Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon
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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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)
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[ 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)
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 (241162) · 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
A broken sword fixes the adventure Genre
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.
Windows · by Isdaron (715) · 2004
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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Related Sites +
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Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon - FAQs & Guides
Various walkthroughs and fact files on GameFaqs.com -
Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon Hints
Question and answer type solution guide -
Mr. Bill's Solution
Tells you how to get through the Action portions of Sleeping Dragon -
Official Site
Official site -
Walkthrough for The Sleeping Dragon
by MaGtRo
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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 May 10, 2024.