NEW TIMES FOR THE OLD WAYS
It's all about staying in touch with the times, dude, and how better to do that than to add a totally rad third dimension? Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon is the third game in Revolution Software's ongoing(?) adventure game saga, and the one that had to make the daring plunge into 3D.
With the revolutionary breakthrough of home consoles, Revolution had no choice but to adapt. Without mouse control, point-and-click was no longer a feasible interface. Console controllers were designed around direct influence over the action. Revolution appropriated that fact, and attempted to incorporate some action for the youngsters. The question was: How much of the Broken Sword spirit would be lost in translation?
"Not too much", I used to think, but returning 16 years later I find The Sleeping Dragon a graphically impaired experiment that feels compromised on many levels. It's not downright bad, but feels half-assed. With the benefit of hindsight, I would call it an adventure game on life support. It's still alive, but its future looks... bleak. Most sad is the fact that Revolution's old point-and-click interface probably was the most suitable candidate to be ported to consoles, given its streamlined design. But they chose not to do it, and here we go with a graphical adventure that leaves much to be desired.
The protagonists, George Stobbart (voiced by Rolf Saxon, great as ever) and Nicole Collard (Sarah Crook), start off separated by an entire continent. They do, however, share the predicament of their current situation, and will soon find their way into each other's arms.
George is a passenger on a small freight plane headed for the Congo, where he has an appointment with a scientist named Cholmondeley. Suddenly, an electrical storm takes his flight by surprise. After a crash landing, George and his pilot find themselves precariously balanced on the edge of a cliff. Making a narrow escape, they face having to climb to safety in a sequence that introduces a brand new game mechanic to the franchise: platform puzzling.
Calling it "puzzling" is to stretch it a little, because it poses no player challenge whatsoever. George cannot miss a jump, nor fall over the edge, since invisible walls prevent it. His infinite stamina allows him to climb walls indefinitely. The only "puzzle element" involves pressing the correct keys and finding the correct path to the exit, which is hardly an issue, since most times only one path exists.
This introduction also gives us a taste of The Sleeping Dragon's most infamous addition to the franchise - Tomb Raider-inspired box puzzles, loads of them. These are extremely easy, with obvious solutions already at a first glance, and still they take forever to complete. Most disappointing is the realisation that they occupy efforts that could have gone into designing something way more intriguing.
This part involves the updated, trademark investigation segments that make up the bulk of any Broken Sword game. Before the cops arrive, Nico must find a way to clear her name by talking to witnesses and collecting evidence. This is made all the more cumbersome by the fact that you cannot use a mouse cursor to investigate - instead you have to run around like crazy.
In this game, moving around is done with all the grace of a wayward drunk. With direct control and quicker movement, Revolution got the bad idea to make every location needlessly large. The camera cannot cover the entire area at once. So, as you move towards the edge of the screen, the camera placement might change, and suddenly you find Nico running in a totally new direction. Before you've made the necessary adjustments, she'll waggle back and forth across the screen.
On one hand, the characters look and behave a little cartoonish, on the other hand they're faced with real dangers and real consequences in the real world. George and Nico are clever and booksmart, but show almost psychopathic tendencies sometimes - like when they stand next to a fresh human corpse and start wisecracking about his gut's contents spilling out. Supposedly, Revolution aimed for the lighthearted tone of an Indiana Jones-adventure, but those movies were never tone-deaf.
An even greater loss is the decline of the aesthetic qualities of the environments. In the finest 2D point-and-click adventures, evocative and hand-drawn backdrops were a crucial part of the world building. The 3D surroundings of The Sleeping Dragon have aged poorly, looking like old studio sets papered with low resolution textures. Too many identical red herring doors and dead ends make exploration a pain in the ass.
Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon was a valiant attempt to infuse some action elements to attract the new console generation, but it ended up losing its identity instead. Other genres have learnt a lot from adventure games -- be it storytelling, puzzle design, dialogue or world building -- and can now be called proper adventures of their own. That transition was as smooth and natural as the third dimension, as was my migration away from classic adventures to those exciting new games.
The graphical adventure never completely went away, but was politely ushered into a dark corner of the industry and is now a niche genre. Of course, it saw a resurgence with the rise of Telltale Games. Now they're defunct as well, but the emergence of the handheld market should allow such games to someday flourish again. Touchscreens just happen to be the epitome of "point-and-click".
With the revolutionary breakthrough of home consoles, Revolution had no choice but to adapt. Without mouse control, point-and-click was no longer a feasible interface. Console controllers were designed around direct influence over the action. Revolution appropriated that fact, and attempted to incorporate some action for the youngsters. The question was: How much of the Broken Sword spirit would be lost in translation?
"Not too much", I used to think, but returning 16 years later I find The Sleeping Dragon a graphically impaired experiment that feels compromised on many levels. It's not downright bad, but feels half-assed. With the benefit of hindsight, I would call it an adventure game on life support. It's still alive, but its future looks... bleak. Most sad is the fact that Revolution's old point-and-click interface probably was the most suitable candidate to be ported to consoles, given its streamlined design. But they chose not to do it, and here we go with a graphical adventure that leaves much to be desired.
OLD ARCHEOLOGICAL MYSTERIES AND NEW PUZZLES
Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon's story keeps archeological investigation at its core, but spices it up with supernatural elements. The plot is rather interesting and nicely channelled through the fun banter between the characters. It involves the real life Voynich manuscript, our planet Earth's ley lines, and a sick old man looking for the secret of eternal youth. His egotistical quest is putting the entire planet at risk, and it's up to you to stop him.The protagonists, George Stobbart (voiced by Rolf Saxon, great as ever) and Nicole Collard (Sarah Crook), start off separated by an entire continent. They do, however, share the predicament of their current situation, and will soon find their way into each other's arms.
George is a passenger on a small freight plane headed for the Congo, where he has an appointment with a scientist named Cholmondeley. Suddenly, an electrical storm takes his flight by surprise. After a crash landing, George and his pilot find themselves precariously balanced on the edge of a cliff. Making a narrow escape, they face having to climb to safety in a sequence that introduces a brand new game mechanic to the franchise: platform puzzling.
Calling it "puzzling" is to stretch it a little, because it poses no player challenge whatsoever. George cannot miss a jump, nor fall over the edge, since invisible walls prevent it. His infinite stamina allows him to climb walls indefinitely. The only "puzzle element" involves pressing the correct keys and finding the correct path to the exit, which is hardly an issue, since most times only one path exists.
This introduction also gives us a taste of The Sleeping Dragon's most infamous addition to the franchise - Tomb Raider-inspired box puzzles, loads of them. These are extremely easy, with obvious solutions already at a first glance, and still they take forever to complete. Most disappointing is the realisation that they occupy efforts that could have gone into designing something way more intriguing.
NICO IN TROUBLE WITH THE LAW
Meanwhile, Nicole is back in Paris, where she has an appointment with a hacker. He allegedly wants to discuss an ancient manuscript he's been contracted to decode. Her trouble begins as soon as she approaches his apartment and hears a gunshot through the door. As she enters the apartment, it turns out someone, impersonating Nico, has shot the hacker and is trying to frame her for his murder.This part involves the updated, trademark investigation segments that make up the bulk of any Broken Sword game. Before the cops arrive, Nico must find a way to clear her name by talking to witnesses and collecting evidence. This is made all the more cumbersome by the fact that you cannot use a mouse cursor to investigate - instead you have to run around like crazy.
In this game, moving around is done with all the grace of a wayward drunk. With direct control and quicker movement, Revolution got the bad idea to make every location needlessly large. The camera cannot cover the entire area at once. So, as you move towards the edge of the screen, the camera placement might change, and suddenly you find Nico running in a totally new direction. Before you've made the necessary adjustments, she'll waggle back and forth across the screen.
THE ALLURE OF 3D
That's the temptation of 3D when put into the hands of a game designer with storytelling ambitions. Toying with perspective allows for a more cinematic approach, when compared to the old point-and-click games that resembled stage plays. In its numerous cutscenes, The Sleeping Dragon wallows in facial close-ups. The problem is that the character designs do not stand the test of time. A little stylized, but not stylized enough, they land in the limbo between realistic and caricature.On one hand, the characters look and behave a little cartoonish, on the other hand they're faced with real dangers and real consequences in the real world. George and Nico are clever and booksmart, but show almost psychopathic tendencies sometimes - like when they stand next to a fresh human corpse and start wisecracking about his gut's contents spilling out. Supposedly, Revolution aimed for the lighthearted tone of an Indiana Jones-adventure, but those movies were never tone-deaf.
An even greater loss is the decline of the aesthetic qualities of the environments. In the finest 2D point-and-click adventures, evocative and hand-drawn backdrops were a crucial part of the world building. The 3D surroundings of The Sleeping Dragon have aged poorly, looking like old studio sets papered with low resolution textures. Too many identical red herring doors and dead ends make exploration a pain in the ass.
SUMMARY AND A FAREWELL
In a few parts of the game, Revolution show they still can make great puzzles. We get a true classic, involving a ferryman who has to transport a murderer, a witness and a vengeful brother across a river, one at a time. We also get a couple of chambers where you have to carefully line up the energy of the Earth itself to open up new passageways. These are some of the best puzzles in the entire series, but in this context, they mostly make me realize what Broken Sword in three dimensions could have been.Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon was a valiant attempt to infuse some action elements to attract the new console generation, but it ended up losing its identity instead. Other genres have learnt a lot from adventure games -- be it storytelling, puzzle design, dialogue or world building -- and can now be called proper adventures of their own. That transition was as smooth and natural as the third dimension, as was my migration away from classic adventures to those exciting new games.
The graphical adventure never completely went away, but was politely ushered into a dark corner of the industry and is now a niche genre. Of course, it saw a resurgence with the rise of Telltale Games. Now they're defunct as well, but the emergence of the handheld market should allow such games to someday flourish again. Touchscreens just happen to be the epitome of "point-and-click".
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