Broken Age – Act 1, an excellent point-and-click adventure. This is coming from someone who usually avoids the genre. I don’t know how, but Double Fine somehow kept me entertained whilst playing their latest adventure. I despise point-and-click games, but this, this was a treat.
Broken Age’s existence is entirely due to the success of Double Fine’s “Double Fine Adventure” Kickstarter, which in my opinion, is the reason why Kickstarter is so popular today. The game’s credits list all of the backers, all of them. It took quite some time for all of those credits to roll.
The game employs a colorful, stylized world, all in 2D. The art is fantastic, retaining that signature Double Fine feel to it. The music was also great, combining well with the game’s overall style.
The game’s story however, is what I enjoyed most. The story is what probably kept me playing. Normally, I wouldn’t even play a point-and-click game, and if I did, then I’d quit it within say.. 30 minutes? With Broken Age however, I never felt bored and the puzzles didn’t keep me stumped as long as I would have expected from a game in the genre. Actually, I would have preferred the puzzles to be a bit harder. Most of them were rather straight-forward and easily solved. I may have gotten stumped once or twice, but I felt like they could have been a lot more challenging while retaining my attention.
The story is broken into two parts: Shay’s and Vella’s adventures. Two entirely different characters that the player can switch to and from at any given moment. I found myself going through with Shay’s quest first, rather than Vella’s. I enjoyed Shay’s story more than Vella’s, but I played through the whole game wanting to know if the stories connected somehow, possibly one of the reasons why I found this game so enjoyable. The constant desire to see how the stories connect, or if they do at all.
Voice acting in the game is incredible, well, aside from one character. It felt like Vella’s voice was… off. It just sounded out of place. That may just be me, but it constantly bugged me throughout her journey. All of the other voice acting is simply amazing, no complaints there.
All good things said, Broken Age does not bring anything new to the table. This may be disappointing for some, but I certainly overlooked this fault purely out of interest for the game’s story. Although I may dislike point-and-click games, I’ve played quite a few of them in my time, and Broken Age doesn’t seem to differ from them, aside from the art style. Broken Age was actually much easier than a few of the point-and-click game’s I’ve played, because, as I said, the puzzles are rather straight-forward.
There are many reasons for me to recommend Broken Age. I urge you to try it out for yourself. I certainly can’t wait for the next act in the series.
cublikefoot 