Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon is the third entry in Revolution Software’s adventure game series. The Sleeping Dragon was released for the PC, Xbox and Playstation 2 (EU/JP) in 2003 and it marked the franchise’s first venture into 3D as opposed to using 2D sprites.

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.