Broken Age: Act 2 Reviews

Broken Age: Act 2 is ranked in the 40th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
7.5 / 10.0
May 1, 2015

Broken Age sadly suffers from a case of too much. The watercolor art style, humorous dialogue, and clever writing are unfortunately buried under too much backtracking, too much obscurity, and therefore, too much frustration. On the one hand, you can't help but get that Portal-esque "A-ha!" feeling when you solve a puzzle. But when you stumble upon a solution after frantically combining objects at random and presenting them to every NPC under the sun that makes you tap into your inner John McEnroe and say, "You cannot be serious," you can literally feel the joy sucking out of the room. I want to see a return of the point-and-click genre, but not at the expense of my sanity.

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Adam Riley
Top Critic
4 / 10
May 3, 2015

Beautiful in its aesthetics, smart in its user-interface, yet ultimately lacking in almost every other key area, Broken Age: Act 2 is mightily disappointing on its own. Since it comes as a free update to those that already laid money down for Act 1, thankfully no money will feel like it has been wasted. Anyone picking up the full package on a non-PC format, though, might feel a touch more down and bitter, since the second half is not a patch on the first part and the cost outlay will be fresher in their minds.

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Apr 29, 2015

There are a few bumps along the way, but overall Broken Age is a fun ride

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Unscored
Apr 28, 2015

Let us try to imagine a world where crowdfunding somehow still exists 20 years from now. Perhaps then, we will all be invited to pay for a return to the halcyon days of Broken Age. We would probably do it. There would certainly be precedent.

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3.4 / 5.0
May 1, 2015

Broken Age: Act 2 may stumble a bit trying to be something it isn't, but what it is, is still gorgeous and enthralling, and I'll put up with some frustrating puzzles and backtracking for that.

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7.5 / 10.0
May 15, 2015

Overall Broken Age is hugely fun game, but hardly the second coming of LucasArts as many backers probably hoped. Animation, sound, voice acting, dialogue, character, all of this is absolutely top-of-the-range, no game better in the industry, and it all makes the experience worthwhile.

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May 12, 2015

Broken Age's first act was mediocre but had potential. Potential that its conclusion squanders.

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7 / 10.0
Apr 29, 2015

At worst, it's a cautionary tale about getting too much money and getting too ambitious with that money.

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3.5 / 5.0
Apr 30, 2015

I really want to love Broken Age Act 2 as much as I loved the first part. As a complete package, the game is beautiful, funny and well-designed.

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7 / 10
Jun 1, 2015

Good but inconsistent, with an anticlimactic end

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5 / 10.0
May 1, 2015

It feels rushed, uncreative and so lacking in the passion that made the first act great.

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89%
Sep 1, 2015

The second half doesn't quite live up to the first, but Broken Age is still a journey worth taking.

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7 / 10.0
Apr 29, 2015

Broken Age's second act is kind of a slog, but it's possible I should take a lesson from its crying character: When I hope for something extremely strange and specific, I shouldn't complain if I actually get it.

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6 / 10.0
May 11, 2015

The second act of Broken Age addresses the difficulty concerns of the first, but revisits too many familiar locations, and fails to up the ante or tie things up in a satisfying way.

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8 / 10
Apr 30, 2015

The game formerly known as Double Fine Adventure is a fine adventure, but definitely one best taken as a whole rather than in two parts.

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Unscored
Apr 27, 2015

I had hoped that Act 2 would be the addressing of Act 1's shortcomings, and deliver on its strengths, what had seemed so heartfelt and novel. Instead it's an incredibly pretty, superbly voice acted, crap adventure game.

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4 / 10.0
Apr 30, 2015

Maddening puzzles, recycled assets, and a lack of anything interesting to say makes Broken Age's second act a profound disappointment.

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90 / 100
Apr 26, 2015

Act 1 was just an appetizer. Act 2 is the meaty main course that defines Broken Age — and not just because it finishes the story. It's where Double Fine let loose and went crazy with the puzzles (and the complex train of thought you need to solve them). It's where characters I previously thought were only there for a joke or two became much more important. It's where Shay's and Vella's rebellion against their preordained fates turned into a cause that is much bigger than themselves.

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Unscored
Apr 28, 2015

Ultimately, there's more meat on the second act's puzzle bones, especially due to a memorable final-blast puzzle, and while the game's ending was more of a whimper than a bang—and it included some cockamamie ways to tie up the plot's loose ends—I appreciated the restraint on the writers' part to not force melodrama or melancholy on what eventually transpired. This game is the story of two young people who face the ups and downs of throwing off the shackles of youth—and it's also about their family and loved ones being there the whole way through.

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7 / 10.0
Apr 26, 2015

Despite these complaints, the character and tone of Broken Age are hard to resist. Act two may not capitalize on the potential of act one, but there are still plenty of moments that can bring a smile to your face or cause you to laugh-out-loud. Even at its worst, the world is a pleasure to be a part of, putting Broken Age in one of the most frustrating positions. There's already a lot of goodness within it, but it's almost impossible not to think of what it could have been.

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