Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon

The Good
I personally liked the HUGE ENTHUSIASM before the release of the game! Adventure Gamers from all over the world were expecting this game from the day it was announced that "BROKEN SWORD 3" is in the making. Previews and interviews with the game designers and creators started taking place long before a release date was even announced!!! An so it landed in stores, on a November day in 2003. Even if it was very clearly stated in interviews and previews, that the game wouldn't follow its CLASSIC predecessors in interface, graphics and gameplay, I was anxious to see what did REVOLUTION SOFTWARE create. I had pre-ordered my copy from the "ADVENTURE COMPANY" website and I received the game 2-3 days after the official release date in the US, which was November 17, 2003. When I first got the game, I noticed the nice artwork on the front and inside cover of the game box, not the screenshots, just the artwork. The game is rich in storyline and dialogues, which is always a big plus for any adventure game. Action sequences are spreaded here and there in the game, a very nice touch. The puzzles were rich and reminded me a lot of the puzzles in "GABRIEL KNIGHT 3", but I will talk about the puzzles later. Excellent characters were created by the REVOLUTION SOFTWARE'S team and you get to control two(2) of them, which I think is always a plus to a game, too. And not to mention the graphics! Sometimes stunning and very very graphical presentation of places like the Castle in Prague and the airplane hanging from the edge of the cliff in Congo at the beginning of the game. It was a game full of suspense and overall REVOLUTION STUDIOS presented a UNIQUE, NEW approach to ADVENTURE GAMING and I liked that.

The Bad
Overall, it was a well designed game, with the only blemish I' ll say being the MOVING BOXES PUZZLES!?! In the beginning it was OK, but by the end of the game I think there were at least ten(10) if not more puzzles based on moving boxes/items!!! It looks like the designers run out of ideas and trying to stretch the game by just inserting these puzzles all over the place. It was a considerably irritating experience, especially because it was to EASY!!! And I continue from where I left above, the game in general was very EASY to complete. It took me around 25-30 hours total to finish the game. That is nothing compared to CLASSIC adventure games like "BLACK DAHLIA" (it took me days) "INDIANA JONES AND THE FATE OF ATLANTIS" (it took me weeks) and "GABRIEL KNIGHT 3". Other than that I don't think I found anything else that is bad.

The Bottom Line
It is definitely a MUST HAVE for ADVENTURE GAMERS. I think that with this release REVOLUTION SOFTWARE established itself as a benchmark company for this Game Genre, for the beginning at least of the new millennium!!!

The Good
When I discovered that the Broken Sword series would go into its third iteration, I was enthusiastic, only to become depressed, once the game makers made clear that it wouldn't be a classic adventure.

So what did they deliver instead? It's a puzzle focused narrative with action elements. Sounds like they stuffed a lot into that one, eh? And you're right: The best about Broken Sword 3 is probably that it relies heavily on storytelling. It is one of the most intriguing plots within all games of the past few years.

Moreover, the graphics are quite good, while sound and voice acting is as professional as in the first two parts of the game.

The Bad
Broken Sword 3 changes camera angles quite often to push suspense. However, the controls react depending on the camera angle, not depending on the player. This can get quite on your nerves, because you have to rethink the direction controls all the time. And it will surely kill you a few times in time critical situations...

The puzzle design is usually logical and interesting, while not very hard. From time to time (and much too often) the game features box moving puzzles. These are clearly designed to stretch the overall playing time. Although in most cases you will be able to figure out how to solve these puzzles in a matter of seconds, you'll have to move boxes around for another five...

The Bottom Line
In the end, Broken Sword 3 is an interesting approach to renovate the adventure genre, blowing quite some dust of it. I'd love to see other games follow this approach with a strong narrative, good graphics and voice acting, thoughtful puzzles, but with better controls and fewer boxes.

The Good
Like the previous titles in the series this game has a solid story underpinning the gameplay. The voice acting is mature and thankfully light on ham. The interaction interface is fairly clunky but doesn't get in the way too much. The presentation is generally neat and tidy.

There are some nice little puzzles in this game. I quite liked the little box puzzles, even though I got the impression they were only there to slow the pace of the game down. They were nowhere near as challenging as Soko-ban, of course, but they did make for an interesting diversion from some of the more tedious areas of the game.

The Bad
This game also has a lot of problems. The most obvious annoyance was the constant and tedious loading screens. Some of the puzzles even had loading sections between two halves of the same puzzle. Coupled with the sudden deaths that occur liberally throughout the game, these annoying multiple minute waits to try and fail another 5 second sequence of gameplay brought me to the brink of giving up on the game altogether. The strong story, characters, and promise of occasionally interesting gameplay elements, were all that kept me going.

There were also graphical glitches. The sound and vocal tracks could rarely keep up with the rest of the game. The characters often flicked in an out of poses making the in game cinematic sequences comical.

The stealth sections of the game, although an interesting idea, were rendered almost unplayable by the ridiculous design decision to couple the control system to the camera - and then cut the camera at the most awkward points sending your player careening around the field like a drunken buffoon.

Several times I found myself guessing the correct solution at first, and yet having that attempt fail for some unknown reason. I'd then try everything else I could possibly imagine until finally, out of exasperation, I'd try the first thing again - only this time the exact same thing would work!

The generic speech also became comical at times. On one memorable occasion, having managed to shut the door on a shotgun toting goon, selecting the key on the door lock gave rise to the rather ironic, "I had no reason to do that," statement from George. This, right before the goon opens the door, without apparently using his hands, and simultaneously gives him both badly animated barrels in the face; shortly followed by an out of sync sound effect.

The Bottom Line
Underneath the stylish gloss, is a buggy game engine. But, under that, is a pretty good game. If you can get past the glitches and the occasional poor design decisions, what remains is certainly enjoyable. However, it's not the best introduction to the series.