Posted on: June 30, 2015

Hanglyman

Games: 444 Reviews: 141

Generally Good Despite The Box Puzzles

I liked the first Broken Sword a lot, but thought the second suffered from being too short and not very exciting or well-developed. The Sleeping Dragon makes up for that in spades with a dramatic, exciting plot with a real sense of danger and urgency, memorable villains (and better-developed characters in general), and well-designed environments. Transitioning to 3D can be a disaster- just look at Gabriel Knight 3, which made the jump long before it should have and as a result looks absolutely awful. Broken Sword 3 transitions more gracefully- while the graphics are a bit dated, they're generally up to the challenge, and many areas are actually quite beautiful. The character models look good and are expressive enough to get the job done. Unfortunately, while the graphics may not have suffered from the change to 3D, the gameplay has. The game contains many scenes involving climbing and jumping, several stealth sections, and, infamously, a few "quick time events" and far, far too many box puzzles. While these additions add some variety to the game, the stealth sections can be annoying, playing like Metal Gear Solid with horrible controls, and the box puzzles are boring filler- you'll spend literally 1/4 of the game shoving around crates. The quick time events serve no purpose other than to force you to replay a few minutes of the game if you weren't expecting to have to press a button at a random moment, and the fact that you can't skip any dialogue makes this even worse. Lastly, although it feels like a real accomplishment when you've defeated all the hardships the game throws at you, the ending is disappointingly short, lasting literally about a minute. Other than these issues, the puzzles are well done, and I found the game very enjoyable despite its flaws. The dialogue is good, the plot is interesting and exciting, and there are even a couple emotional moments that really make you feel for the characters, something that 2 lacked. A solid entry in the series.

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Posted on: October 22, 2018

murphys35

Verified owner

Games: 187 Reviews: 1

Good, but far from perfect

"Love Us" - great rock ending credits song is just playing into my headphones and I´m trying to summarize my feelings from this game as I´ve just finished it. I loved BS1 and BS2 so my main motivation for playing Sleeping Dragon was to live through another adventure of George and Nico - I like really them both. Was I satisfied? Yes, I was. The most positive thing about this game is that the story is interesting and the chemistry between them still works fine. I was really enjoying every minute of their journey. On the negative side, I would mention quite a low difficulty and of course... 3D. For an old school gamer, it´s just strange to play adventures with the keyboard. But I believe that Broken Sword fans will enjoy the game even with this. Now, I have a few other titles on my list but BS4 will get its chance in a very near future!

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Posted on: May 9, 2021

drk84x

Verified owner

Games: 351 Reviews: 65

Not that bad

While i am not a big fan of the broken sword series i really appreciated the story, the problem of this game lies in the boring crate puzzles, the lame stealth scenes and in minor part the 3d enviroment. The rest of the puzzles are on the easy side, you will spend more time replaying the aforementioned bad stealth scene than solving the classical style puzzles. The 3D scenario aren't bad but they are empty and look "artificial", like a theathre diorama. Overall it's a game that you want continue to play to see how it ends, i would probably give 4 stars but you can't skip cutscenes or dialogue!!

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Posted on: December 3, 2016

Artinum

Verified owner

Games: 120 Reviews: 2

Slightly Disappointing

I was first introduced to Broken Sword through an app on my phone. It was a special deal, I was intrigued and I'd always liked adventure games. Then I discovered the second game in the series on CD, and thanks to the magic of emulation I was able to enjoy that one on my PC. And then I discovered there's a whole series of 'em. Hurrah! But game number three has been a little disappointing. The storyline and characters are great. I've got to know Nico and George over the last couple of games and their complex relationship continues to entertain here. It was also good to see a few nods to the first game. But the move to 3D has been problematic. This game is now half adventure, half platformer, and it's so easy to miss something because you didn't look in the right corner. Thank heavens for the internet, because I got stuck so many times looking for that one tiny thing I'd missed. Is it behind one of the dozen locked doors in most locations that I can't actually ever open? But my biggest irritation was with the action sequences. Suddenly, you need to do something QUICKLY. Nico got shot dead six times in the first one of these because I had no clue what I was doing, and every time the sequence would restart. No saving allowed here. I was sorely tempted to quit and start again at one point. Then I managed to move on... and missed the next quick button press, and the whole sequence restarted. It really wouldn't hurt the storyline if these were just FMV moments. Then we could get on with the puzzles again. I hope the later instalments in this series have managed to improve on these issues. This is a highly involving story but the controls and the sometimes too well hidden clues can disrupt the immersion.

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Posted on: April 29, 2018

LordHorst

Verified owner

Games: 99 Reviews: 6

Good sequel

Broken Sword 3 is the consequential continuation of the first two parts. Again we get to experience a story full of mystical and historical elements, and again we get to meet some very interesting characters. Some of those are borderline caricatures, but they are never absurd characters. The 3D graphics work good in this game, but they don't look good according to today's standards. Back in the days, when the game was first released, the graphics where pretty good, but the problem with 3D graphics is that they don't age very well. Anyway, the graphics aren't exactly terrible, the animations just look very stiff sometimes. The biggest downer in this game are the "Quick Time Events". They where "the next big thing" back then, but every player hated them even then. Sometimes you get next to no time to react, so you have to rewatch the whole scene you just messed up all over again. Another downer in this game are the crate riddles. You'll be pushing so many crates in this game that it stops being original very soon. However, I do like the new freedom in character movement. Characters can climb ledges now or can shimmy along drainpipes. It really adds some more action to the game play, as you now don't only "Point & Click" anymore. Overall, BS3 is a good sequel and it brings the world of George and Nico from 2D into the 3D world and does a decent job at it, too.

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