Broken Age: The Complete Adventure

Short version: It’s a charming game mainly for the new and curious of playing a point and click adventure, recommended fully if you fit this criteria. Veteran of the genre can still get some enjoyment out of it but it will not offer much of challenge. It will however offer a charming experience for few days. Would advise to wait for a sale. Or as gift to the new and curious of the genre. Long version: General Information The now famous Broken Age has hardly gone by anyone who has a vaguely intresset in the point and click adventure game genre. Developed and published by Double Fine Productions by massive help by a extremely successful crowdfunding through Kickstarter. Although far from the first game to do so it was however most certainly one of the first to draw massive attention to the fact that it was a possibility for customers to fund games, and genres that the mainstream publishers has deemed unprofitable. On its release it meet some controversy for being just half the game the funders had expected. But now that the whole game is out, how is it? Story & Main Characters You play as two young teenagers, Vella Tartine (voiced by Masasa Moyo) and Shay Volta (voiced by Elijah Wood), the two are seemingly only connected through the similar situation that both are trying to break free from their social and environmental bonds that’s keeping them. Confined aboard a spaceship Shay's only companion being robots designed as childish toys and the ship's AI who suffocatingly cuddling him like a smaller child. Insisting that he do the same childish plays and routines day in and day out. Vella however bonds are more literal and perilous. She is living with her family on a beautiful rural village beside a ocean where she is being prepared to be sacrificed to a monster named Mog Chothra. Apparently the only one in the village being unwilling and questioning why this must be. The two characters are skillfully written. You understand and root for Vella when everyone around her (even her family) seem oblivious and incapable to question the reason why they should sacrifice their maidens to Mog Chothra. And with Shay we see how his situation is affecting him. Trapped in a place where he can't express himself and where he is constantly being treated as a child. He act out and try to find small ways to rebell. And it's all very nicely done. The young can, and do, question what society sees as the norm and rebel against it and authority. The story and script is solid all through the game. You care for the two protagonist and like the characters they encounter. It offers a twist where Act 1 ends. The twist itself is maybe not the most shocking or surprising but it works very well in the narrative of the game. Sadly the puzzles in the game falls by the wayside... Gameplay & Difficulty Classic point and click adventure in the line of the the 90’s era LucasArts games most of us know and love. The most innovative is that you can easily and smoothly jump between the two main characters. So if you get stuck with one character you can easily jump to the other and continue this character's adventure. Assuring that the game flows on even if you hit ‘The Wall’ (if you don’t know what this mean ask your veteran P&C adventurer, they know) with one of the characters. But rarely do they utilise this mechanic for more than that, which feels like a missed opportunity. If you don't know what a point and click adventure game is then actually this is benefit since this game is mainly for the new and unfamiliar to the whole genre. But if you are a seasoned veteran of the genre then difficult, for the most part, it's not. Sure a couple of puzzles at the later stage of the second act can be of some difficulty but for most people who have played this form of game before it will not be overly challenging. I'd say the puzzles are either easy or medium difficulty, but that is not entirely a bad thing. It let the unintroduced find a game that they can play. Long gone are the nonsensical puzzle that was so common in ye olden days. But I must give it credit that it made me use paper and pen to solve a puzzle. Something I haven't done on a long time. Graphics The world is shaped with a beautiful 2D art within a 3d engine. It looks gorgeous and it feels very much like the game of old except in higher fidelity of course. Truly a stunner is what I'm trying to say here. But it’s a matter of personal taste. I can imagine some not finding it appealing at all. Sound/Music & Voice Acting Both the background ambiance and music match the game perfect. Expertly done. And the now legendary Peter McConnell provide for the soundtrack and it fits perfectly with the themes of the games and situations. Maybe not his most memorable output but fits perfect for Broken Age. As well could be said with the sound design. In typical Double Fine Productions style we get a lot of high class voice actors for the game's various characters. And unsurprisingly they are done extremely well for the most part. Very much akin to the later LucasArts era of point and click adventure. Sadly I must say that I found Masasa Moyo voice for Vella off putting at times. Her delivery was flat and monotone in situation in the game where her character were in peril. I understand why though, the game for most part is light hearted meant for a younger generation but it drove me away from the immersion a bit. Closing Words So is Broken Age a game for you? Well it depends on the player. For us point and click veterans it might come out a bit shallow. Beautiful and charming but not much of a challenge. No this game is better suited for the player who is not to familiar with this sort of game. Not so surprisingly I would suggest that if you are roughly around the same age as the two protagonist (early to mid teenage) and not familiar of the genre than yeah this game would be perfect for you. I'm two decades older than that but I nonetheless liked the characters and the world. Though I did found act two a bit lacking in its reuse of the same areas as in act one and the ending felt rushed, you can almost see the deadline coming crashing towards Double Fine Productions as they struggled to get act two out in reasonable time. Nonetheless the game contains a charming and funny world with an excellent little adventure for the new to the point and click adventure game genre. And if you are a veteran and don’t mind playing something fairly easy for once then yeah sure go ahead. It won't hold you occupied for long but it's a light hearted little thing, only get it on sale if you do. The only time I’d suggest anyone buying this on full prize is if it’s a gift to a person who are curious of the genre. Without a doubt this game will be a lot of younger people's future nostalgia in a decade or two.

Broken Age is a bit too short, but amazingly simple and yet difficult throwback to the old-style point-and-click adventure games. With two concurrent, interweaving but relatively weak story lines, it drives you to meet two protagonists. Pretty art style nicely combines simple village life with fantasy and high tech spaceships. The game has few interesting characters, but all have great voice acting. It is occasionally funny and occasionally clever, but slightly too childish for its themes and hard puzzles.

*Beware! English is my second language* I'm a huge fan of the old LucasArts adventure games, but after I read some of the reviews (A lot of them bad to average). I went into the game with no expectations. I have got to say; this game is gorgeous. The graphics, artwork, story, music, voice acting is all spot on. I especially found the music memorable. The humor is great. I found myself laughing at loud during a certain talking tree situation, and the story of the boy protagonist is so bizarre and creative, you just have to love it. Yes, the game is short, there are many cut scenes (Personally I loved them, but I can see how people might find it irritating) and puzzles are way easier than most of Tim Schafer’s previous adventure games. All in all this game is not challenging at all. You will probably not get stuck trying to figure out how to solve a puzzle. However all this did not matter to me, because I was so engaged in the story and the universe created around these two main characters. I can definitely recommend this little gem to anyone who enjoys art, great voice acting and a game with a strong narrative. This is a must have for fans of adventure games.

I am surprised by the amount of bad ratings. Broken Age is a very beautiful point and click game with very classic mechanisms. You collect items, Items are added to the inventory. You combine them to solve riddles. The game follows the progression of two characters and their stories. The universe is very rich and very soon, in both universes, you realise that something is definitely wrong, although you may not know exactly what. The storytelling is really interesting. The humour of the dialogs are very reminiscent of lucas art film. The game is quite short. Expect no more than 10 hours game for those used to that kind of adventure games. That is definitely one drawback of the game. Another drawback is that difficulty of the game is not well-balanced. The beginning of the game is very easy but very soon is peaks. Yes, at one time you have to use the spoon to eat cereals. This is not groundbreaking but is consistent with the universe of the character that is overprotected ! Even if there are dialogues, the dialogues will not necessary help to find the answer and frankly some riddles don't make much sense. Other riddles are really good and require logic at a level not expected for this game. I can read a lot of complaints saying that the game is no match to Lucas Arts games. It is certainly not similar although the dialogues are really good, but it is shorter and the riddles consist more in games of logic rather than just combining items. I must confess that I prefer strange combination of items in that kind of games. But I still had a good time and found that artistically speaking this game is really top-grade quality. If you want to play old lucas arts games, play them.

I would personally give 6 out 5 for the story line, music, sound effects and of course voice acting (yes, Elijah Wood, Jack Black and Will Wheaton did took part in this game quite a lot! ). The story line is very interesting and surprising (you can't always anticipate things to happen as you would think they should happen) and in general, the game gives you this very pleasant and welcoming feeling, similar to the feeling that Amanita Design games provide. The environment is very responsive and game includes a lot unnecessary animation and dialogues that create a wonderful atmosphere. The puzzles are interesting and at times very challenging. The most frustrating part was the ending which, unfortunately, required some googling from my side as I got stuck. The very last puzzles aren't "intuitive" and require a lot of analyzing, however there are some things that you do in those puzzles but without prior understanding of the final outcome and only in the end you get the 'aha!' moment. In any case, I strongly recommend not to miss this game. It has its own charm and humor which let you quickly forget minor issues with some puzzles.