[Vel]

One of the most eagerly awaited games of 2003 has recently been released, and I must say I have very mixed feelings about this one. First of all, lets start with the
Plot. Put simply, a man named Sussaro and his girlfriend Petra want to take over the world using an ancient energy, and(of course) George and Nico must stop him. The story is nothing special, but enough to keep you playing the game until the end. The characters are well developed, each with his own personality and motives for his actions. Now let's move on to the best part of this game, which is most certainly the
Graphics. The game uses Real time 3D, and I must say that the background art of BS3 is truly great. Everything is immensely detailed and you sure do have a lot to look during the game. Furthermore, backgrounds are not static at all, which enhances the atmosphere. The character art, while not as good as the background one, is still beautiful. All of the characters are well detailed and very smoothly animated. But enough for the excellence in the graphics department.
Music and sound. The voice acting is excellent. The actors surely give to the personality of the characters. The sound effects are also good and add to the atmosphere of the game. The music, on the other hand, I did not like. It idid follow the events in the game closely, but there was not one single theme that I remember. There was not even background music. It felt more like a movie soundtrack than a game one.
Gameplay now we come to the worst part of the game. First of all, the game uses a direct control interface which while better than these of Grim Fandango and MI4, is still far from the ease and perfection of the point and click used in GK3, Runaway and the Black mirror. The main glitch is that the controls are camera relative and they change every time the camera changes, which is done automatically. Another I'd call it *misunderstanding* is the ability to sneak. While not a bad idea, it is not used in the game. Even in the sneaking scenes, the guard does not notice you no matter whether you sneak or run behind his back. The action sequences are also terrible. They consists of a very short time limit during which you have to press the appropriate key. I am not used to this in adventure games and I consider it as a drawback. If you die, you are not taken to the last safe place, but to the cutscene before the action sequence, and since you cannot skip in-game cut scenes, this becomes quite irritating. Another negative thing about the gameplay are the so-called puzzles. they divide into two categories: very easy puzzles and very easy but time taking crate puzzles. I think that they are about 50-50 in the game, so if you don't like sokoban, this is not the game for you. the last but not least negative thing about BS3 is its length - I finished it in only 8 hours and a half. Surely a disappointing length.
Conclusion. Although it has awesome looks, Broken Sword 3 is nothing but a medicore adventure console game.

[kingBLAOW]

Originally Posted by Vel

The main glitch is that the controls are camera relative and they change every time the camera changes, which is done automatically.

All of my points reflect the XBOX version. I didn't find the controls to be camera relative at all. If I move the character down (holding the control stick down) and the camera view changes, my character will still go in the same direction regardless of the new changed view. Even if I am now moving up based on the new camera angle. When you let go of the control stick for a second, then you will have to adjust to the new view. I thought this to be very intuitive.

Originally Posted by Vel

Another I'd call it *misunderstanding* is the ability to sneak. While not a bad idea, it is not used in the game. Even in the sneaking scenes, the guard does not notice you no matter whether you sneak or run behind his back.

Sneaking into the castle in prague, if you run you do get noticed by the guards (dog barks, etc). But in your arguments defence, i have found no difference between walking and sneaking yet (I am at the aformentioned castle in prague right now).

Originally Posted by Vel

If you die, you are not taken to the last safe place, but to the cutscene before the action sequence

I liked this feature for two reasons: Sometimes I forget to save as periodically as I should and I would hate to have to replay 30mins-1 hour of the game because I messed up a simple action sequence. Also, the action sequences are pretty much just tap the button at the right time, so they only take one or two times to get through. I don't think they are worth taking you to the last safe spot because of their brief occurence and short length.

I guess that was my review of parts of your review that I didn't agree with

[Vel]

I played the PC version.
I am pretty certain that when you run behind the guard's back in the part when you have to get into Sussaro's study no-one notices. For your last comment, my point was that you had to watch those cutscenes again, not that it is bad to take you to the last safe place.