Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon

"Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon" is the third title in the Broken Sword-series, with main characters George Stobbart and Nicole Collard. This game has everything that made the previous titles in the series so great. Superb and atmospheric graphics, a brilliant storyline, atmospheric music, puzzlesolving and a great script. The main difference in this game when compared to BS1 and BS2, is the gameplay. Gameplay is not point-and-click like in the previous titles, but you take direct control of your character, and your character will notice interesting items on his own. The most important aspects of any adventure title like this is the storyline and the script. And in this aspect "Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon" is among the best ever. I would say that this is one of the best titles I have played this year. This game is a thinking man`s game, and you do not get to shoot anything, so this title is not for your average action-addict of a teenager. Prepare to experience one of the finest gaming-experiences ever created.

10/10

I am a huge Broken Sword fan. I've been playing these games for years, in fact I think the Broken Sword series was the first actual gameing experience I ever had. Although Broken Sword 3 is nowhere near as good as the first two games, it is different, and different can sometimes be bad but in this case it is good. True, the controls can be difficult to get to grips with at first, and the concept of 3D can be hard to get used to, but after a while you can become addicted. I'm really enjoying this game so far, though it is no Shadow of the Templars, it's still a damn good game. I may play the 4th game next, though I am not sure because I heard that Nico isn't in it. It will be strange playing a game that doesn't involve her, since she played such a huge role in the first three games, but anyway, back to the subject, this is a really good game and I'd recommend it to all Broken Sword fans.

This game is nothing like the first two. First of all it's not actually a point and click game anymore. The story of the game if ok and it still has the humour of the first two games, but these are the only good things that can be said about it. There are a lot of bad thing about gameplay and some of them pile up. The camera movement is awful - you often can't understand which direction you are moving, keep bumping to the walls and see yourself from useless angles. Dialog scenes are unskippable. Unlike the first games, there are plenty of scenes where you can die unless you take some action. After that you have to go through same dialog again and again. This game has some stealth scenes and as a stealth game it sucks. Camera movement doesn't help here at all. There are plenty of box moving puzzles. Sometimes it feels like you are playing some warehouse simulator. The are not very challenging, but take a lot of time. Game puzzles are simple, but since areas to explore are pretty bit, it's easy to miss things. Some areas have lots of closed doors - you can examine, try to open or listen. Every time you have to hear out the the door is closed and can't be opened (remember dialog is unskippable). Listen action is completely useless - can't remember a single time in the game, when it was useful. You have to do some climbing and jumping in the game. Climbing points are often easy to miss, since the are not marked. I remember running up and down the street with Nico in the beginning of the game for an hour until I finally consulted the walkthrough - turns out I missed a climbing point on the wall. And finally the graphics of the game didn't age very well. I would only recommend this game if you a hardcore fan of the series.

Broken Sword can easily be summed up as a cross between Monkey Island and Gabriel Knight. In the third installment, The Sleeping Dragon, the series definitely takes a leap in the direction of Sierra's blonde-haired hero.

Broken Sword 3 feels like the previous games, but amped to a degree. The humour seems a little faster and sharper and the intensity is much greater than in the last two games, though this may be due to the over-all change in style. In all the game has a very cinematic feel, which I feel is an admirable trait in an adventure game.

Musically the game is on par with Smoking Mirror, which is a good thing as I felt the soundtrack was a vast improvement on that of the first game. Of the voice actors, sadly, only Rolf Saxon returns, but is still just as cool as George's voice.

Graphics wise the game is just as good as one would expect from an adventure-game. The in-game graphics have their irks, but over-all the game looks quite beautiful, though due to the move to 3D has lost some of its warmth.

There are however three frustrating weaknesses with this new title. Firstly, the controls. The game was obviously designed with the Playstation in mind as the controls do not feel at home on a computer-keyboard. Unlike with Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island, the single main problem with this game happens to be movement, which is camera-centered rather than character-centered. The fact that the camera-angles change frequently and the camera itself moves only add to the problematic controls. There is also an irritating amount of redundant tramping about because the player has to control character climbing every frickin' step of the way.

Secondly, Broken Sword 3 over-doses on box-moving puzzles. There doesn't appear to be a single section in the game with George that doesn't involve moving boxes around in order to reach a high ledge or something similar. Though one or two of these Zelda-style puzzles would have done nicely, BS3 is just plain over-doing it. Finally, there is no way to skip dialogue or cinematics which proves rather irritating whenever you die.

Puzzle wise, Broken Sword games have usually been rather simple, which is why this game is easily the hardest. Though puzzles have simple solutions they are not as evident as before due to the sheer size and freedom of the game's world making little clues easy to miss.

Over-all, however, the plot is enticing and the game is brilliantly fun and dramatic.

I'm a fan of the old cartoon style adventures like the monkey island series, day of the tentacle, the dig and other (lucas arts,sierra games)! Most of the time these adventures combine a good story with exciting moments of tension and humor. This is also the case in the Broken Sword series!The story is based on historical facts combined with a fantasized storyline! Stobart and Nicole (main characters) each have a different way of solving things! The interaction between the characters is great thanks to the excellent voice actors. In comparison to the earlier titles most of the puzzles in Broken Sword:Sleeping Dragon are not to difficult. When you are stuck you just have to try out all options given in the scene in order to advance! Still you have to be patient,because you have to talk to people and ask questions and this can sometimes be tedious. But overall a great and enjoyable game!