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Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon Review for PC
Posted on Thursday, December 25, 2003 @ 03:52:52 am E.S.T Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon is the third in a series of adventure games that have captivated gamers with their amazing story lines and creative puzzles. In the Broken Sword series, George Stobbart and Nico Collard investigate conspiracies that surround the mysterious Knights Tempar. The first two games of the series had the same two-dimensional format, but both contained beautiful, artistic backgrounds and an interesting storyline. However, Sleeping Dragon has taken things to a new level by combining an intriguing story with amazing three-dimensional graphics and sound to produce a truly cinematic adventure game that plays like an interactive film.
The storyline of this game rivals that of a movie and is what makes this game like no other. The incentive to play really focuses more on the plot rather than gameplay. This is what sets The Sleeping Dragon apart from most games. As a player interacts with the environment by examining items, the character’s voice acts as narrator of the story describing the results of the interaction. Simply put, it’s the player interaction with the environment that feeds the storyline, without that interaction, the film ends.
The fact that Sleeping Dragon is three-dimensional sets it apart from its other games in the Broken Sword series. The graphics only add to the film like quality that the game possesses. The characters are incredibly detailed, their skin texture and their facial expressions are realistic. The environments are nearly flawless. The FMVs are all beautifully scripted and lifelike. In many games, FMV sequences often interfere with playtime, and for many players, this is very annoying. However, this is not the case with Sleeping Dragon. There are numerous FMV sequences in this game, but because this game is all about story, the sequences only make the game that much better.
This isn’t the greatest game as far as gameplay goes. The player spends most of the time investigating items and different people. There are numerous puzzles to solve that are challenging and can be time consuming. The only real problem as far as gameplay goes is that it can be difficult to control a character’s walking or running direction because the camera angles shift frequently; this can get confusing during critical times in the game. However, most of the controls in the game are based off of action keys and are fairly easy to control. These action keys enable you to do various things such as use items and examine things. In some instances, they enable you to take part in the fmv sequences by requiring the player to hit an action key at the right time or face death.
Now there's a chick with an attitude.
Sound plays a big role in making this game play like a film. This game does an excellent job setting the mood of scenes with wonderfully choreographed music and sound effects. The actors that do the voices of each character accurately reflect the characters’ moods and circumstances. In other words, the actors can act! As mentioned early, a character’s voice works as narrator describing his actions. This is done in past tense as if the character were telling an old story to a friend. This really makes the player feel like he is in the story, and is actively participating in how it is being told.
Although some Broken Sword fans may be a bit disappointed with the new 3-D format presented in Sleeping Dragon, one cannot ignore the advantages that this format has to offer. The new format makes the game more lifelike as well as more cinematic. It adds more detail to characters and their environments. It enables environments to be more dynamic and interactive. And of course, the 3-D format is more visually appealing as well. As time progresses, video games will be presented in new formats that utilize the best technology has to offer. In the case of Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, the technology was applied, and the result was an amazing video game who’s graphics, sound, and story combine to produce an explosive interactive film. Review By: Rob B. - 1319 Reads
Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon Review Scores for PC :
| Gameplay |
| 7.5 |
| Graphics |
| 9 |
| Sound |
| 8.5 |
| Replay |
| 7.5 |
| Overall |
| 8.2 |
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