Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse has puzzles, will travel

Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse takes the venerated Broken Sword series' back to its 2D roots, with the point-and-click adventure part still a solid foundation to it all. American patent lawyer George Stobbart and French freelance journalist Nico Collard are on the case of a stolen painting that's straight up cursed by the Devil (no doubt "The Serpent" in the subtitle), and a murder conspiracy predating the written word. Pre-Biblical? Must be! It'll be interesting to see what Moses missed in his write up of the book of Genesis.

Episode 1 (of 2) launched today. It promises to end on a cliffhanger, with episode 2 launching in the first quarter of 2014 as a free download if you bought the first one. Episode 1, for now, might play out like a TV show's mid-season finale.

George and Nico look as dashing and sassy as ever. Expect our review soon. In the meantime, here are some launch day screenshots of The Serpent's Curse's classically drawn backgrounds, buttery smooth character animations, and smart-looking puzzles.

Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse launched today on Steam.