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Video Game / Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse
aka: The Serpents Curse

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Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse is the fifth game in the Broken Sword series. The game was released over two Episodes, with the first being released in December 2013 and the second in April 2014.

When a mysterious painting is stolen during an armed raid on a Paris gallery, George and Nico are thrown by chance into the investigation together. From Paris to London and beyond, the trail becomes a race against time as dark forces from Europe's turbulent past are woken from their slumber. Broken Sword characters old and new are encountered - but who can George and Nico trust? The journey they are on reveals a conspiracy as old as the written word, whose ancient heresies will cause innocent blood to spill once more...


These tropes can explain everything:

  • Accidental Proposal: Try showing the diamond ring to Nico. Go on.
  • Acme Products: Inspector Navet's crime reconstruction machine.
  • Almost Dead Guy:
    • Father Simeon who is barely alive enough for some final lines to George.
    • Marques is able to give a final clue to George about Eden before passing on.
  • Almost Kiss: The ending has George and Nico after their escape in the Gnostic temple. However, they're interrupted by Shears.
  • Animated Actors: The Kickstarter trailer features Charles Cecil directing the beginning of the game. After that, George and Nico talk about their previous adventures from the first two games.
  • Bedsheet Ladder: George and Nico use the painting's sheets to escape from the burning art studio.
  • Behind the Black: George and Nico don't see Hobbs lying dead on the floor of his room while they should be having a good look from their angle. It's only after a screen scrolls that they see what the player sees.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: Medovsky and Richard Langham.
  • Blackout Basement:
    • George enters to a garage in Vera Security office and has to Pixel Hunt in the dark to find the light switch.
    • George and Nico are trapped in a cave in Santa Cova Chapel and they have to find the light source.
  • A Bloody Mess: Nico distracts Inspector Navet by messing the pizza sauce on the floor.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity: Langham kills Marques after taking the Tabula Veritatis from George. He leaves George and Nico being trapped in the chapel.
  • Bookcase Passage: Opens up at the fireplace at Castell del Sants after you turn the plinths in the right direction.
  • Box-and-Stick Trap: George catches Trevor using a matchbox, with tea biscuit as a bait.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: George asks Fleur how to get rid of Sergeant Moue from the shop's door but Fleur responds in this question:
    Fleur: Don't you want to play the game yourself?
  • Broken Record: George discovers a broken record that Bijou accidentally destroyed.
  • But Thou Must!: George has a choice whether he'll give the Tabula or lie to Langham. No matter what you choose, Langham will kill Marques anyway.
  • Cable-Car Action Sequence: At Santa Cova.
  • Caught on Tape: George watched the footage about the theft of the painting in Henri's office.
  • Clear My Name: George says he must be doing this after accidentally becoming Navet's prime suspect.
  • Collapsing Lair: Nico's explosives cause Eden's cave to collapse. Our heroes can make it out Just in Time.
  • Concealing Canvas: At the start, there's a broken alarm system hidden in the stolen painting. Later in the game, George and Nico find "La Malediccio" behind one of the canvasses in Mr. Hobbs' room.
  • Connect the Deaths: The locations on the map found at the library point to the place where the Tabula Veritatis is hidden.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • Georges's opening lines about "Paris in spring" echoes his opening line in the first game.
    • Several characters from the first game make an appearance: Laine, Moue, Fleur, Clarissa Piermont and the Hendersons.
  • Cosmetically-Advanced Prequel: Word of Saint Paul says that this game takes place after The Smoking Mirror.
    • Interestingly enough, this is the first sequel since The Smoking Mirror to actually get a number in the title: 5, to be exact, even though naming it Broken Sword 3 wouldn't technically collide with The Sleeping Dragon.
    • Which makes it a bit of a headscratcher when we remember that the third entry in the series (chronologically fourth) did not feature the smartphones that the characters are seen to possess in both the fourth (chronologically latest) and the fifth (chronologically third) game.
      • This is then contradicted in the second episode of The Serpent's Curse when Duane mentions the "Rome Incident" from Angel of Death, which George seems to have forgotten about.
  • Covers Always Lie: The poster depicts George holding a dangling Nico from a gondola by single hand while a Russian mobster attempts to shoot them. In the second episode, that scene doesn't happen and instead there's Nico on her own hanging in gondola by two hands and casually talks to Shears. Not to mention that many fans thought Mrs. Piermont will have an important role in the game.
  • Credits Medley: The first half of the ending music is based on the opening theme.
  • Creepy Cockroach: George keeps a cockroach and names it Trevor. Many NPCs, however, hate to see it.
  • Curse Cut Short:
    Eva: I think it's a crock of sh-
    George: Okay, that's enough.
  • Curtain Camouflage: Kat hides in the closet to avoid Langham and his henchmen.
  • Cypher Language: Gehnen's telegram and the Tabula Veritatis.
  • Deadly Delivery: The pizza delivery guy in the opening cutscene who steals the painting from the gallery and kills Henri on his way out.
  • Distant Prologue: The game opens with Marques leaving Castell del Sants with his mother to escape from fascists during Spain's civil war of 1936-39.
  • Doomed Appointment: At the cafe Father Simeon tells George that he has more to say about the Gnostics and Lucifer later at the gallery. Guess who turns up dead before the meeting?
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Bijou suffers this from the loss of her husband. At the same game, Ramon drank a lot of brandy from remembering the deaths of Xavier and Hernandez.
  • Duct Tape for Everything: George lampshades about it after he opened the bag he found in Langham's truck.
  • Eek, a Mouse!!: Nico reacts this way when seeing Trevor.
  • Eiffel Tower Effect: The Eiffel Tower is clearly visible through the window at Henri's gallery.
  • Emerging from the Shadows: Shears in the final scene.
  • Enemy Chatter: Three of Langham's henchmen are talking about their boss outside the Eden.
  • Epigraph: The game features excerpts from The Testimony of Truth and Friedrich Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" before the game's opening.
  • Exact Eavesdropping: At the summit station George, Nico and Eva all overhear Langham mention to one of his goons that they haven't found the Tabula Veritatis yet and are about to torture Marques. That's when Eva decides to follow and try to save her father.
  • Food as Bribe: Georges gives a pizza to Laine in order to ask about the code in Henri's office.
  • Gruesome Goat: George has to deal with a territory goat in Spain.
  • Guyliner: George can use Bijou's make-up to disguise as Henri and convince Bijou to give the safe key. It gets more hilarious when he uses lipstick.
  • Helpful Hallucination: Marques appears in George's dream alongside Father Simeon and Hobbs. Marques tells George that Langham must be stopped from using Lucifer to destroy Jehovah, that George has to protect the balance and that he has the answer in his hands. When George wakes up, he holds the medallion in his hand.
  • The Heretic: According to Father Simeon and the Dominicans, the Gnostics.
  • Hollywood Fire: At the end of the first part, George and Nico are trapped over the rooftops in Mr. Hobb's studio.
  • Hollywood Glass Cutter: George cuts the window in Henri's office using the engagement ring he found in the safe.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: Hobbs knowing that Henri was dead indicates to George that Hobbs was more involved in the case then he led on.
  • Instantly Proven Wrong: After the Cable-Car Action Sequence Shears ensures Kat that nothing's really got broken. Cue the cable car's door falling off.
  • Insurance Fraud: One of the main issues.
  • Invisible Writing: An inversion at the cave. When George holds Gehnen's map up to the flame, the writing on the map starts to react to the heat and disappears leaving behind only five letters which help to identify the location of the Tabula Veritatis.
  • It May Help You on Your Quest: Fleur gives George a blue yarn ball and says it will become useful for him in the future.
  • Key Under the Doormat: Double Subverted. Nico believes the key to her neighbor's apartment to be under the doormat but it's not there. It's hidden under the door mat's floor board.
  • Light and Mirrors Puzzle: Used twice (without mirrors):
    • George uses colored lenses to direct sun beams onto the fresco at Castell del Sants' hidden chapel.
    • At the cave, he uses the medallion to cast differently colored light onto the wall paintings across the room.
  • Loose Floorboard Hiding Spot: Nico thinks the key to her neighbor's apartment is located under the doormat, when in actuality it's under the floorboards that are under the mat.
  • Lying Finger Cross: When Navet asks George if he tampers any evidence in Henri's office, one of the dialogue option icons include a crossed finger. Later in the game, George has a choice whether he will give the Tabula Veritatis to Langham or lie to him.
  • MacGuffin Delivery Service: Langham threatens to shoot Marques if you refuse to handover the Tabula Veritatis. Whether you give the Tabula or not, Marques will end up dead.
  • Moon Logic Puzzle: Using Trevor to transport a pin to the back of the machine and thus short-circuit the cable-car system qualifies as such.
  • Mystery Magnet: Lampshaded when George thinks that trouble comes whenever he and Nico are reunited.
  • Nice Kitty...: George backs away slowly when getting too close to the hostile goat at Castell del Sants.
  • No Animals Were Harmed: George reassures Nico that Donna will be okay using a sausage dynamite.
  • Not What It Looks Like: When Navet finds George "redhanded" with the body of Father Simeon, George utters this line.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: George plays the dumb American tourist to get information from the goons regarding the closed down monastery.
  • Ouroboros: The serpent eating its own tail is revealed to be a Gnostic symbol and forms part of the painting and also of the Tabula Veritatis.
  • Outfit Decoy: Nico uses a helmet on a stick to distract a sniper at Castell del Sants.
  • Parody Names: Interpol detective Richard Langham is a nod to Robert Langdon series.
  • The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Henri's password for the CCTV system is the date of his birthday.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: George makes this one before he uses the Ouroboros necklace to Langham.
  • Ransacked Room: Adam's apartment has been ransacked and Marques is kidnapped by Shears.
  • Secret Passage:
    • The fireplace and the secret door at the back of the library of Castell del Sants.
    • The entrance to the cave at Montserrat.
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: A Running Gag of several characters believing Nico and George to be a couple which they vehemently deny.
  • Shout-Out: In the final scene when George sets the bush on fire, he notes "I love the smell of Bret in the morning."
  • Sound-Only Death: Medovsky gets killed offscreen in the cable car by Shears.
  • Spooky Painting: The La Maledicció. According to Father Simeon, the painting is cursed by the devil and whoever touches it will die. It gets spookier when there's a hidden image inside the painting.
  • Summoning Ritual: Near the end of the game, Langham attempts to summon Lucifer to destroy Jehovah and rule mankind. The plan is interrupted when Nico discovers the light for George to use in reflecting the Ouroboros medallion.
  • Take Me Instead: Eva wants to spare her father's life and suggests this to Langham He takes her AND kills the old man.
  • Talking Your Way Out:
    • Nico tries but fails miserably when they are trapped at Montserrat's chapel. The guard would just not listen to her.
    • However, the trick works on Shears soon after whom she can bring to commit a Mook–Face Turn.
  • Trust Password: Kat trusts Pearl's voice only after Pearl starts singing a specific song to her.
  • Two Shots from Behind the Bar: George brings this trope up in discussion with Eva. She tells him she owns a bar which to him explains why she knows how to use a gun.
  • Unreveal Angle: We never get to see the ominous "Manet painting" at Hobb's atelier which George and Nico find rather peculiar.
  • Victoria's Secret Compartment: Bijou hides the key to Henri's safe in her decollete.
  • We Need a Distraction:
    • Nico distracts Inspector Navet with a fake blood spot. Later she uses a dummy to distract a sniper at Castell del Sants.
    • George's trick with the radio voice to distract the guard at Montserrat's chapel.
  • Westminster Chimes: George has to play the tune of Ave Maria to cheer up Pearl.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: George gets increasingly unnerved by bumping into goats again and again.
  • Worthless Yellow Rocks: The dime George takes from Medovsky and later hands to Adam is worth an incredibly large sum of money.
  • You Said You Would Let Them Go: George's response to Langham when the latter shoots Marques and takes Eva with him after being handed the Tabula Veritatis.

Alternative Title(s): The Serpents Curse

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