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.
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.
