Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Apr 30, 2022

  With the exception of Grim Fandago, there is a special kind of Hell for the game designers who made 3D Adventure Games back in the early days, when 3D art was so horrible and atrocious that even Pixels were more realistic. In that special Hell there is even a more special torturing chamber for the people who took Classic Point & Click Adventures and turned them into Action Adventures where you have to MOVE through atrocious 3D graphics using WASD or the Cursor pad and using the elements of said environment with the above keys. In that special chamber there is also a special punishment for the game designers who make it possible for you to die in said game if you do not react in time (seriously if I wanted a game to test my reflexes I would play a platformer). If after said death you had to rewatch an UNSKIPPABLE cinematic there was also a super special punishment: you had to play and finish Broken Sword 3 - The Sleeping Dragon, a game that combines all of the above features.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 15, 2022

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• gamedeal user

  Nov 18, 2022

  First 2 games are brilliant. This one is dreadful. Some bright spark decided to not support using a mouse so everything is done with the keyboard. As such, the controls are unintuitive and the game too frustrating to bother with. I don't like the 3D graphics either.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 29, 2014

  Not as good as 1 & 2 and the controls can be pretty awkward at times. Quite a few box puzzles, which are more time consuming than difficult. The worst parts are the 'sneaking' sections which highlight poor controls and some odd camera angles which often lead to multiple attempts to get past them. Also having moved away from the cartoon graphics of 1 & 2 this one hasn't aged quite as well. I'd still recommend the game if you have played 1 & 2 and liked them. It's still good fun and humorous, enjoyed playing through.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 13, 2012

  Too many block pushing puzzles fail to provide any real challenge, off-putting controls make you wish you invested in a proper gamepad, but characters you know and love make you want to see it thorugh the end. Overall, very basic adventure game. 3-D wasn't a way to go.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 17, 2016

  When I first played this game, I hated it. I loved the 2D animation and the point and click interface of the first two Broken Sword games. This was so different that the experience was almost ruined for me. I'm glad I saw it through, because this is a great game. We still have the George and Nico that we have loved from the previous games (same voice actors and a great script) and the story is great, stemming back to the first Broken Sword game. The 3D is decent, with some awesome set pieces, and the rest being average. The controls can take a bit to get used to, and may turn off a lot of people. A point and click adventure has turned into an only use your keyboard adventure. That was difficult for me to swallow at first. For the most part, the puzzles are pretty good.....except....for all...the BOXES!! There were way too many move-the-box puzzles. One here or there isn't a sin, but the amount in here makes them feel like filler, as if the game needed to be longer. I don't think the game would have suffered had they removed some of these tedious box puzzles. A minor complaint is that there are moments in the game in which you have just moments to react, and you have to press the right button to avoid death. It kind of kills when the button doesn't appear till after you die. Luckily, the game loads right back to the perilous situation and you now know what button to push. This doesn't happen often though, so it is a minor annoyance. This game will probably not be considered as good as the first two, but it is definitely still worth playing. There is enough Broken Sword goodness to soften the leap from 2D to 3D adventure.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 10, 2016

  [b]"A hand was going to come out of the water and catch the sword? Get real, George!" - Nico Collard[/b] From year 2003, the third instalment of the series, [i]Broken Sword 3 - the Sleeping Dragon[/i] makes a radical change of presentation by carrying our beloved protagonists to 3D! Yup, it's the start of the millennium and 3D adventure games are big at the time. Knights Templar, Slavic assassins, medieval conspiracies and much more for us to enjoy in 3D this time. Expectedly, this change comes with a whole new set of game mechanics too. Not to worry though! The setting, the environment and the tone of the game are trademark George & Nico quality, alright! Following the events of the previous game, George goes back to his life as a patent lawyer and finds himself flying to the Congo to meet a scientist who claims that his machine can produce limitless energy. However, the plane crashes during a storm and George barely saves his hide. He takes a walk to meet the scientist, and yet again, finds himself in a conspiracy involving - wait for it - Templars! Meanwhile, Nico, still working for her paper, is called to interview a hacker who claims that he cracked Voynich manuscript and warns hectically about an "end of the world" scenario. Going to meet the guy, Nico finds him dead - of course - and gets attacked by the assassin who was impersonating her! As sure as the careful hands of fate would deem so, they again get together to solve the mystery, save the world and beat some Templar ass while doing so. In this adventure to come, we will meet new faces and encounter some familiar ones from previous games, going on another adventure that would rally us around the globe. That's one thing that I love about Broken Sword games. You get to visit countless different locations with different cultures and get introduced to anecdotes from their local lore. Yet, somehow, all those seemingly irrelevant details come together to paint a bigger picture. Its Indiana Jones meets Dan Brown every time. Humor is spot on also, this time relying on both folklore narrative and sexual innuendo a bit more than usual. One other thing is that we are capable of observing George and Nico's relationship growth based on their mutual history, growing inner jokes and references to previous games. Both George and Nico are just as you remember them: a lovable, smart ass Yankee with a law degree and an ambitious, pretty reporter with a sharp tongue. Let's get to the obvious change then, shall we? Our good old 2D P&C environment is no more. Now we have 3D cartoon renderings of our beloved characters and there is no "clicking" on the literal sense. Yup, mouse is pretty much useless in this instalment. All interactions are controlled from the keyboard, including item selection and movement - which is kinda okay. What would be a real drag is cameras. They change into pretty obscure point of views without warning, and it can become hellishly nasty if you are on a chasing scene. Oh, yes, we are also introduced with QTEs - quick time events - in this game. There will come some cinematic sequences in which you'll be asked to respond in a timely fashion by hitting the right button. Cute, huh? There aren't as many puzzles compared to previous games though, but the ones that we encounter are satisfying enough. Another newly introduced element is Sokoban games - a.k.a. box pushing puzzles. The game is riddled with them. They all are pretty easy, but mostly time consuming. You won't miss them when you finish the game. All things aside, [i]Broken Sword 3 - the Sleeping Dragon[/i] is a neat little adventure game, even though it is slightly subpar in means of mechanics and brain scratching compared to previous titles. Its worthy of an experience for the jokes, the story and character interactions to begin with. Go ahead, play the game. You know you want to. It's George and Nico, and they are at another incredible adventure. It cannot be bad anyhow. Please also check out Lady Storyteller's Curator page [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ladystoryteller#curation]here[/url] - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games!
• gamedeal user

  Nov 5, 2017

  I'd guess the multitude of negative reviews this game has are connected mostly to the controls. For PC they are abysmal, no doubt. Even after remapping to WASD for movement, the camera shifts and turns so much and at the weirdest points, that you lose reference constantly. You waste a lot of time bumping into things or taking steps to avoid doing so, even when you were moving correctly before the camera turned. That's not so bad, isn't it? After all, this is an adventure game, you can take your time, adjust your position and do what you intended to do in the first place. Right? Well... not so much. For an adventure game there is a huge amount of timed scenes, stealth-based situations and failure points that result in the characters death. When you die, the scene replays often from a much previous point, sometimes forcing you to watch a whole cutscene all over again. The frustration keeps piling up timed event after timed event. I had often found that the savegame I'd just made before attempting a timed scene just "didn't take" and I was forced to replay a difficult part from a previous point I'd done already. I didn't mind much the many crates pushing puzzles, or the climbing onto rocks, scaffoldings, etc. (Tomb Raider style), but yeah, it does present a significant amount of those too. They are okay, unless you're again pressed for time and struggling with the controls. I found myself enduring most of the game, only to reach a part with dialogs, which (it must be said) are great. I love the characters, the voice acting and the writing itself, but unfortunately that's not enough. A game should be enjoyed, not endured, so, sadly, after more than half a playthrough, I uninstalled the game and will be watching a video walkthrough somewhere to know the rest of the story. Such a shame...
• gamedeal user

  Dec 9, 2017

  Definitely the weakest in the series. It's not even a point & click. Has "action"[sic] and "sneak" sequences. Has an absurd amount of block moving puzzles. Played it many times myself, but I don't recommend it even to fans of the series.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 21, 2017

  [b][12th of November, 2003][/b] [i]Lead Developer:[/i] We're really making progress on the third entry in the [i]Broken Sword[/i] series. All we need to do is apply polish to the graphics, tighten the controls and camera angles, replace all of the crate/boulder pushing placeholder puzzles with something less repetitive, and finish adding the audio with more background music and ambient sounds. We could probably complete all of this by February of next year. I'm going to check in with management and see if they're satisfied with our progress. [b][13th of November, 2003][/b] [i]Management:[/i] Wow, great work, we love it! Let's ship it ASAP. [i]Lead Developer:[/i] Uhh... [b][i]Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon[/i] - released on the 14th of November, 2003.[/b]