Broken Sword 3 and lack of originality (spoilers)

[GarageGothic]

Ok, so I finally got my hands on BS3 (aka Sokoban 3D), and played it through this weekend. I'm not going to comment on the gameplay or the story as such, because that's been discussed at length elsewhere. Rather, I'll just bring up one of the points that really annoyed me: I felt as if I'd played it before.

Granted, I've never cared much for games about egypt and other ancient civilizations. I'm one of the few people who prefers LC over FOA, in part because I don't find Atlantis all that intriguing. So I might be more sensitive to these repetitions than others. But still, why do designers just keep recycling old plots - bad plots at that - when there are so many things that have never been done in games?

Evil cult - check. Apocalyptic prophecy - check. Megalomaniac trying to harness occult power - check. Kidnapped scientist - check. Underground temples - check. Pieces of an artifact spread all across the world - check. Energy beams and crystals - check. Ancient animatronics speaking in understandable language - check.

Even the designs are confusingly similar to other games. Egyptian inspired gravity-defying architecture. Machines sparkling with lightning bolts. Weird plasma streams. Haven't I been here before? Lara, Indy, are you in here somewhere? Gabe, is that you? And those artifacts (Key of Solomon in particular) look exactly like the artifacts in Unreal II, and just like the ones in Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine.

I was surprised to find that the three stones weren't stolen by the bad guys just as you'd found the final one. And that they weren't an important part in triggering the apocalypse. It seems in all other games, you find one piece of a device, which could doom mankind should it fall in the wrong hands. And instead of destroying that one piece, making the others useless, you travel across the world COLLECTING(!) all the pieces, so the bad guys can steal them from you rather than go about fetching them themselves.

Oh yeah, and how about the term "Dragon Power"? Was I the only one thinking about badly drawn anime?

I'm getting too old for this shit.

Edit: As an afterthought, it certainly doesn't help to distinguish the game that the characters are so damn bland.

[Interference]

Come on, it wasn't the greatest game ever but I enjoyed it. Some annoying design decisions but overall very entertaining to play.

Ancient civilisations are what BS has been doing well for years, to do a total U-turn would alienate its audience, it's like Ion Storm suddenly deciding to make the Deus Ex sequel a dumbed down console shooter without any semblance of... Ah, wait.. That's what actually happened. Bad example.

Aside from that more-than-slightly gentle dig and DX: Invisible War, understand the point I'm trying to make: BS3 introduces new things to the plot but stays relatively in the same region as the last two games since thats what its built on.

The plot does twist and turn unexpectedly, and what you're finally fighting is not what you thought you would be near the start of the game.

I don't feel the characters are all that bland either. I've seen much worse, and I genuinely warmed to George and Nico. Their humouring of one-another - even during life-threatening situations - is fun to watch.

A couple of BS3 moments that did it for me:

Spoiler

When George is told by the Knights Templar they're putting their finest knight on the job, and the dawning realisation that they mean him.

[close]

Spoiler

The final scene in the Egyptian temple with Anubis

[close]

And, yes, everybody knows there are far too many block puzzles. To the point its comical. That's what I meant by "Some annoying design decisions." They're not that bad, anyway. Just far to obviously a puzzle.

[AGA]

This is totally off this topic, but have you played Deus Ex 2 yet, Interference? I'm a few hours into it and by my reckoning it's by no means a 'dumbed down console shooter'...

[Interference]

This is totally off this topic, but have you played Deus Ex 2 yet, Interference? I'm a few hours into it and by my reckoning it's by no means a 'dumbed down console shooter'...

It's not out over here 'til March (ouch), so I got hold of the demo. Usually an example of how good the full game will be - to an extent - it wasn't exactly the shining example of gaming brilliance the hype-mongers were shooting for. The lack of skill points has removed any sort of reward for doing side quests, the inventory is a pain in the proverbial, the demo seemed to have been slapped together by a chimpanzee with two house bricks and the AI Ion Storm so vehimently argued was well above anthing else turned out to be fairly easy to outwit and occasionally annoyingly psychic.

My only hope is that the story - which I can only fully appreciate in the full version - lives up to what I was hoping. But then, when I said "dumbed down," I was referring (albeit lighheartedly) to the mechanics behind the game and not the story, which I have sadly barely touched yet.

But will I like it even if the story IS good? I don't mind not judging a book by its cover but if the cover is close to falling off and someone has written it using a leaky fountain pen then you'll forgive me for feeling a little disheartened.

I don't feel that's the fault of the Xbox that DX2 is the way it is, I feel that's the fault of the marketing department for thinking everyone who owns an Xbox is a drooling idiot. "The Future War on Terror"? Who on Earth thinks this crap up? The tagline itself reduces the game's appeal to me solely on the basis it makes it sound like a post-9/11 cash-in to appeal to the terrified and the bereaved, which is very wide of the mark.

[AGA]

I played the demo too, and I had much the same fears as you have.

But, it seems that maybe Ion Storm did just slap together a demo to keep people happy, while spending their true efforts on making a good full product... Unfortunately this may very well put a lot of people off buying the full producy.

And while the marketing leaves a lot to be desired, I think the plot (so far...) is definitely up to scratch.

[GarageGothic]

Come on, it wasn't the greatest game ever but I enjoyed it. Some annoying design decisions but overall very entertaining to play.

Oh, I totally enjoyed it too. That's not what I'm talking about. I much prefer it to the previous games in the series. Excellent use of 3D, intuitive interface, and mostly decent puzzles.
What I was talking about is the issue of games repeating the same themes over and over again. It's not necessarily that we've had enough games about egypt, atlantis, templars, whatever. It's rather that they could have taken it in some new direction (there was some very interesting stuff going on at the very end, with the sword etc., but much too briefly).

In my opinion they could have gotten much more out of the Voynych manuscript and all that, if they'd treated it as an actual mystery. But they gave it all away pretty early (your learned almost everything at your first visit in Glastonbury). Yes, there was a twist or two at the end, but nothing that really changed anything, which is what twists are supposed to do.

[santiago]

What disturbed me was the idiotic bugs that I came across and the obvious box puzzles. It was no fun playing George when all you had to do to save the world was to move boxes and jump around a lot.

[GarageGothic]

It was no fun playing George when all you had to do to save the world was to move boxes and jump around a lot.

I couldn't help laughing at the end of the game, as I was running from the plane, trying to reach the Glastonbury Tor in time to save the world, only to confront yet another bunch of boxes.

[Interference]

I couldn't help laughing at the end of the game, as I was running from the plane, trying to reach the Glastonbury Tor in time to save the world, only to confront yet another bunch of boxes.

Yes. That was the single point in the game where I turned round, stuck my hands in the air with comical surprise and yelled "Oh No!!" at a small collection of inanimate objects sat watching my progress.

And on DX2: I'll probably buy it when it comes out over here, but Ion Storm should really take more care in how they construct demos. They're supposed to be a taster for the full product: to see if you like it. Ravenous public or not, if Valve did what Ion did - the way they did it - then no-one would be waiting for Half-Life 2.

[remixor]

What I was talking about is the issue of games repeating the same themes over and over again. It's not necessarily that we've had enough games about egypt, atlantis, templars, whatever. It's rather that they could have taken it in some new direction (there was some very interesting stuff going on at the very end, with the sword etc., but much too briefly).

Well, possibly, but I mean the plot they were continuing had quite a bit to do with the Templar, so I can't imagine how this one couldn't have and still made sense as a sequel.  As far as Egypt, well, I guess, but it's not like the whole game was set there.  I mean, only that part near the end was.  The rest of the game was in Paris, Prague, Glastonbury, the Congo... I mean, it has to be set SOMEWHERE, and this was set in five places that are pretty diverse.  You've got your big European cities, your place off to the east, your African locale, and your quaint little English town.  Where else should they have gone?  I'm not saying there's nowhere else that wouldn't have been nice, but you make it sound like the whole game was some derivative Egypt ripoff thing.

[jetxl]

I liked BS3, because I had fun playing it. You say you liked it to, then why are you bitching about it?
come on. There are pirates and islands in all 4 monkey islands. how original. Is that what you're saying??

And the cinematic camera...I love that moving camera.(Have you seen that scene when you walk over that bridge in paris and the camera move from close behind to the far side of nico. it brought a tear to my eye. the future of adventure games.)

[santiago]

I liked BS3, because I had fun playing it.

I liked playing BS3 too but some of the puzzles were really annoying.

There are pirates and islands in all 4 monkey islands. how original. Is that what you're saying??

Monkey Island got kinda boring after the second installment, don't you think?

And the cinematic camera...I love that moving camera.

I loved the atmosphere and feeling of BS3. It could have been a terrific game, now it's only very good.