Broken Sword 3 - the Sleeping Dragon (2003)

Returning to this 20+ years later, more of it works than I expected. George and Nico remain a delight, as do the many weirdos they encounter. They're such a joy to spend time with, even if the character traits they're given in service of early 2000s humour feel clumsy, like Nico's flippant callousness and George's awkward, possessive jealousy. I also could have done without the under baked Chosen One angle for George. He works best as the every man who just happens to be there and doesn't need anything more than that to earn his place. The move to 3D is basically a bust, with a reliance on block puzzles that borders on obsession and too many instances of tedious traversal, but despite low detail polygons being a poor substitute for high detail illustrations, environments are still compelling and have enough of that Broken Sword vibe to carry them through. Shout out to the music too. It's not Barrington Pheloung but it has the same spirit of adventure and ties everything together nicely.