Copyright © 2000 Balmoral Software (http://www.balmoralsoftware.com). Portions copyright © 1997 Revolution Software Ltd. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Balmoral Software.
Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror is a wonderfully-crafted adventure release from 1997. Similar in look and feel to its prequel, Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars, all action is played in the third person, with cartoon-style figures moved around on detailed, hand-drawn backgrounds. A perception of depth is added by multi-plane animation effects when backgrounds are panned. Animated sprites are sprinkled throughout nearly every scene. Items or locations with which you can interact are clearly indicated by labeled hotspots. Occasionally, some pixel searching is required due to small but critical hotspots. Sound effects and music are excellent, using themes appropriate for the various locales. The storyline and dialog make this game an absorbing experience. Although gameplay is completely linear, with only one problem at a time that can be solved in order to advance the story, its puzzles seem much more logical and fair than those of its predecessor. Also, this time the point of view periodically switches between the two main characters in the story, George and Nico. A few sequences in the game are timed, but they do not create significant obstacles to the gameplay. As a result, it is possible to die in a few places, so be sure to save your game occasionally. 99 slots are available for saving games. There is also a very handy restore-game function immediately on starting the program, which makes picking up an unfinished game a very simple matter.
A portion of the game is available as an interactive demo (12 MB); see the Marseilles dock section for a walkthrough. As described in the booklet accompanying the game, you can right-click the mouse on a hotspot to examine it. This method is sometimes necessary to disclose information about an object in your inventory. Left-click on a hotspot to interact with it. You can skip dialog subsegments (except in cutscenes) by right-clicking the mouse, and you can often double-click on Exit icons to speed the transition to the next scene.
This walkthrough describes a minimal solution path and dialog choices only - many details and backstory plot elements are left to the player to discover.
You start the game playing George Stobbart. After the introduction, you'll find yourself in Professor Oubier's burning house, tied to a chair and threatened by a big spider. Right-click on the bookcase, then topple it by clicking on the block of wood supporting it, squashing the deadly spider. Use the metal bracket on the wall to cut the ropes tying you to the chair. Open the writing bureau and pick up the tequila bottle, revealing a dead worm. Pick up the worm from the floor. Open the drawer in the writing bureau and pick up the decorated pot inside. Right-click on the pot in your inventory to find a key hidden inside it. Pick up the dart lying at the corner of the rug. Pick up Nico's handbag to obtain her lipstick, a note and a pair of panties. Pan left and use the dart to open the cabinet, then use the panties to pick up the hot unburst cylinder inside the cabinet. Use the cylinder with the white siphon on top of the cabinet, then extinguish the flames with the siphon. Click on the door to exit the room and head downstairs. Pick up the newscutting on the table, then examine it in your inventory to disclose Oubier's bank statement showing withdrawals made in Marseilles. Right-click on the note in your inventory to read it and find out André Lobineau's telephone number. Click on the telephone to call Lobineau and agree to meet him at the Montfauçon café (a scene from the first Broken Sword game). Use the key in your inventory to open the front door and exit through it to the café.
Click on the waiter when he appears, but he'll ignore you. Click on him again when he appears, and order a cup of coffee. Wait for him to bring you the coffee, then end the conversation if desired. André Lobineau will then show up and describe a Mayan coyote stone. Talk to André about the decorated pot to learn about the Glease Galerie. End the conversation and watch the cutscene with Nico. Talk to the old man sitting at the café about:
Taking careful aim, use the flask in your inventory on the glass the fat man is holding. Repeat the process and the man will fall over, break a display case and occupy the attention of Glease. Pan left and click on a packing case behind the partitions. With Glease out of the way, you can pick up a label from the packing case. Talk to the kneeling Glease to find out Oubier's connection to Condor Transglobal and the Marseilles docks.
This portion of the game is available as an interactive demo (12 MB). Head for the hut and click on its window to see a dock guard unlock a trapdoor and dispose of a bottle. Descend the steps to the left of the hut. Pick up a hook at the water's edge and use it to retrieve the bottle floating under the hut. Go back up the steps and click on the chimney. Use the bottle on the chimney, then quickly remove the top of the chimney before it has a chance to heat up again. Block the chimney pipe with the bottle, forcing the dock guard to leave. Go back down the steps and enter the hut through the trapdoor. Take the box of dog biscuits from the table. If desired, pick up a "lucky" piece of coal from the scuttle next to the stove, but it's not really needed in the game. Go back through the trapdoor and throw some dog biscuits onto the platform at left, enticing the dog forward. Use the boathook to pull down the platform and get rid of the barking dog. Return up the steps and jump the fence to the right of the guard hut. This ends the demo portion of the game.
The right two doors into the warehouse are locked, but you can knock on the far left one. However, you won't be heard until you disable the noisy fan above. Climb the ladder at left and open the window next to the fan duct. Disable the fan by sticking the boathook into the fan blades. Exit from the window and go down the ladder. Save your game here because you can get killed if you don't move fast. Knock on the door and talk to Pablo about the Condor Transglobal packing label. Quickly go back up the ladder and click twice on the barrels at right to dispose (temporarily) of the kidnapper. Descend the ladder and enter the warehouse.
Open the drawer in the desk to obtain a small brass key. Pan right and talk to
the little guy about the key, freeing him from his manacles. Push the elevator
button and go up. Use the crate to block the photoelectric cell of the
elevator. Press the light switch to the right of the elevator to disclose some
scratch marks on the floor. Click on the marks to detect a secret door. Open
the door and go inside to rescue Nympho Nico. Talk to her,
then remove the tape from her mouth. Untie her ropes and listen to her
farfetched story. Follow her out of the room, picking up the flintstone fetish
on the way out. Use the masking tape to block the elevator photoelectric cell.
Move the crate from the elevator entrance back to its original position. Move
the upper crate with holes in it, then push the crate at lower left away from
the pallet carrier. Use the pallet carrier to raise the statue. Tie the rope
to the statue, then click on the rope and the pulley overhead. Click again on
the pallet carrier to suspend the statue. Try to push the statue, then talk to
Nico about the statue to get some help breaking it through the locked doorway.
Exit through the doorway and use the manacles with the cable at left. After a
cutscene in the gallery, you'll get the Mayan stone from André and head
for Central America with Nico.
Pan right and become reacquainted with Pearl Henderson (from the first Broken Sword game). Talk to her twice about her yellow-shirted husband Duane to learn about her desire to visit a pyramid. Enter the police station and meet General Grasiento. Talk to him about the man in the grey hat to learn it was Professor Oubier. Click on the chart on the wall, then exit the police station and talk to Nico about the rolled-up chart. Pan right and talk to Oubier about the Condor Transglobal packing label. Pan left and approach the two-man band standing in the street to the left of the police station. Talk to the band about Miguel (in a green shirt and with brown hair). Pan right again and you'll find that Oubier has left. Talk to Duane sitting in the truck:
In Grasiento's apartment, right-click on the lava lamp, then talk to the General about it. After he turns on a porno videotape, silence its soundtrack by panning left to the balcony. Examine the other items in the apartment: the wall portrait, the swordfish and the tiger skin. Talk to the General about these items. His mother will appear and the focus will change back to George.
After Duane's failed explosive effort, talk to Miguel twice about the rope noose to obtain it from him. Use the noose with the cell window, attracting Duane's attention outside. Pick up the noose and talk to Duane about it. After cutscenes at the General's apartment and in the village, a CD-ROM change follows.
Escaping upriver in a boat, George and Nico are attacked by a helicopter, and George finds himself alone in the jungle at the Swiss Family Treehouse. Pick up the vine in the "washing machine" at right. Pan left and put the bank statement on the pile of damp leaves. Use the flintstone fetish with the turning waterwheel to create a smoke problem in the treehouse and discover Nico's plight. Talk to Father Hubert about Nico and learn about a root that could cure her from the deadly bite of a venomous river snake. Talk to him twice about the root and obtain his creased collar. Attach the vine rope to the stone press at left, then place the priest's collar on top of it. Pick up the cross in front of the tree and use it to rotate the press. Pick up the pressed collar and return it to Hubert. Talk to him again about the root and he'll take you to the Indian village.
Talk to the guard Tabtic:
On your return to Hubert's treehouse in the morning, put the metal chimney cone and root on the stone press, then operate it with the cross. Pick up the cone containing liquid squeezed from the root and take it up the ladder. After a cutscene, George will split up from Nico and find himself on a Caribbean island.
Pan all the way right and introduce yourself to the beach boy Rio sitting at the end of the dock. Pan left and go up the steps to the white house in the distance. Try to open the front door of the house. Talk to the Ketch sisters sitting next to the house:
Pan right and take a look at the jaguar stone in the display cabinet at far right. Pan left and talk to the attendant about the jaguar stone. When Professor Oubier appears, end the conversation with him if desired. When the attendant is finished using the telephone, your only choice will be to talk to him again about the jaguar stone. Take the key from the empty display cabinet and use it to unlock the display cabinet immediately to the left of the telephone. Open the cabinet to obtain a dagger. Retrieve the key from the cabinet. Pan right and talk to the attendant about:
Pick up the quill from the desk in the foreground. Pick up the lantern above the model ship and put it in the inkwell on the desk. Transfer the chart from the easel to the desk. Right-click on the pirate portrait in the background. Open the sea chest to discover Emily:
Right-click on the purse in your inventory to disclose a hairclip. Use the hairclip with the coin slot at the upper right of the blue vending machine. Click on the coin reject slot to obtain an old English penny. Use the penny with the red weighing machine to get a card. Use the dagger to partially open the cupboard at right. Insert the card into the cupboard crack, then press the red button inside. Nico can now get on the subway train and head for the London docks.
From the top of the cliff on Zombie Island, exit to the upper right (not directly right) into a dark part of the forest. Pick up a reed from the swampy area in the middle. Exit to the upper right into another area of the forest. Get the reed trimmed by using it with the lair under the central tree. Exit to the lower left back into the swampy area, then exit to the lower left to return to the clifftop. This time, exit (not pan) directly to the right to reach a brighter area with colored mushrooms and flowers. In your inventory, combine the dart with the reed, then pan right to disclose a wild boar blocking the path. Use the dartgun with the boar, then exit right into a clearing with a rock needle. Pull away some of the creepers from the rock needle. In your inventory, combine the theodolite reflector with the net, then use it with the creeper. Pick up the combined item and throw it over the rock needle.
Exit straight back from the needle into the swampy area. Exit to the upper right to return to the lair area of the forest. There are three exits to the left (the uppermost one inactive); click on the one at left center to take George around the loop in the path and into a grove of banyan trees. Exit to the lower left back into the swampy area. Here there are three exits to the right (the uppermost one inactive); click on the one at right center to take George around the loop in the path and back into the lair area of the forest. There are three exits to the right; click on the one at right center to return to the banyan grove. This time, an exit at right center is active; follow it out of the forest.
Put the theodolite into the holes at the top of the rock outcrop. Look through the theodolite. Pan right about 11 times until the center of the theodolite grid is on a row of five rock columns and you can see the shimmering marker at the bottom center of the viewport. Click on the marker, then on the pillar in the viewport. Use the downward-pointing mouse cursor to back away from the theodolite. Exit to the right and the point of view changes to Nico at the London docks.
Click on the crate next to the gangplank to get a little closer to the boat (Nico won't move there until it's all clear). Save your game at this point because you can get killed if you don't move fast. Click on the ladder and Nico will hide on top of the superstructure. Click on the cupboard to the left of the ladder, then quickly click on the ladder to go back into hiding. When the guard enters the cupboard, quickly click on it to close its door (if you don't move fast enough, you'll have to repeat the procedure). Quickly pick up the mop at left and use it to trap the guard in the cupboard.
Look through one of the portholes to learn the grisly fate of Professor Oubier. Try to talk to Oubier, then take the jaguar stone from him. When Karzac starts strangling you, use the dagger in your inventory on him and make your escape. The action changes back to George.
George finds himself in a movie set on Zombie Island. Talk to the boy (Haiku McEwan) standing in front of the woman in pink (Sharon Kowalski):
Talk to Hawks about the rock pillar, then click on the handheld camera next to the seated cameraman (Flash). Talk to Hawks about Flash (the bug-eyed guy in the cap). After a cutscene in which George retrieves the eagle stone, perspective shifts back to Nico at the Indian village outside Quaramonte:
Click on the Mayan stone to the left of the large barrel. Click on the barrel, then talk to Titipoco about emptying it. Pick up the Mayan (Coyote) stone and exit left to the pyramid.
Look at the elevator gantry, then pick up the rope lying next to it and give it to Titipoco:
The object of this two-level combination puzzle is to unlock the four tiles held by the monkey statue at right. The solution for each of these four tiles is formed from the combination of two other tiles in the group of ten to the left of the statue. To depress one of the ten tiles, the corresponding upper and lower symbols must be selected on the left and right wheels. When the correct two tiles in the group of ten are pressed, the corresponding monkey statue tile can be pressed. In the group of ten, no more than two tiles can be depressed at one time. Click on the right side of a wheel to rotate it clockwise, on the left side to rotate counterclockwise. The solution uses the following notation for the group of ten tiles:
Starting from the initial wheel configuration with an all-tan oval at the top of the left wheel and three blue dots at the top of the right wheel, the following sequence is minimal:
Press tile BGo out through the revealed exit. The focus changes to George and Titipoco.
Rotate left wheel clockwise twice
Rotate right wheel clockwise twice
Press tile D
Press the upper-left monkey tile
Rotate left wheel clockwise once
Rotate right wheel clockwise three times
Press tile C
Rotate left wheel clockwise once
Rotate right wheel clockwise twice
Press tile H
Press the upper-right monkey tile
Rotate left wheel clockwise once
Rotate right wheel counterclockwise three times
Press tile F
Rotate left wheel clockwise twice
Rotate right wheel counterclockwise once
Press tile A
Press the lower-left monkey tile
Rotate left wheel counterclockwise once
Rotate right wheel counterclockwise twice
Press tile E
Rotate left wheel clockwise three times
Rotate right wheel counterclockwise three times
Press tile G
Press the lower-right monkey tile
Pick up the torch, give it to Titipoco and ask him to light it. Click on the lever revealed on the wall to the left. You'll find yourself in the first of three rooms connected by doors that are controlled by more levers:
It's a safe assumption that each lever changes the state of one or more doors; that is, pulling a lever opens a closed door or closes an open door. From your starting position in Room 1, pull Lever 1 and exit left into Room 2 to confirm that Lever 1 controls Doors A and C. Pull (leftmost) Lever 3 and watch carefully through the open B doorway to see that it controls Doors B and C. Pull Lever 2 to the right of Door A and go out into the corridor to confirm that Lever 2 controls Door A only. Pull Lever 5 in the foreground; moving back into Room 1 will confirm that it controls Door A only. But this also gains you access to Room 1 with Door B closed, which in turn reveals a secret exit to the right. (Incidentally, the unused Lever 4 changes the state of all three doors.)
Pick up the torch from the floor and use it to ignite the torch on the wall at far right. Take the torch from the wall and proceed through the secret exit at right.
Pull yet another lever at the bottom of some stairs, then continue downwards towards "Certain Death". The non-verbal endgame sequence follows, and the credits roll (press Esc to skip). What happened to General Grasiento?
You can pick up a "lucky" piece of coal from the Marseilles dock hut and try using it with the Ketch Museum slingshot - it will return on the beach of Zombie Island!
Copyright © 2000 Balmoral Software (http://www.balmoralsoftware.com). Portions copyright © 1997 Revolution Software Ltd. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Balmoral Software.