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Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon
The classic adventure series wakes up in the 21st century.
by Susie Vee
| PLATFORM:
XBX,
PC |
| PUBLISHER:
The
Adventure Co. |
DEVELOPER:
Revolution |
GENRE:
Adventure |
ESRB:
Teen |
 |
With the sheer number of game sequels and remakes out there, sometimes
game developers have to dig pretty far down the pile to come up
with a new property to work with. The Broken Sword series
dates back to the late ‘90s, as a couple of point-and-click
adventure games. Although well-regarded for their clever writing
and above-average characterizations, the games were from a genre
that is long out of fashion (although one of the classic Broken
Sword games did get ported to the GBA).
 So,
the question for The Adventure Company was – how do you resuscitate
a '90s game license for the 21st century? In the case of Broken
Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, it’s by updating the game
to 3D, while keeping much of the original adventure game mentality.
They’ve managed to come up with a solution that’s unique
and mostly elegant (we still remember the too-clever-for-its-own-good
2D-to-3D transition in Gabriel Knight III). The control
scheme is clearly designed for console controllers, but works well
on PC keyboards as well, even if it takes a little getting used
to.
This time around, our familiar heroes, American insurance investigator
George and French journalist Nico, are bought back together by an
ancient manuscript, a mad scientist and all sorts of other evil
shenanigans.
 We
liked the classic Broken Sword witty banter, and even George
and Nico’s new less-cartoony look grew on us after a while.
The gameplay retains a lot of the classic adventure game standbys,
from combining inventory items to conversing with every Tom, Dick
& Harry you come across. But, in the transition to 3D, for some
inexplicable reason, the game feels the need to include several
variations on the old “push the crates around” theme.
Another odd inclusion is several time-based incidents in the game,
where you have to hit a command key or keys as soon as the proper
icon appears on the screen. If you don’t, well…usually
something very bad happens to you. The system is a bit jarring for
an adventure game, and reminds us of the quick-timer events in Shen
Mue (if you remember that game).
But the puzzles in general are forgiving enough for even the casual
adventure gamer, and it’s rare that you’ll get stuck
in a pace-killing rut (even if there are a few typical adventure
game head-scratchers).
Nico’s half of the game is the more interesting, with more
emphasis on conversation and urban exploration – but George
meets his share of interesting characters as well.
If you’re a fan of classic adventure games, you’ll
love Sleeping Dragon. If the genre has never done much
for you before, this modern 3D version is a great place to start,
and just might make a puzzle-solver out of you.
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