Sword Online

Getting started takes seconds:

1. Press Play to load the game and reach its title screen.
2. Give it a moment — this is a CD-ROM adventure with hand-painted backgrounds and full voice acting, so there is more to fetch than in a floppy-era game.
3. Click inside the game frame so the cursor becomes George's pointer rather than your desktop arrow.
4. Use the cursor to look at, use, and talk to objects and characters.
5. Begin in Paris as tourist George Stobbart, moments after a café explosion sets the mystery in motion.

Broken Sword rewards careful observation — examine everything and talk through every dialogue option.

Controls

Broken Sword is played with a simple cursor-based interface, using the mouse:

Right-click to examine things before using them — George's observations often contain the clue you need.

What Is Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars?

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars is a point-and-click adventure developed by Revolution Software and released in 1996 for MS-DOS, Windows, and PlayStation. It follows American tourist George Stobbart, who survives a bombing at a Paris café and, together with photojournalist Nicole "Nico" Collard, is drawn into a globe-spanning conspiracy involving the medieval Knights Templar. The story unfolds across Paris, Ireland, Spain, Syria, and beyond.

Broken Sword is celebrated for its cinematic quality: lush, hand-drawn backgrounds, fluid character animation, a sweeping orchestral score, and a genuinely gripping conspiracy thriller plot. Its blend of accessible puzzles, sharp writing, and atmospheric storytelling made it one of the most beloved adventures of the late 1990s and the start of a long-running, much-loved series. It's widely regarded as a high point of the genre.

How the Game Works / Gameplay Basics

You guide George (and sometimes Nico) through beautifully illustrated locations using a straightforward cursor interface — left-click to interact, right-click to examine. Progress comes from exploring scenes, gathering inventory items, combining them cleverly, and talking to characters through branching dialogue, all in service of unraveling the Templar conspiracy.

The puzzles are generally fair and logic-based, woven naturally into the story so that solving them feels like real detective work — finding the right object, asking the right question, or noticing a small detail in the background. The game moves between many richly drawn locations across Europe and the Middle East, each with its own characters and clues. A strong narrative drives everything forward, and unlike pure action games, the pleasure here is in observation, deduction, and following a great story to its conclusion.

Beginner Tips

• Examine before using. Right-click to inspect objects — George's comments often hint at solutions.
• Talk through every option. Exhaust dialogue trees to gather clues and advance the plot.
• Collect every item. George declines to pick up anything he has no use for, so if he agrees to take something, it matters later.
• Combine inventory items. Several solutions need two things you are already carrying, so try likely pairs before assuming you've missed an object somewhere.
• Note small details. Background clues and overheard remarks frequently matter.
• Revisit locations. New conversations and options open up as the story develops.

Why Play Broken Sword Online?

Adventure games rarely looked this good, and this one wanted a CD spinning in the drive for the whole of its length. Now it's a link. It suits an unhurried evening far better than a spare five minutes — the pleasure is in letting George talk his way around a scene and catching the detail you walked past the first time.

Any current browser will carry the investigation, and nothing has to be copied onto the machine you're using.

Troubleshooting

• Game won't start? Reload and let the title screen settle. The opening Paris scene has a lot of painted background to bring in before it will answer a click.
• Mouse or keyboard not responding? Click once inside the game frame so the game owns the pointer, otherwise your clicks land on the page instead of the scene.
• Text hard to read? Use fullscreen mode — the subtitles sit against detailed hand-painted backgrounds and are much easier to read at a larger size.
• Running slowly? Close other browser tabs and heavy applications, especially before the animated cutscenes, which are the heaviest thing the game plays back.
• No sound? Check the tab's mute state, then your system mixer. This one is fully voiced, and a silent conversation loses you the tone of a lie that the subtitles won't convey.
• Stuck on a puzzle? Re-examine scenes and revisit characters — the answer is usually nearby.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Broken Sword free to play online? Yes. The whole investigation — Paris, Ireland, Spain, Syria and everywhere in between — plays through at no cost, voice acting included, with nothing charged for the later chapters.

Do I need the Broken Sword CD or an installer? No. The whole adventure runs from this page — no disc in the drive, no install, and no account.

Can I play Broken Sword on mobile? You can, but the game asks you to right-click to examine things and to pick small objects out of busy backgrounds, and both are far more comfortable with a real mouse.

Is this the original 1996 Broken Sword? Yes, this is the classic original, The Shadow of the Templars, that launched the series.

What kind of game is Broken Sword? It's a story-driven point-and-click adventure centered on exploration, dialogue, and logic-based puzzle-solving.

Can I save my progress? Yes. Broken Sword stores progress in its own named save slots, so an investigation this long can be spread over several evenings and picked up exactly where George left it. The save panel lives in the game's control menu rather than anywhere on this page.

A Paris café explosion is just the beginning. Load it up and follow the trail of the Templars.