![]() ![]() ![]() From Curtis, the lumberjack with an understandable fear of trees, to Harm'ny Lightbeard the Jack Black-voiced guru who may or may not be a snake-oil salesman, Broken Age's cast never ceases to delight. The coloring and animation in particular help lend an almost tangible feeling, and the relative simplicity of the character design helps make each citizen a memorable one. As trite as it might sound, the world feels like a picture book come to life. Nothing I can say will do justice to just how gorgeous Broken Age is. Day of the Tentacle has your three characters constantly exchanging items through time and causing ripples in one era that would affect another, and I'm hoping Act 2 (which will be delivered in a free update scheduled for later this year) brings in more puzzles of this sort.īut for as great as the writing and puzzle design in Broken Age are, it's the artwork that immediately springs forward as a defining feature. That being said, I was a little bummed that the characters never really interact throughout Act 1. Broken Age proves that adventure games don't need to reinvent their gameplay to be outstanding – great writing, characters, and world design are the three pillars of creating a classic, and Double Fine has those in spades.īroken Age’s dual-character system also proved useful whenever I hit a roadblock - getting stuck on one of Vella’s puzzles and being able to instantly hop over to Shay's adventure acts as a great mental palate cleanser. Combining items, navigating dialogue trees, and exploring the world all contain the same sort of joy that Schafer famously harnessed back in the ‘90s. The logic here is on point, as Double Fine’s strange machinations all make wonderful sense inside the confines of the world. The fantastic writing also carries over in Broken Age’s great puzzle design. It’s a testament to the script that I found myself laughing and tearing up at multiple points over the course of the four-hour adventure. Though Shay and Vella live in very different worlds, the struggles they both face as they try to escape the figurative and sometimes literal shackles of their lives provided powerful bits of storytelling. But what I didn’t expect from Broken Age was a story that contained such powerful themes of loneliness, sacrifice, and what it means to really grow up. Players who enjoy engrossing and witty stories filled with memorable characters, unexpected narrative twists, and beautifully realized worlds are all but guaranteed a good time.I fully expected a Tim Schafer adventure game to be rife with humor, and Broken Age certainly delivers. That said, its entertainment value isn't in question. Its contextual puzzles - find this item, combine it with another item, and then give it to that person - are generally a snap, and there's virtually no way to get lost while moving along the decidedly linear story. The only potential blemish is that it's unlikely to prove particularly challenging for most players. Players are apt to find themselves hanging on each joke, hint, and plot-altering sentence. The subtly droll dialogue, meanwhile, is instantly engaging and marvelously acted by top voice talents, including Elijah Wood, Jack Black, Jennifer Hale, and Wil Wheaton. Its hand-drawn world and characters are noticeably different from those of most other games, yet it remains very inviting. It also has a strange but appealing vibe. Show moreīroken Age is an unusual game for a variety of reasons, not least of which is how it came into being (it's the product of an Internet-based campaign that saw thousands of individual gamers fund its development on Kickstarter). Worth noting: This is the first part of a two-part game (the second half will release at a later date), and the end is a pretty big cliff-hanger. Both are acting with honorable and courageous intention. ![]() The two protagonists' stories unfold simultaneously over the course of several hours through point-and-click world investigation, scores of interesting conversations with nonplayer characters, and some fairly simple puzzles. ![]() Perplexed by her family's willingness to let her be gobbled up, she can't help but wonder why no one has ever chosen to fight the monster and save the village's maidens. Vella, meanwhile, is a young woman living in a village that follows a tradition involving the sacrifice of young women to a giant monster that comes calling every 14 years. He wants to go on real missions where he accomplishes real good. It's basically a giant nursery loaded with super safe activities, such as going on a mission to save a group of snugly, knitted creatures from a small avalanche of strawberry ice cream. Shay is a young man living alone on a spaceship run by an overprotective computer that calls itself Mother. BROKEN AGE is an adventure game that tells two stories simultaneously. ![]()
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