| VGLN.com
PC >> Reviews
>> article
Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon
by Jolex Del Pilar
Monday, February 16 2004
The Sleeping Dragon proves that adventure gaming isn't quite dead.
 |
|
|
Title:
Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon
|
Platform:
PC Windows, Pentium II 750, 128MB Ram, 1 GB of HD space, 64 MB video card.
|
Publisher:
The Adventure Company |
Developer:
Revolution |
#
of Players: 1 |
Genre:
Adventure
|
Origin:
United States
|
Expected
Release:
December 2003 |
Grapevine:
George and Nico are great characters with a relationship that, although slightly sexually tinted, has proved interesting enough for 3 games. |
For a while now, adventure gaming has been going through a drought. While the PC has seen an influx of no less than 100 shooters in the past year, PC gaming has seen very few quality adventure games. With the exception of Myst and its many sequels, adventure gaming has been a very unprofitable undertaking for developers, the core audience has just diminished in recent years and very few titles from the genre are getting cross over gamers.
That being said, The Adventure Companies' latest release, Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, is a great game that may either mark the resurgence of adventure gaming, or a beautiful swan song of a dying genre. That all really depends on how well games like Broken Sword sell.
The Sleeping Dragon is the third game in the Broken Sword series. The past 2 games were generally considered solid games, if not high marks for the genre at the time of their release. Hence, a third game being released wasn't so much a surprise. The Broken Sword series has always featured great visual design, character dialogue, and captivating puzzling and adventuring. The trademark of the series has always been "brains over guns", which speaks about the games direction in plot movement and puzzle solving. The player is never expected to gun it out, or use violent means to accomplish their task. Only through creativity, and logic can a player solve the puzzles within the game, and allow the plot to move on. I liken the Broken Sword series to Star Trek: The Next Generation before Brannon Braga and Rick Bergman. Seriously, do these guys have any concept of continuity in a series? I will never forgive them for Star Trek: Voyager. How many times can you use the Borg like a cheap prostitute to bolster ratings before people stop caring? Anyway, those two guys could take a lesson in writing a plot from the creators of the Broken Sword series. These guys have got it down pat; their storyline for The Sleeping Dragon is not just interesting, it seems epic.
The basics of the storyline involve the Knights of the Templar, the old nemesis from the previous 2 games in the series. The leadership of the Knights has been mysteriously killed off, leaving room for a power struggle which shakes the organization down to its foundation. The new leadership that results from the turmoil however seems even more devious, and evil than the one that was replaced. Mysterious events begin transpiring around the globe, and George and Nico are again in the middle of things.
Nico does her best impression of Abbey Road...
As mentioned before, the amazing plot of The Sleeping Dragon takes place in the shell of a puzzle-adventure game (with brief action-esque interludes). There isn't a lot of action in terms of combat, but there is a lot of action in terms of brain teasing. Players will be asked to collect detailed clues in every scene to solve riddles and puzzles that are scattered throughout the game. Some puzzles may see players using 2 items in tandem to get a door to open, or using an object to jam an elevator door open. The puzzles are varied and force the player to think which many games now days, fail to do. Hints can be gathered through dialogue, or through inspection. Like a good adventure game, The Sleeping Dragon features a handy log book that automatically keeps tabs on any major hints or leads that the player may discover throughout the course of the game.
What separates The Sleeping Dragon from traditional puzzle-adventure games is the game's use of a beautiful 3D engine. This isn't Myst; the environments are lush, living, moving scenes that take place in complete 3D. You control your player with a gamepad or keyboard, and you move them from point A to point B. It's a lot more immersive than pretty static scenes that many Myst clones feature. Previous games of the series used a 2D/3D engine which featured cartoony visuals. The third game, although in 3D, still features a very soft, cartoon like visual experience which keeps continuity in the series.
Another aspect of the game where it simply outclasses and surpasses its contemporaries in the genre is in its dialogue and voice acting. The Sleeping Dragon features excellent production values in this arena. While other games seem to record dialogue from a $10 Radio Shack microphone, it's easy to see that the sound production of The Sleeping Dragon was done professionally. Though many will simply surpass this aspect of the game without giving it a second thought, I believe it is noteworthy of mention.
There is very little wrong with The Sleeping Dragon as can be inferred from our review thus far. However, if there is one complaint of this well crafted game, it is that the game is fairly short. The game will take most gamers around 12-15 hours to complete, and not more than 20 hours unless you are incredibly stuck. This is probably more due to the fact that the games puzzles are very cogent and logical. Many times I found myself in the game cursing the lack of a hint that would allow me to move the plot along. When I finally did find the solution, it would cause a lot of head slapping action. "Oh, you stick the pencil through the door to pop the key out!" Duh. Once you learn to think through things logically and find the causality that exists in the logic of The Sleeping Dragon's puzzles, it carries through to the end of the game, though things will get fairly complex towards the end of the game.
Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon is just a great game. Forget your preconceptions of what puzzle-adventure games are like. There is nothing dull or static about The Sleeping Dragon. It's a grand visual and audio experience that will keep you interested for as long as it last. Get out of your shell and try something different, The Sleeping Dragon is a great testament to the fun gamers once had with the adventure gaming genre.
--- Jolex Del Pilar
|
