![]() ![]() Now, the act of “getting stuck” is subjective. I got stuck daily during The Longest Journey, and Secret of Monkey Island? Forget it, I got stuck on the first real puzzle. I say this as someone who is typically terrible at adventure games. Just splitting a singular story in half? Not so much.īroken Age is easy. But episodic stories only work when they’re planned that way from the start. I understand the reasons: Double Fine ran out of money, whether you like that reason or not, and needed to fund Act Two of the game off the first half’s profits. Which brings me to the last point I’m going to make about narrative-splitting your narrative when it wasn’t originally intended to be split is awful. It’s lucky the game looks so great on the surface, because so far “surface” is most of the game. I mean, Jack Black voices a soft-spoken cult leader who licks feathers and loves yogurt, and he does a fantastic job…for the maybe fifteen or twenty lines he’s given. Characters are disposable, given one purpose and then cast aside. Broken Age has tons of potential which it rarely capitalizes on. This frame looks busy, but there are only two or three things to interact with.Īnd it’s not just environments. A frame with five objects to interact with-even if “interact” just means “Shay or Vella provides commentary”-is a crowded frame in Broken Age. Frames are crammed with visual detail, but 95% of it is static background. The game is beautiful, but it’s a passive beauty. You typically spend about half an hour-at most, forty-five minutes-in each area, so there was plenty of room for Broken Age to stretch its legs and show off. Vella’s half of the story is particularly interesting from an art standpoint, since her quest against Mog Chothra leads her through multiple distinct (fascinating) regions. Every single frame is gorgeous, and the game resembles an interactive children’s book more than anything else. While I don’t think Broken Age as memorable as Grim Fandango or Psychonauts, it’s clearly a Tim Schafer/Double Fine production. After all, he’s the last hope for his dying planet. He goes on missions with all the danger of a Legends of the Hidden Temple episode, yearning for a bit of adventure but “imprisoned” by Mom, a well-meaning artificial intelligence whose sole purpose is to keep him safe. Shay is trapped in a spaceship built for babies. What’s the best way to sacrifice maidens to a monster? In a cupcake, of course.Īnd then there’s Shay, whose existence is as safe and quiet as Vella’s is imperiled. While everyone else prepares to send Vella to her death, he reminds her of a time when Steel Bunting fought the Mogs and implores her to do the same. ![]() Vella’s grandfather remembers a time when Sugar Bunting was called Steel Bunting, though-when they were the most feared town in the land. There’s Vella, who lives in the bakery-themed town of Sugar Bunting-a town set on sacrificing her to the evil monster Mog Chothra. ![]()
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