I'm having the exact same problem, and apparently a fair number of others are too. Check out the forums at
www.dreamcatchergames.com and
www.revolution.co.uk . I filled out a tech support form at Dreamcatcher describing the problem, and got this response:
Thank you for your e-mail.
If you continue to experience problems please go into your "Display Settings" and change the refresh rate on your monitor to 60 Hrz. To change that:
Click Start and choose Run... Type in "dxdiag" (without the quotes).
Click the Tab that says "More Help" (far right).
Click the "Override" button.
Also change the resolution of your desktop to 800 x 600. Please then start the game and within the game you can change the resolution etc. to your preferred view. Once you have exited the game you can change your monitor settings back to whatever your default is.
Another thing that can fix Broken Sword from freezing up is changing the hardware acceleration on the sound tab. Verify you have the newest drivers as well but also try changing the acceleration going to maximum and lowering a notch and trying the game each time.
Thank you for contacting Technical Support.
Apparently this has worked for others, but not for me. Next they asked me to run the DirectX diagnostic tool, save the results, and email the file to them. I haven't heard back from them yet. I'd try the suggestions in their first email. If that doesn't work, I'd suggest heading over to Dreamcatcher for tech support.
Albert