Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon

aka: BS3, Baphomets Fluch: Der schlafende Drache, Broken Sword 3, Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon, Broken Sword: El sueño del dragón, Broken Sword: Il Sonno del Drago, Broken Sword: Nenereru Ryuu no Densetsu, Les Chevaliers de Baphomet: Le manuscrit de Voynich, Slomannyj Mech 3: Spjaschij Drakon
Moby ID: 11004
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

No less than six years have gone by before the third installment in the Broken Sword series saw the light of day. The first two games (The Shadow of the Templars and The Smoking Mirror) delved into the Knights Templar and Mayan mythology. This time, George Stobbart and Nico Collard are after the Voynich Manuscript to unravel its mysteries.

The Sleeping Dragon moves away from the 2D point-and-click concept from the earlier games and features a full 3D world, with a camera that does not rotate, but uses fixed cinematic perspectives, combined with full 5.1 sound. For the Windows version the game is no longer controlled through the mouse, but now through the keyboard, for the movement of the characters as well as all the actions. The player alternately controls George or Nico. Next to typical adventure gameplay such as exploration, conversations, and searching and combining items, there are also a few action sequences. The characters can duck, sneak, hang from ledges and move crates to reach higher areas.

The locations visited throughout the game include The Congo, Paris, England, Czech Republic and Egypt.

Spellings

  • Сломанный Меч 3: Спящий Дракон - Russian spelling
  • 断剑:沉睡之龙 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

204 People (189 developers, 15 thanks) · View all

Director
Head of Development
Artistic Director
Lead Section Design and Implementation
Audio Director
Project Management
Section Design
Implementation
System Programming
Tools Programming
Audio System Programming
AI Programming
Effects Programming
Lead Artist
Artists
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 67 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 154 ratings with 9 reviews)

George and Nico together again -- what a great team!

The Good
If you've read the reviews for other platforms, you're probably wondering about the problems with slow loading they all reported. So the first thing I'm pleased to report is that there is no loading delay in the Windows version. Everything ran seamlessly on my Windows XP system - from the easy installation all the way through to the fabulous finale. That said, let's pick it apart piece by piece.

Continuity
Because it's been quite a few years since Broken Sword 2 was released, I think the developers did a wonderful job bringing the player up to speed. From the main menu you can read background information about George and Nico's two previous adventures. This helps those new to the series get acquainted with them quickly. Inside the game, they will fondly remember past experiences by looking at mementos and talking between themselves. Several older characters make a reappearance in this game, and both George and Nico remember them.
5 stars for Continuity. Story
The "save the world" story doesn't jump out at you all at once. In fact, you have no idea exactly where the adventure is going for about one-third of the game. The plot line evolves very gradually. Playing George and then Nico in separate scenarios keeps you mighty busy - until all at once they're in the same place at the same time (Paris, naturally) - and working towards the same goals. Once they get together, it's magic. There are quite a few times when you must use both characters to solve a puzzle. Because of the ancient artifacts and exotic locations, it felt almost like I was playing Indiana Jones with a female side-kick. But, I don't remember Indy ever having a relationship like George and Nico's. Theirs is a deep friendship, but nothing romantic. As you play, you know solidly how they feel (or don't feel) about each other from their playful sarcasm and dry humor. And the ending is great!
5 stars for Story. Graphics
I give high marks for the characters, scenery, objects and general look overall of Sleeping Dragon. Both Nico and George are very attractive people and their surroundings are realistic and appealing. All of the artwork is cleanly depicted in natural, vibrant colors. Objects are well integrated into the surroundings, but they're not difficult to find. Those with "hot spots" do not jump off the screen at you, so you do need to do the normal amount of exploring. You find those objects by walking near them, so there's really no pixel hunting. It is difficult to match speech with lip movement, but the developers did an impeccable job here. In fact, I can't think of any other game that accomplished it better - or even equally well. In only one spot did I notice a glitch in the graphics. This came at a critical time during what some people call the "tile puzzle". Part of the scenery stretched unnaturally out to the middle of the floor! But, quitting and loading again and it was gone. I can't help but feel that it was my equipment and not the game. But I'll subtract half of a point for that.
4.5 stars for Graphics. Sound & Music
Sound effects add to the realism of a game, and the ones you'll hear in this game are really good. The most memorable ones are of George grunting as he moves yet another box into place, or the "oof" heard if one of them runs into a wall. You'll also hear soft footsteps, the sounds of doors opening or closing, keys going into locks etc. All of them sounded appropriate to the action being performed. I commend the actors and actresses who voiced the characters in the English version. All accents sounded authentic, inflections and tones were accurate for what they were saying, and dialog interchange was entertaining. Kudos, too, to the script writers for giving them great things to say. The music was mood enhancing, especially when something was about to happen or when you accomplished something important.
5 stars for Sound & Music. Gameplay & Puzzles
Some adventurers have complained about the "keyboard only" interface. Well, it did take a bit of getting used to. The arrow keys are used for movement with the Shift key used to make your character run. The space bar brings up the inventory, which is arranged in a circular manner. The Control key lets you crouch and creep (while walking) and the Escape key takes you to the menu. The main keys for interaction are all together on the keyboard (the group W, A, S, D) and their use changes depending upon what you are doing. While I wasn't sure how I'd like going without a traditional mouse, I did get accustomed to it and fared okay. The hard part was during the action segments when reacting quickly enough when the action icons appeared became a gruesome experience. Luckily the game restored you automatically to the beginning of that portion again. Walking straight in one direction caused no problems, but some of the scenes required a diagonal direction, so that became interesting. Although I didn't particularly care for the keyboard gameplay, I can't imagine what it would have been like as a point and click Windows game. There are only a few puzzles, in the true sense of the word. One involves pulling some wine bottles in the correct order (reminiscent of the old classic Countdown). Another is the recreation of a very familiar riddle. Most of the other puzzles are interaction or inventory based - including the infamous moving crates problems. (As a side note, moving crates around to reach inaccessible areas was also common in Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, which I finished a few months ago.) The only time I can remember having that many puzzles of the same type was a multitude of those tedious slider puzzles (and I can't recall which game at the moment). When you do the same thing over and over again, it becomes tiresome - although you do get better at them as you go along.
So, 3 stars for Gameplay.

**The Bad**
There aren't very many things that didn't like ... really. I've included most of them in the above section. A small nuisance involves loading saved games. Instead of getting the Load Game selection on the menu, you must first select Exit and choose whether to save again or not .. and then you'll find yourself at the Main Menu where you can load a game. Why make it so hard to find it? I also wished I could have named my own saved games instead of their "auto-naming" with the place and time. Body language is nice, yes, but Nico acted bored sometimes - reaching her arms up and stretching - even in the middle of an interesting dialog session. What's up with that? And .. who came up with that bogus front cover? Nico and George don't look anything like those people!

**The Bottom Line**
Can you tell I really, really liked this game? My average is 4.5 stars - a pretty high mark for any adventure game these days, I must say. It really surprised me. In addition to my opinions above, BS3 is nice and long .. and did I mention that the ending is great? I highly recommend Sleeping Dragon and sincerely hope there will be a BS4.

Windows · by Jeanne (75956) · 2005

Nice but failed attempt

The Good
Growing up to become a fan of the series, I was waiting with extreme impatience to get to play this one. Screenshots were promising, story seemed to be moving towards the right direction, and after sleepless night over Gabriel Knight 3, I thought this one was going towards the right direction and if there's one adventure that'll seize up the throne, this'll be it. Alas, I was mistaken, as usually, you just don't know the game until you play it through. Maybe this'll teach me to lighten up my expectations next time around.

Okay, best thing first, it would be futile to say anything bad towards the game graphics, it's incredible. The lip-sync is too perfect, character models are detailed, textures are brilliantly hand-picked and level of details around you is astonishing, from objects to lighting effects. The music has a lot of potential too, but it's a bit scarce, most of time you won't hear it but only sounds. When you do hear it however, you'll know it's a trouble time.

That merciless killer, Petra... she's a real hottie, isn't she? ;)

The Bad
Now a line or two for disappointments. There's plenty of those, sadly. Story has a great potential and starts really intriguing, but it doesn't take too long before it rumbles down beneath its own potential by adding all kinda nonsense to the story, thus robbing a good detective adventure off its potential by turning it into psychotic fantasy with magic, and dragons and what all not.

Puzzles are not too hard, but there is far too much of crate pushing puzzles. Sure, they added option for that and now every other puzzle had to involve it. Also, it is annoying to make an adventure game where you can be killed all the time yet you have no way of returning fire. Yup, that's right, there will be badguys with rifles on every point you'll investigate and you'll have to be real quiet around them. That itself isn't a bad thing, but like with the crates, they used it far too much just because they had a code support for it.

Oh yeah, and that loading time is truely annoying thing. You must wait for like 20 seconds the least each time the game gets to load and it loads a plenty. I reckon that is not the case with PC version, but obviously with consoles it is a big thing. Sure, that's why you get all that great graphics to admire, but it is something I yet haven't encountered in games made for consoles. I mean, Xbox has a hard drive, they could've load a bunch of stuff if necessary there, or at least offer that option to save on loading.

The Bottom Line
A game that by no means may indicate to any flaw by its title and judging by the graphics, or whatever may be expected as a continuation to the series, but is actually a bit more than just an adventure. Now whether that is a good point or not, it's up to you to decide, but this game still has George and Nico, lets you play both characters, and had amazing graphics. You will return to visit certain places you saw in the past, get to meet recurring characters, and get a literal sequel to the original game... which in my opinion ruined it all the way it was done. This game showed a lot of promises at start, but more by more it ended couple of steps behind the prequels.

Xbox · by MAT (240759) · 2012

A partly successful attempt to breath new life into the adventure genre

The Good
Well, the most important thing about a game, at least in my opinion, is that it's fun to play, and fortunately, Broken Sword 3 possesses this virtue. Another thing of interest to most gamers these days is graphics, and Broken Sword 3 manages to deliver in this area as well. On to the core, the gameplay itself. BS3 has all the ingredients an adventure should have, interesting characters and locations, meaningful conversations, brainteasing riddles ... all this doesn't sound too bad, does it?

The Bad
Well, it isn't. But the game still offers some reasons for complaining. The most painful thing for me, an old adventure game veteran, is the absence of mouse control. Over the course of the development I've read a number of interviews with different chaps from Revolution Software in which they bragged this game was going to reinvent the adventure genre. However, you'll be hardly pressed to actually notice this. Most things have been done before, mainly by the also fully three dimensional Gabriel Knight 3. BS3 is still playable enough, even without a mouse interface, but I missed one more than once and aforementioned GK3 HAD mouse control, so I have to come to the conclusion the reason for it's absence is mere lazyness. That out of the way, the next biggest complaint, FAR less serious from my personal viewpoint, is the weirdo mixture of mythologies featured in BS3. Revolution Software did a great job basing Broken Sword 1 on the myths around the legendary Knights Templar, but the move to mixing in different other mythologies started in BS2 has been brought one step further in BS3, up to a point where it gets somewhat too much. Having a direct connection between artifacts of the Knights Templar, Old-Egyptian temples and the tale of King Arthur is a bit much for my taste. But this is a matter of personal preference, I guess. Finally, there's an abundance of sokoban-style puzzles in Sleeping Dragon, which can get kind of annoying at times.

The Bottom Line
Don't be fooled by the fact that the bad section is twice as big as the good section, despite all downsides BS3 is definitely a game worth playing, it's just not a pure blood adventure and - not uncommon amongst multi-genre adventures - a bit shallow at times. Nonetheless, the sentence I began this review with is still true at it's end.

Windows · by Cadorna (219) · 2003

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Trivia

Casting

The actress who played Nico, Sarah Crook did not actually audition for the role. She was one of the supervisors of the audition, and asked Charles Cecil if she could try out for the role after a string of applicants Cecil regarded as unsuitable.

References

  • In the room of Vernon Blier, the geek, you can find some references. In his bedroom, there's a poster with the cover image of the first Broken Sword game against the wall. In the living room, there's a painting with an apple on it. If you observe it closely, Nico will say: "Another Steve Jobs original" - an obvious reference to Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple.
  • George's lucky piece of coal makes a return. In the previous game, you could pick up a 'lucky piece of coal' in the warehouse in Marseilles. It appears in this game as well, you can find it in the locked metal shack in Susarro`s Castle. Just like the previous game, it has no use at all in the game itself.
  • The picture of George in Nico's apartment is the picture that George uses to ask about the killer throughout the first Broken Sword game, Circle of Blood. If you look behind George, you can see the assassin, complete with the bright green clown pants.

Trilogy

This was planned to be the last Broken Sword game, but later Revolution decided to continue the series with Secrets of the Ark: A Broken Sword Game.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2003 – Best Console Adventure Game of the Year (PlayStation 2)

Information also contributed by Depth Lord, Kalrac and Martin Smith

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Sciere.

PlayStation 2, Xbox added by MAT.

Additional contributors: MAT, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Monkeyhead, Pirou Julien, Ghost Pirate, dome_quest, Patrick Bregger.

Game added November 13, 2003. Last modified March 27, 2024.