There's a chance you're going to hate this game. You see, we've caned it until the wee hours and we still haven't shagged a prostitute and then capped her down a back alley. There's not even an 18 label on the box, so it's unlikely we'll be able to revisit the early levels to suffocate someone with our boxer shorts...

It's so easy to dismiss adventure games with cheap shots about the lack of action and high puzzle element. But to suggest there's no room in your collection alongside the likes of Soul Calibur II and Vice City for a game so immersive and rewarding is like saying there's no room in your DVD collection for anything other than horror movies.

The appeal of 'point-and-click' adventures is not in the pointing and clicking, but in the cerebral gameplay and the compelling plot. What's more, Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon is an update of the concept behind such legendary titles as the Monkey Island series. This is the first fully 3D BS game and it's obvious developer Revolution has had some fun playing with the new dimension of play.

The segment in the very first scene where you guide hero George Stobbart around a series of ledges to the top of a cliff is the most basic platforming you're ever likely to experience because it's intended as an eye-opener for veterans. It is, however, symptomatic of a slow start to a game which doesn't really get going until you're more than a third of the way through, when you reunite the protagonists George and Nico. George is a candy-ass American hero who's frequently maligned as an idiot savant, while Nico, voiced by a new actor, is a fire-cracker, game for any adventure, happy to face any danger in the pursuit of a story good enough to kick-start her journalistic career.

The new 3D mode facilitates a rich vein of fresh puzzles - as well as the more traditional conundrum of 'fetch item a, combine with item b at point x', you now face shorter set-pieces. There's a bit where you have to negotiate a section of scaffolding using your ability to jump and climb for instance, and plenty of latterday Lara Croft-style box-pulling sections. One downside of this is that once you've decided how to position the, say, three boxes, the process of actually doing so is a tad laboured. On balance, however, the new puzzling adds an element of action, but more importantly it provides a more rounded sense of pace, so you aren't simply rushing from one session of head-banging at confounding puzzles through a quick cut-scene to another section where you're likely to get stuck.

And you will get stuck from time to time. After all, success in Sleeping Dragon is a matter of embracing the lateral mode of thought that typifies the series. First impressions suggest the game has been dumbed-down compared to earlier incarnations, leading you by the hand and directing you all too overtly along paths, rather than allowing things to develop organically.

In fact, the difficultly curve is rather well judged - at first you must adopt the approach of an investigator. Find a wig discarded near the scene of a shooting and have a good look at it, or you may miss a valuable clue. Later, the puzzles become more of a challenge, with a less obvious solution. In one section you have to move a supporting strut - you try your recently acquired greasepaint to lubricate the pole's base. It's too dry, so a long session of brain-racking eventually results in you accessing your inventory, placing the greasepaint in a paper cup and using a nearby light to melt it into a more usable lubricant. Clever stuff.

The puzzling really benefits from having two central characters for the body of the adventure too. You can ask Nico to push buttons, operate machinery and generally work in tandem with you to solve the conundrums and then enjoy the sexual tension when they celebrate little victories.

Controls are simple. There's no jump button as such, but when you approach an interesting object or piece of scenery you'll get a string of optional actions to perform, corresponding to the main four buttons on your DualShock 2 controller. Everything from listening at doors, examining objects, scaling walls and talking to people is covered on your button pad, which will also be called into service at short notice for 'action events'. These are windows of opportunity in which you must perform a certain act, such as leaping from a falling platform, or during a puzzle when you have to swap objects mid solution to keep a door open, for instance.

These moments add a brilliant sense of impetus to proceedings, and, mercifully, failure will only mean you're kicked back to the recent start of the scene or event to try again.

The backdrop to the puzzling and action meat of gameplay is a typically brilliant blend of atmospheric detail. The music captures the mood of each scene perfectly. It contributes to a frequently filmic feel about the adventure and the references to earlier games will thrill fans without making newcomers feel unwelcome.

Most important of all, the writing is typically brilliant. A series of intriguing twists push along an engrossing plot which we've deliberately shied away from spoiling here (though needless to say our old friends the Templars are never far from trouble).

Most importantly, the dialogue is wonderfully up to scratch. An apparent reliance on stereotypes gives way to amusing interplay between characters and some plain ridiculous amounts of humour. Once again, the writers (chiefly Revolution boss Charles Cecil himself) have not been afraid to laugh at themselves, with jibes at the expense of gaming and narrative staples.

In all, Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon almost lives up to the previous two games, which is high praise indeed given the narrative brilliance and inventive puzzling of the two classic titles. This is an adventure game designed very much with PS2 gamers in mind, though it's doubtful that it will appeal perfectly to both the trigger-happy and old-skool adventure fans eager to be challenged.

Imperfection aside, this is a brilliant, involving, witty, smutty, refreshing videogame. Who said 'point-and-click' adventures were dead?

Graphics 80%
Your eyes are well looked after.

Sound 80%
Filmic music dovetails nicely with a well-acted script.

Gameplay 80%
An oasis of calm in a savage, button-bashing world.

Lifespan 70%
No replay value here as the adventure isn't truly epic.

Overall 80%
An engrossing, quirky adventure that satisfies the Indiana Jones and Miss Marple in us all.