Picture the scene: you're trapped in a burning building with a beautiful French reporter by your side. Do you a) panic b) use this moment to profess your undying love, or c) stare intently at every object in the room, offering quips as commentary, before concocting a MacGyver-like scheme at glacial pace to get out? If you answered (c) then congratulations, you're probably a Broken Sword fan and this Kickstarter-funded title is largely for you.

The fifth instalment in the adventure series is self-published by Revolution and represents a return to the traditional 2D aesthetic of the first two titles. This is not the greatest game in the world, this is a tribute, and newcomers may be baffled by its charms, not least because it's been cut in two, with the second part due early 2014. However, if the thought of spending five hours in the company of George Stobbart, Nico Collard et al gives you a warm glow inside, you will find enough to admire in this resolutely old school adventurer. Alas, it also brings old flaws to the gaming table.

Back to Paris

We begin in a Parisian art gallery, with our stars back together after the cruel separation of 2006's turgid Angel of Death. George is conveniently there as an insurance assessor, Nico for her newspaper, but their reunion is interrupted by a robbery that leaves the gallery owner dead and a single painting stolen. The latter, you're reliably informed by an attending priest, is a Gnostic piece cursed by the devil, bringing death in its wake. To an outsider, this seems a threatening, borderline-insane setup, but the Broken Sword fan can relax in such comfortable surroundings.

They know that when George intones that "the police will be here any minute", they will in fact arrive only when you've accomplished precisely as much as the storyline requires. Why rush your investigations when you can examine every painting and exhaust every dialogue tree? Indeed, solutions in Broken Sword frequently arise by doing precisely this. There's no sense of urgency or consequence to your actions in the manner of Telltale's The Walking Dead; progress is slow and linear.

This is reinforced by the traditional point-and-click interface and sluggish character movement, which results in you waiting for George to walk all too frequently. The occasional nods to modernity, such as the ability to ring people from your mobile, prove cosmetic. They can only be used strictly when the storyline requires, so at one stage after ringing Nico I had George ring his boss from the same spot, only to be told there was no service. George and I must share he same shoddy mobile provider.

Such frustrations are partially negated by the sumptuously-drawn backgrounds, which offer plenty of incidental detail to gaze at, but their artistic purity is undermined by the occasionally-clumsy 3D character sprites projected onto them. These mostly work well, but our protagonists can veer between being depressingly static to spinning 360 degrees on the spot before speaking.

Thankfully, the script is solid enough once they do. Although it's laughably full of portent at times and the intended humour falls largely flat – expect early gems like "there was something fishy going on here, and it wasn't just the canapés" – it's a cut above what you find in most modern games. You can still carry around pointless objects like a half-eaten Rich Tea biscuit to show to strangers for laughs, and there's the occasional smart remark when you tell George to pick up outlandish objects – albeit nothing on a par with Space Quest's "ladder in your pants" shtick, to cite another series worthy of revival.

Regardless, George's lines are delivered by the returning Rolf Saxon with such aplomb that you can't help but be charmed. His wry take on the world is ably assisted by Sword's cast of eccentrics with exaggerated accents, ranging from a Sartre-quoting barista who insists on only serving black coffee, to detective Navet, who makes Inspector Clouseau look like Morse. The only real letdown is the slightly lifeless Emma Tate as Nico, but even here the chemistry between her and George means you indulge the worst excesses.

The same is true of puzzles, which may not be terribly inspired – trapping a cockroach, really? – but are at least broadly logical. Only one involves pushing a block, mercifully, as The Sleeping Dragon still haunts my dreams. Should you get stuck, there's a hints system that progresses from vague to outright solution. Generally you shouldn't need it but if you've missed a hotspot it's handy; the resort to pixel hunting should be illegal in a 2013 adventure game.

Remembrance of games past

Nostalgia is the game's saving grace and it doesn't stint on catering to fans. There are scores of returning characters, including personal favourite Sergeant Moue, as well as nuggets hidden in the scenery, from a poster of the first game among some junk at your first location, to a pissoir just outside it.

Being so evidently a labour of love makes it easier to overlook failings, but overarching judgement is impeded by this feeling less than half a game. Broken Sword has always mixed mundane murder with wider conspiracies, and the lack of payoff here sorely hampers the promise of what amounts to a six-hour introduction. You long for George and Nico to be saving the world, but all you can accomplish is proving some insurance fraud, albeit involving a rich Russian Putin-lookalike with a large painting of Gaddafi on his wall.

With the second part added, Broken Sword 5 could certainly reach beyond three stars – but, until then, it's wise to remain agnostic about Charles Cecil's latest offering.

• Charles Cecil talks Broken Sword Directors Cut and why point and click adventures are back
• Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse announced as Kickstarter project