Hi, Boomers

I really enjoyed BS1 and BS2, but BS3 leaves me scratching my head and thinking "What were Revolution thinking designing this game?!". The controls are awful, the transition to 3D is abysmal (especially the camera controls) and the sections were you are being chased or forced to sneak around makes me tear my hair out of frustration (due to aforementioned controls). And who thought it would ever be a good idea to make cutscenes and dialogue unskippable, when you die and have to watch it over and over again?

Not to mention the tedious boring "move block" puzzles.

Short question: is it worth finishing just for the storyline or should I just watch it on Youtube? Thoughts?

Hi Drizzt, it was a long time ago now that I played this game but I do recall that I did not finish it, and in fact uninstalled it because of the reasons you mention i.e. game controls etc.

As it is so long ago now I may well be mistaken but was this the game where we had to move numerous crates to climb up to a window or something?

Hope this small snippet helps!

Bernie

Yeah, it's almost 10 years old now, but I got it for free when donating money to the Kickstarter they have for the newest game; Serpent's Curse (which is to be all old-school 2D). Yes, half the game seems to be about moving crates!

Thanks, glad to see I'm not alone. :)

Drizzt, it gets better after those boxes and is actually very good.

You will get used to the controls.
Would definitely finish.

I agree with Anne. I remember having difficulties in the controls as well, but I thought the game was well worth the struggle.

Ana

Is this the game where you have to sneak past a guard (and his dog?) in a church of some kind, or am I thinking of another game? It was a long time ago that I played this.

That sounds like Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of the Silver Earring, but maybe I'm getting my games mixed up!

Marian, the sneaking around in the game I'm thinking of is INSIDE; if I remember correctly, Sherlock Holmes was outside when we had to sneak by, no?

I, personally, didn't like game 3 OR game 4 much at all, Drizzt.

But I'm certainly looking forward to the new one - and have pledged towards it.

Supposedly this one is to be more reminiscent of games 1 and 2 - which I thought were fantastic !!

You are right, Mary; the sneaking around in Sherlock was outside.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program....

Thanks for your comments. I think I will finish this after all. It's just that as soon as I get to an area where I realize "oh it's another move-the-blocks puzzle" I just want to turn it off.

Oh well, thanks for your input.

I would say No it's not worth it. See if you can find a decent YouTube playthrough. I thought the move-the-blocks puzzles were less annoying than having to sit through the cut scenes before trying another timed sequence again. I remember there was one really long one late in the game...

At least with the blocks you could make progress and didn't have to start the whole thing over just because your finger went the wrong way for a split second.

If at all possible, play it with a gamepad. Surely it's better than playing with the keyboard.

Those stealth sequences were very frustrating. I played through the game because I'm stubborn about completing any series I begin. Also, I was really enjoying the story, but as others here have said, you can watch a YouTube playthrough. There's one here if you don't mind each video being so long - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC97C24DBA202A252.

I think the 'getting round the dog' scene was in Broken Sword 2 down at the quay. If I remember correctly you had to scale the wire fence/gate and entice the guard dog onto a trap door where it fell into the water and swam away (poor dog )

Bernie

I just checked to make sure I'm remembering the game correctly: yes, there is an extended stealth portion where every time you get killed you have to watch the same scene over and over and over again. I was really sorry to quit the game, because I was really enjoying it, but I just couldn't make it past that stealth scene. If there is more of that in the new game, I won't be buying it.

There is a YouTube video to see this; just google "Broken Sword 3 and stealth" and you can see what I gave up on.

Was #3 The sleeping Dragon? If so, it drove me absolutely crazy but I persisted and was glad I did. Have played it several times since, and it's easier. You get used to the controls over time...although I'll be VERY glad for the new one that doesn't have the tedious keyboard controls.

Thanks, Venus. I got past the really annoying sneaking section after all. If I get into one of these annoying timed sections again though, I might just watch it instead. :)

I think the worst thing about the controls was that they messed up your reflexes for other keyboard-controlled games.

Alright, darn this. The straw that broke the camels back was the infuriating church-part and then ANOTHER similar thing right on top of it. I will just watch it on youtube instead and hope that BS4 is better.

Sorry you couldn't get past it.

Ana

And it seems the fourth game is even worse...maybe I should gave just waited for the new one instead.

Ah well, thanks for all your input :)

Drizzt

4 is far better, stick with it. You don't have the sudden change of direction chase scenes and you don't have that extended sneak scene you did in #3.

There are a couple tricky moments but it really isn't that bad.

"There are a couple tricky moments but it really isn't that bad."

Well I found there to be WAY too many - and dumped it

That's too bad that the developers made the controls so unwieldy. The ending was kinda cool....except for the stupid fighting the dragon part.

I wouldn't say BS4 was worse. The control system was still frustrating, though in a different way. They tried to give the choice between keyboard and mouse, but neither one worked well in all places, so I had to switch back and forth depending on the situation. At least the timed sequences weren't nearly as bad -- you didn't have to re-listen to reams of dialogue before you tried again. And no superabundance of crates for those that disliked them.

Yeah, I've gotten used to it now. It's quite a bit better, actually, I think.

Glad you made it through!

Ana

I think it's worth finishing. Enjoyed the part in England and it has quite an exciting ending.

I liked BS3 (though not as much as the first two) and I'm one of the few people it seems who didn't loathe the crate puzzles (I found the stealth sections to be annoying more than once though!). So I would say yes, it's worth finishing, even if the stupid ending does rather spoil the whole mood of the game.

I'm at the Topkapi palace and I'm sad to see they didn't really learn anything from past mistakes. Still sneaking sections?! That's it, I'll just watch it on YT instead. Awful game design.

If you have never played it before, I think it is worth finishing. but, if you have played it before, the last little bit of it is rather boring, IMHO. I have replayed this game several times since the first time, and once I get to the sneaking part of the prison, I stop the game. I don't like this last part and don't enjoy it from then on. But, I did finish the game once, so, that was enough for me.

At the moment I'm "replaying" all the Broken Sword games I,ve got to the third one. Now, compared to the first time I played this I've got a new and better computer as a much better graphics card. This game looks sooo good , as for the story It's also a great game. It's been said before here that the controls are sooo bad but during the normal game play I think their ok. The problem is the "action" parts and the one that is at the peak of BAD is the running one in the cave trying to avoid Petra and her gun . So again i'm stuck there The main problem here is actually HOW George/the game reacts to the controls. But as usual keep calm and eventually I'll get it, I hope. In total this game is a must play.

Cheers

Since I've completed the game just 10 min ago I felt I needed to come back to this subject.

The game is a real winner, at least in my book. The first time I played it is 10 years ago and at that time I gave it about 2,5 out of 5. This time around I had a of time playing it and I now awards it 5 out of 5.

I think it's better compared to the first two. The only downside as I mentioned in the earlier reply
apart from that Broken Sword 3

Cheers

I would have to disagree with you, Lagavulin.

I kept playing it still, just because I wanted to finish all the games before The Serpent's curse, and I have to say, wow, Broken Sword 4 is an awful game. Boring puzzles, an extremely uninteresting and somewhat confusing story, awkward controls, unskippable cutscenes and dialogue and to top it off, a game-breaking bug that made me not being able to finish it. I sure hope Revolution redeeem themselves with the next one.

If I were to review this, I would give it a 4 of 10.

I thought nos. 3 & 4 of the Broken Sword series were just awful and didn't finish either

I'm hoping for much better with the next one being worked on though as it's supposed to be more along the lines of 1 & 2 - which I felt were just great !!

Have you seen the trailer, Mad? It looks very good!

Hi Drizzt

No, I don't tend to watch trailers or play demos. I like to be surprised by the game when it's released !!

'Course, there is occasionally a backfire and I end up getting a nasty shock instead !!

Cheers.

Mad