Posted on: July 23, 2012

akg1486

Games: 51 Reviews: 4

Not the best in the series

Great adventure games are all about an underlying story, event triggers that are not too ridiculous and puzzles that are neither trivial nor agonizingly difficult. The Broken Sword series, of which I have played parts 1 through 3, is not as good as my favourites Tex Murphy and Gabriel Knight, but not bad. But the first two are, in my mind, superior, despite the "old" graphics. Part 3 is, I think, an attempt to modernize the graphics that sacrificed the playability. Today, it does no longer look modern. Constantly having to change arrow keys when moving around depending on the point-of-view is frustrating. When looking for clues, there are an awful lot of locked doors that have to be tried. The physionomy of the female characters, including that of main protagonist Nico Collard, does little to change the perception that adventure gamers are pathetic little men who do not spend a lot of time outdoors. (The fact that the opening segment includes just such a man is a bit refreshing, though.) What I found most irritating, however, is the fact that as long as you ask everyone you meet about everything, the story moves forward. It's almost like watching a cartoon, except with a few keystrokes now and again. The puzzles are few and far between and not really challenging. The constant references to, in particular, Part 1 may be confusing to a player who starts with Part 3; it's hard to say. I played Part 2 first, and even the few references to the first episode it containted made me wonder if I was missing anything. I suppose it is the nature of the series, but all Broken Sword games I have played have the exact same story: mystical natural forces are about to be let loose by a secretive society, and you must stop them. In Parts 1 and 3 it is even (roughly) the same society. (That is not really a spoiler.) The main characters, George and Nico, could have been used in other settings, evolving the characters and their relationship. As it is, it's deja vú all over again.

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Posted on: August 20, 2021

Armin79

Verified owner

Games: 411 Reviews: 8

Still a broken sword game

I enjoyed playing this game. The story is good, the atmosphere is still quite "broken sword like", even though it is 3D you still feel like in a broken sword game. The riddles are not too hard and most times logic, with some few exceptions where you have to try the same action another time or you think you already tried, but just another type of action is needed (like the view action instead of the use action). The graphics are, for that time, partly quite nice, party a bit boring .. one reason, why I only give 4 stars. The controls are really a bit annoying, but I was getting used to after a while. If you can use a game controller - use it, it will make controlling the game more easy. It has been ported from the PS console, changing it to point&click or another interface type would cost too much, I guess. So they mapped the gamepad controls to the keyboard, which really needs some time to get used to. But apart from some few scenes, where the right timing is needed, you don't have to rush, so controlling the game with the keyboard feels okay after a while. The voices and music are typical "broken sword", which both will give you a bit of a classic feeling. All in all I liked the game, and would even give it 5 stars, if there would not be the bad controls and partly not so nice graphics. For me it was about 17 hours of fun and solving puzzles, as I basically did not use any walkthrough. Using a walkthrough you will finish the game much faster for sure. But it's all solvable. If you just stay patient and trying different things you can solve them all without having to use a solution.

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Posted on: December 17, 2015

Klumpen0815

Verified owner

Games: 1809 Reviews: 63

The Weeping Dragon

Oh dear.... easily one of the worst games I've played. I love the first game of the series, like the second ond and only endured this bs to be able to play part four and five without having to skip something in the series. I sometimes Where should I start? The writing is terrible, the characters get more unsympathetic all the time, the controls are clearly made for gamepads (another one that fell prey to "consolidation" ;) and it's unstable which makes you play some scenes again if it crashes. The really mean points: The camera for some reason has fixed positions (it's all 3D anyway, why did they have to do that?!) that constantly screw up your orientation and controls, which is especcially bad when you have to run away in order to not be killed or when you simply can't see an area where you have to put a box in one of the many box pushing puzzles. You can't skip any dialogue EVER and they'll repeat a lot. There are a lot of crappy quick-time events and if you die in such a sequence, you sometimes have to endure a lot of "cinematic" before over and over again without being able to skip it. At one point you have to watch an endless sequence again for the next try at the very short quick time event. The cinematics seem to be locked at a low framerate, I can't explain otherwise why the movements looks so laggy in those while the rest of the game runs fluid. And the ending, oh no, please no.... why?! All the (out of place) references to the first game in addition to the ending give the impression that they really wanted to crap upon the series. I really hope, that 4 and 5 are not nearly as bad.

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Posted on: June 15, 2015

Lachgast

Verified owner

Games: 125 Reviews: 2

Sleeping dragon, frustrating gameplay

I played the game as part of the complete package of 5, and I just finished this episode. I'm giving this 3 / 3,5 out of 5 points. The game earns the points by the fine storyline, its witty humour and suspense and the dazzling amount of locations that have been crafted pretty well. It is clearly visible that 3D live action was still under development within the gaming industries. Under Linux (Wine) the live 3d animation isn't flawless, aswell: secret doors can be seen easily and shadows of the characters can result in faulty display. I did not consider this harmful in relation to the experience as a whole. It must be said: you don't see many standard animation for picking up artifacts, applying or interacting. What frustrated me as a player is the non-intuitive controls. In the game you control the character using the keyboard. The controls are not related to the orientation of the character (such as press arrow up for walking forward), but are related to the camera view. If you want to up on the screen, press arrow up, even though the character is facing towards you. Since there are changing camera views all the time, this can get you mad as hell (well at least it got me). This can be frustrating all the time, but especially during live action (which is mostly limited by time). And sometimes, when your character dies, and are given another chance, first you'll have to watch a complete sequence again. The way you control the character could have been way more intuitive and thus fun. Nonetheless, I think story and atmosphere are making this game well worth its money. I also loved the "sliding puzzles" (i.e. the box shoving puzzles), though it felt a bit strange to take so much time for such puzzles when really world destruction is at stake.

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Posted on: March 22, 2022

matsjss

Verified owner

Games: 157 Reviews: 2

Crave crates?

Once again we're visiting our old friends George and Nico and this time we're helping them move. Push crates, pull crates, climb crates - have fun all day long with crates! As everyone who ever contemplated picking this game up (probably including you) I did it because I played and enjoyed its predecessors. What really dragged me into those games was the nice and cosy atmosphere and story, that well executed kind of Tintin/Indiana Jones/Lovecraftian mix with mysterious conspiracies and the occult. I think the story of SD fits the franchise (though what WAS that ending?!). It is a little more gruesome this time. Many seem to bash the graphics and controls. It uses a fixed camera 3d view, which as any other similar implementation feels very claustrofobic and makes moving between different parts of the same area a bit disorienting, but nothing is actually out of sight. The system of action buttons and scrolling inventory actually works quite well IMO (the latter is used very little for an adventure game). The drawback of the controls, and part of the problem with this game, is that they feel so sluggish! Changing direction takes time. Walking is slow, but at least you can run---if you don't mind waiting a second now and then while G or N bumps into a wall to say ouch. And wait you will, playing this: you can't skip cutscenes or dialog. You can't skip the witty remarks while trying out locked doors (and there are loads of doors, thankfully less than crates though). You can't skip a cutscene played for the third time. No skipping! As for the puzzles ... well, they won't really puzzle anyone. If the voice actor says you could solve a puzzle with a hammer, you can solve it with a hammer. And you will move a lot of crates; like sokoban but without the challenge. The lack of puzzles and the constant break of pace (and did I mention that the crates are so heavy that G and N have to stop once every tile while moving them?) unfortunately makes this game extremely boring.

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