Though the same whimsical spirit familiar to players of the previous entries of the Broken Sword series is present in The Sleeping Dragon, certain gameplay aspects differ greatly when played on PC, mostly due to the fact that it was designed with gamepads in mind. This is not a 2D point-and-click game as the previously-featured Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror is. Rather, players control the 3D incarnations of George Stobbart and Nico Collard using arrow keys for movement and WASD to interact with other characters and the environment; the mouse doesn’t even come into play. Regardless of this deviation from convention, Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon has just as much of what fans have come to love from the series in the way of interesting puzzles, quirky characters, humorous dialogue and a great cast of voice actors. Except Beatrice; she’s fired.

It’d be easy to crap all over Broken Sword 3 as many fans have, but I’ve found that I have more of an affinity for Broken Sword’s characters and stories than for the core gameplay mechanics that they’re laid on top of. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy playing the Broken Sword games, whether it be a 2D point-and-click or a 3D adventure game, because I do. Neither control scheme is poorly implemented, and the elements that I care about most are present either way, so I don’t think it’s fair to be angry at whatever changes have been made. I don’t feel betrayed. I will say that playing with a gamepad will feel more natural than using a keyboard, but don’t let it keep you from playing if you don’t have one.

Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon can be purchased from GOG.com for $5.99 with guaranteed XP and Vista compatibility. A sample of the game’s soundtrack can also be downloaded for free from the Broken Sword 3 page at Revolution Software’s website.

If you ever wanted to know how to completely kill the sales potential of the PC version of your game in an entire region by encouraging piracy… well, this is how. Thanks for the lesson, Sony.

It’s still pretty cool to see that people are paying attention to Broken Sword again. I get sad when I hear people older than me say the Wii and DS Director’s Cuts of The Shadow of the Templars is the first time they’ve heard of the series. Just cast Tim Robbins as George Stobbart and Audrey Tautou (shh! no, that similarly themed movie that she was just in… yeah, that didn’t really happen) as Nico Collard and I’m on board.

Overgrowth’s dev tools are pretty impressive and all (seriously, go watch some of their other videos on GameTrailers), but this video in particular is great because it brings the funny. This video’s worth a look whether you’re interested in the tools or not. Bonus, if you are!

That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!

Broken Sword II tasks players with guiding the series’ main character, patent lawyer George Stobbart, through his adventures with his journalist girlfriend, Nico Collard. Though almost twelve years have passed since the game’s original release, Broken Sword II is still one of the finest adventure games available today. This is due in no small part to its outstanding voice work, scripting, and direction coupled with plenty of humor, mystery, and intrigue throughout the story. Player frustration and bewilderment is kept to a minimum by way of accessible and satisfying puzzles. There are a few brain teasers and situations where players will need to think and act quickly lest they end up on the business end of a gun, but there’s nothing as obtuse as duct-taping cell phones to cats or quicktime events.

Personal Notes & Acquisition

If you are concerned that playing Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror out of order will tarnish your experience, don’t be. There are recurring characters and a few locations that are revisited across the series, but the designers were mindful enough to tastefully implement exposition throughout the game so that the player isn’t left wondering who a person is.

Though I originally played Broken Sword II in 2006 during a week-long marathon run through all four games, many scenes remain fresh in my memory. I was delighted to see it recently added to the Good Old Games catalogue in their $5.99 price tier, both so that I could revisit it as well as recommend it here on DoSu in a Cheap Games feature. Up until now using ScummVM was the only way to play the game on modern PCs. Thanks to Good Old Games’ guarantee that all games they sell are compatible with XP and Vista, Broken Sword II is once again accessible.