[booB]

I am probably about 15-20% of the way through Broken Sword 3, and here's what I've noticed: Maybe it's just the way I have the controls set up for these games... but does anyone else think that the gameplay in Dreamfall is a dead ringer for the gameplay in Broken Sword 3? It's practically identical, to me... the only differences are the focus mode in Dreamfall that allows you to scope out objects from a distance, and the fact that Broken Sword 3 seems to have much more actual gameplay than Dreamfall.

Other than that... you walk up to objects and the game gives you all the available actions for that object (even the ICONS look exactly like Dreamfall's!), and when you're facing multiple hotspots, you can cycle through them... the inventory is managed the same way... dialogue is handled slightly differently, but Broken Sword 3 is much more interactive than Dreamfall so this is no surprise... the action sequences are simple and pretty self-explanatory so far... it's close enough to make me wonder whether Funcom had this game's UI in mind when they created the one for Dreamfall.

Granted, I was no fan of the controls in Dreamfall, at least early on... but I eventually warmed up to them, and it's cool that I get to play another game in such a similar vein. I actually might like Broken Sword 3 more than Dreamfall... it has a similarly engaging story (so far), but is much more interactive and fun to play. It's definitely my favorite installment of the series so far. Bummer that Revolution dumped this style of play control for the fourth game... I've played a demo of it, and it will likely end up being my least favorite of the series.

I'm writing this under the assumption that the games don't actually use the same engine. If I'm wrong, and they do... are there any other games out there that use the engine, or have gameplay similar to these games?

(EDIT: Also, sorry if this has been discussed on this forum before. I'm relatively new here.)

[Bruno_Malta]

Dude. Broken Sword 3 sucks. Not as much as Broken Sword 4 but it sucks. Broken Sword 1 is way better.

But i believe that they do not use the same engine because they were made by to different companies...i don´t know. I know that my favorite of the two must be Dreamfall. I hated the box puzzle from BS 3.

[NoirYork]

I used to think Broken Sword 3 was pretty bad too until I finally got around to playing the 4th one....the 3rd is a master piece in comparison. What the hell were they thinking with those awful hacking mini games?

[Bruno_Malta]

Originally Posted by NoirYork

I used to think Broken Sword 3 was pretty bad too until I finally got around to playing the 4th one....the 3rd is a master piece in comparison. What the hell were they thinking with those awful hacking mini games?

Bioshock Sindrome?

[booB]

Gameplay-wise, I think Broken Sword 1 is the worst of the first three. There's too much annoying back-tracking (which you can't skip over or speed up in any way), and too many illogical/unintuitive puzzles. Story-wise, and dialogue/voice-acting-wise, it is by far the best of the three. (I still haven't played the fourth yet.)

[orient]

Originally Posted by booB

Gameplay-wise, I think Broken Sword 1 is the worst of the first three. There's too much annoying back-tracking (which you can't skip over or speed up in any way), and too many illogical/unintuitive puzzles. Story-wise, and dialogue/voice-acting-wise, it is by far the best of the three. (I still haven't played the fourth yet.)

booB, in Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars The Director's Cut for DS/Wii, when you click on an exit, the game automatically fades to the next scene, so it's a lot quicker to move around. That said, the original PC game is still better than BS2 & BS3 in my opinion. My preferences go a little something like this:

1) Broken Sword 1 - excellent game
2) Broken Sword 2 & 3 - both great games, but with issues
3) Broken Sword 4 - a mediocre game, with some enjoyable moments

As for the puzzles in Broken Sword 1, they're no different or less logical than the puzzles in Broken Sword 2. Both games have mostly good puzzles, with a small handful of tough/ridiculous ones. The main difference between the two games is that BS1 has a far more in-depth, engaging story - especially in the new Director's Cut versions. Broken Sword 3 has far too many crate-pushing puzzles, which by the end, become a little tedious.

I had to use a guide through the majority of Broken Sword 4 because the puzzles were so obscure. A shame, because I enjoyed it in some places.

[kadji-kun]

I like how people are comparing it to Broken Sword 1 and 2 when the topic clearly says Broken Sword 3.

[booB]

Originally Posted by orient

booB, in Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars The Director's Cut for DS/Wii, when you click on an exit, the game automatically fades to the next scene, so it's a lot quicker to move around.

It's also $50. If I play it at all, I'll just rent it. I'd kind of like to see the extra content.

I suppose the crate puzzles don't bother me because I'm a longtime Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider fan. I don't mind the action sequences in this OR Dreamfall... I suppose, again, because I'm a veteran of action-adventure games, and these sequences add some excitement to the otherwise laid-back (sometimes TOO laid-back) adventure genre.

[Bruno_Malta]

Originally Posted by kadji-kun

I like how people are comparing it to Broken Sword 1 and 2 when the topic clearly says Broken Sword 3.

Well...she did say that it could end up being her favorite in the series. This means that she is comparing it with BS 1 and 2. When someone talks about BS 3 or 4, these comparisons will always come up.

[millenia]

I never finished BS3 because the game kept crashing in some timed event. Just got frustrated and played something else and then never got back to it. But I don't recall having any troubles with the controls while I thought Dreamfall to be downright unplayable before I fiddled with the controls a lot.

Regarding the whole BS serie I agree that BS1 is clearly the greatest. I actually played BS2 first since I found it cheap in some sale basket and thought it to be a fun adventure. Later on I played the first part on my friend's PS1 and it was truly a great experience even with the super long loading times and awkward gamepad controllers. Third one obviously didn't get me into it that much as I never finished it, also played the fourth and it was just a mediocre adventure, playable but that's pretty much it.

[Terramax]

Dreamfall was actually fun to play when I got my PS2 pad working on it.

BS3's controls, from what I remember, was far too complicated that it needed to be. For instance you had separate buttons for climbing up and down walls, etc. Didn't it occure to Revolution to play some action adventure games before they took the dip in?

Never the less, I wish more adventure games would ditch point and click interfaces for direct control. Most adventures are fully 3D now so there's no reason to keep them P'n'C any longer.

[werpu]

Was unplayable with a mouse keyboard combination but playing it with a gamepad really worked out fine.

[booB]

Originally Posted by Terramax

Never the less, I wish more adventure games would ditch point and click interfaces for direct control. Most adventures are fully 3D now so there's no reason to keep them P'n'C any longer.

P&C is the only intuitive way to survey a scene and look at objects before walking over to them (or look at objects that are too far away to walk over to). If some game developer can solve this quandary, then you're probably right. Dreamfall attempted to do this with the focus-mode feature, but most people agree that it failed horribly.

At any rate, I've played Broken Sword 3 quite a bit farther now, and I understand all the complaints about the action scenes. Many of them are unnecessary, and some only give you a split-second to react, with no warning whatsoever. (Fortunately, they usually restart right before the scene where you died, so you can try again.) I mentioned that I don't mind crate puzzles, but some of these are repetitive and too time-consuming, and I just wanted them to be over. I have also found some HUGE logical conundrums in the game. One of the worst ones is on the bridge underground in Paris:

Spoiler:

After you get the "omega" key from the beam of light, the bad guys come up the elevator behind you. You have to jump off the side of the bridge, grab the edge, shimmy behind them, climb back up, and then run like hell. If you manage to do this properly, when the blonde chick turns around to shoot at you, she has no bullets left in her gun. However, if you don't jump off the bridge in time, or if you climb back up in front of the bad guys, she shoots you, and she DOES have bullets in her gun. WTH???

Also, in the theater:

Spoiler:

After you come back up in the elevator, you have to wedge it open with something so it can't go back down. There are a TON of things in the basement that could be put to this exact purpose -- some of them are even interactive -- but the game will only let you use -- get ready for it -- a BOTTLE OPENER??? WTH? I had to go through the entire theater sub-level and my entire inventory before I stumbled upon this solution.

Then again, this sort of illogic is par for the course in the Broken Sword series, so I guess I'm not surprised. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the multitude of modern games that allow multiple ways to solve a problem. These games will not be going on my list of favorites anytime soon. Although they have exciting and entertaining stories, I consider them to be overrated -- even the first one.

[orient]

I just started Dreamfall yesterday so I can finally comment on this topic properly...and yes, the character controls are nearly identical to Broken Sword 3. The big difference is in the camera. In Broken Sword 3, the camera tracks and switches angles independently, which can send your controls haywire (forward becomes backwards etc.) but in Dreamfall, the camera defaults to behind your character and you are left to manipulate it if you want to.

At the start of Dreamfall I was disoriented by moving the camera, but as soon as I flipped the X-axis in the menu, it all clicked into place. Five-ten minutes of practice and I felt completely at home with it. That's not to say they're perfect; sometimes the camera won't look exactly where you want it to look, and your character has a slight tendency to get stuck on the corner of objects instead of smoothly brushing past them, but it's not too bad at all. I think that overall, Broken Sword 3's controls took me longer to get used to.

As for the 'focus' system of 'locking on' to objects, it works for the most part. It's just getting your head around the fact that you don't have to be right in front of an object to examine it. Sometimes it is a little fiddly trying to get the focus onto the object you want, but I haven't had too much trouble. The right click 'search' feature is rather cumbersome, though. It feels like the controls needed a bit more time in the oven, but so do most 3rd person action/adventure games.

[TiAgUh]

Originally Posted by werpu

Was unplayable with a mouse keyboard combination but playing it with a gamepad really worked out fine.

Weird, playing with mouse\keyb. didn't bother me at all.

Originally Posted by Bruno_Malta

Well...she did say that it could end up being her favorite in the series. This means that she is comparing it with BS 1 and 2.

its a man boob