Charles Cecil and the reforging of Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror

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Interviews by Laura Cress
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"Faithful reimagining" of Revolution's 1997 second adventure of George and Nico coming to PC and consoles early next year

After teasing us about its existence in recent months, Revolution Software have finally confirmed they’re making Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror – Reforged, a “faithful reimagining” of the UK studio’s second game in the beloved series, updated and refined for a modern audience.

If you never played the 1997 original or need a refresher nearly thirty years later, this game sees American George Stobbart return to France six months after the events of Shadow of the Templars. There he plans to meet up once again with journalist Nico Collard, who is researching a mysterious stone that recently came into her possession. But when Nico is kidnapped, so begins another globe-trotting adventure filled with puzzles, danger and intrigue, this time taking players from Europe to Caribbean islands to the jungles of Central America in an attempt to “unravel a deadly Mayan conspiracy steeped in ancient artifacts and dark magic.”

I caught up with the studio’s co-founder Charles Cecil in London at BAFTA HQ to learn a bit more about the work they’re putting into the game and what this means for the new Broken Sword announced some time ago, Parzival’s Stone.

Much like Shadow of the Templars, the reforging of The Smoking Mirror will see the team update the original game’s visuals into high definition, with all cutscenes completely redrawn from scratch. Interestingly, though, unlike with its predecessor, Charles told me the team won’t be using AI at all to help with the work. In the first game, they used AI to speed up the process of adding more detail to the 30,000 hand-drawn sprites, so it’s a tall order to personally enhance the 45,000 frames of animation in the sequel, but they're sure the results will be worth the extra effort.

“AI didn’t really help us very much at all,” Charles said. “We’ve gone into Broken Sword 2 saying we’re going to do it using artists and animators. We’re not even really going to consider AI…. I think it’s naive to think that an AI can take hand-drawn art in that particular style and put in detail where no detail existed… It’s something that humans need to do…. Clearly AI is extraordinary in so many ways, but it does just do what went before.”

So, players will again be able to switch between the original game’s art and the updated version at a click, but both will consist entirely of the work of artists and animators this time round. You can also expect crisper audio as well, enhancing composer Barrington Pheloung’s phenomenal soundtrack, as well as some new sound effects for greater immersion.

One aspect making a return is that players will again be able to choose between a traditional mode and story mode while playing, with the story mode giving subtle hints and the traditional version keeping the gameplay as it was. The story itself won’t be changed; the team are keen to keep as faithful to the original experience as possible in that respect. However, small improvements will be made to the interface and game logic that were impossible to implement with the strict one-year production time of the original version.

If all this sounds appetising, then fans can check out the game’s Kickstarter page and sign up to be notified when the campaign goes live. However, unless there’s clamour for it, it sounds like there might not be a figurine included in the Collector’s Edition this time. As Charles explained, this is what led to the delay in delivery for the last Reforged game’s Collector’s Edition. (Although maybe a cute George Stobbart statuette will prove to be worth the wait!)

What does this all mean for development of the new Broken Sword game, Parzival’s Stone, which Charles revealed to me two years ago at gamescom? Well, it seems like it's currently on a bit of a hiatus due to the hardships faced by the whole industry of late. “It was being supported by one of the publishers … but they've pulled back,” Charles told me. “We’re working on it, but very much part time, so I wouldn’t like to even hazard a guess on when it might be finished.”

So fans might have to wait a little longer for a brand new Broken Sword story, but not very long to delve into an updated version of The Smoking Mirror, which will be released for PC (Windows, Mac, Linux) and consoles (PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Series X|S, Nintendo Switch) at some point in “early 2026” – depending partly, no doubt, on the success of the upcoming Kickstarter.

In the meantime, enjoy the full version of my interview with Charles Cecil, including a fun anecdote about the naming of Lure of the Temptress that was never meant to be, and a look ahead at the first demonstration of Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror – Reforged at AdventureX next month.