Back in February 2012, game developer Double Fine took a gamble and asked for the then-unheard-of sum of $400,000 via Kickstarter to make a small-scale point-and-click adventure game, something that the company's fans had long begged for but that it felt was financially impossible to fund through traditional means. We've been waiting a long time for this day. I’m happy with what I backed, and I rather think that’s the main thing.Broken Age resurrects all of the key features of classic 1990's adventure games: Gorgeous artwork, a fascinating storyline, funny writing, and puzzles that don't make any freaking sense. It’s maybe a little slight and it has a few minor issues in its pacing and storytelling, but it’s something any adventurer should be happy to puzzle their way through. Broken Age doesn’t quite live up to stone-cold classics like Monkey Island or Grim Fandango, but that shouldn’t be taken as a mark against it, because all that means is that it’s not a 10/10 game. ![]() It’s a shame that it had to be split into two, but at least now it’s all one again.īeautiful art, excellent writing, and clever puzzles are the hallmarks of the best adventures, and they’re all present here. The story functions better as a single arc without a break, the increase in difficulty feels a lot more natural when played as a whole, and there are a lot of hints to puzzles and plot points in Act One which only become relevant in Act Two. It’s very much one game that works a lot better – in every respect – when it’s not split into two. On the other hand, it’s the sort of puzzle I love: it looks complicated and confusing at first, but once you figure out how it works, it’s beautifully elegant and entirely simple.īroken Age is, ironically enough, not a game of two parts. On the one hand, it’s sort of annoying to have to alt-tab back and forth to another window (or make physical notes). One puzzle (revisted several times over the course of Act Two) involves rewiring devices, and which wire goes where has to be pieced together from clues lying around that… don’t actually talk about wires. ![]() I can’t go into specifics without spoiling puzzles, and the majority of them are good enough that I really don’t want to do that, but I will say that I actually had to take notes at one point. Not Discworld levels of insanity, but it requires a good amount of lateral thinking that asks you to ponder a couple of steps ahead. Act Two is significantly harder to judge, because… well, because it’s significantly harder. ![]() The first Act shouldn’t take a seasoned adventurer more than maybe three hours, tops, and that’s if they’re exhausting all the dialogue they can and examining everything in search of a joke. Shay is now exploring Shellmound and its surrounding environs, and trying to make some sort of amends for the “help” he’s previously provided, while Vella is stuck on the spaceship and attempting to put her righteous fury to good use. Act One is a really comfortable, charming, well-designed adventure.Īct Two picks up where the first left off: with Shay and Vella having swapped places. Most of them are entry-level adventure game stuff, but they all work consistently with the game’s internal logic, and the dialogue and environments hint at the solutions well enough to give you the occasional nudge, but not so transparently that it feels like signposting. Mostly, though, I was impressed by the puzzles, few of which I could actually remember thanks to my aforementioned ability. I went back through Act One again to refresh my memory on everything that had gone before, and was once again thoroughly charmed by Shay and Vella’s separate journeys. Going back to Broken Age was a pleasant surprise.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |