It’s been more than three years since the initial launch of Double Fine Adventure’s Kickstarter campaign. The campaign promised to bring the return of adventure games alongside the release of a new Double Fine video game. Over the years, Double Fine Adventure became Broken Age. Finally, as of April 28 Broken Age is now complete.
We got our first taste of Broken Age when Act 1 was released at the beginning of 2014. The first act introduced us to all of the major players for Broken Age. The two main stars are Shay and Vella. Shay is a bored teenage living with his mom and dad on what was previously thought to be a space ship. Vella is a spunky girl chosen to be sacrificed to a creepy monster. Everything they knew was a lie.
Act 1 ends on a massive cliffhanger, with the monster Mog Chothra revealed to be Shay’s “space ship.” Shay realized he has never actually been to space and has been terrorizing villages instead of helping innocent critters as he previously thought. Now that we have Act 2 to play, we finally have some resolution for the questions floating around our heads for over a year.
The answers play out beautifully. Just like Act 1, the visuals are certainly impressive. Everything looks like an oil painting, managing to give off both a childlike sense of innocence as well as an underlying feeling of foreboding. The music is also top-notch, featuring an original score performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
In terms of storytelling, Act 2 is very similar to Act 1, but reversed. This time, we see Shay exploring the world around him while Vella is confined to the space ship. This means we get to encounter all of the characters previously seen in Act 1. It’s wonderful to catch back up with this goofy cast of weirdos, because they all are just so interesting. Hearing Jack Black as a loopy spiritualist or Pendleton Ward as a juice-gobbling nerd are awesome in the first act, hearing them complete their stories in the second act is even better.
The gameplay, on the other hand, isn’t quite as elegant. Like traditional adventure games, Broken Age plays out entirely with a point-and-click interface. This is nice because it’s simple to use, but it’s also incredibly limiting. Character movement is one of the more frustrating aspects, as you find yourself having to move back and forth across multiple areas over and over again. While this normally isn’t so bad, some scenes take forever for characters to walk across. This slows down progression when all you are trying to do is get to the other side of an area. A run button is desperately needed..
Also, like adventure games of yore, some of the puzzles found in Broken Age are a little esoteric. You either need to be reading into all of the little details around you, or you will need to use a walkthrough. Pay close attention to certain key words characters use, or backgrounds of pictures.
Speaking of puzzles, Act 2 did at least bring some brain teasers. One of my biggest complaints with Act 1 is that it felt so narrative heavy. I never really felt challenged with a puzzle or figuring out what to do next. Act 2 brought many puzzles and made progression more thought-provoking. Act 2 also plays around with Shay and Vella, forcing players to jump between the two characters to solve puzzles. This always felt neat, with Shay or Vella using a piece of the other’s adventure to continue their own.
Looking at Broken Age as a complete package definitely rounds out each half into one great adventure game. Despite a few faults with controls and stupidly difficult puzzles, Broken Age will be remembered not only as a revolutionary Kickstarter project, but also as a shining example of what games can be like when they are made with care by dedicated people.
