Broken Age: Act 1 Reviews
Broken Age succeeds, however, in being exactly what it sets out to be: a tightly woven, succinct, pleasantly told fairy tale, full of enough brain prodding to begin it all over again. A huge endgame twist both satisfies and questions the full extent of the story, accomplishing the challenging task of leaving the player both fulfilled and wanting more. If this is what the Kickstarter revolution will yield—tightly authored works with immaculate aesthetics—then we're ready for much more.
The completed Broken Age could well be an excellent game, and I'll be back when it's finished to review it in its entirety. But the better the game turns out to be, the more of a disservice it is to play the first act now. To play it now is to be a part of a process. To play it later is to, well, play it.
Beautiful art style, well rounded characters, familiar humour, and heart. At first glance, Broken Age is a visually stunning, polished homage to the adventure games of the past. But it's over all too quickly, without enough challenges to satisfy, or enough innovations to drive the genre forward.
Broken Age does a fine job of creating an outlandish world populated by interesting characters, but is let-down somewhat by its core gameplay. The style and story are both very strong and will draw you into the game; sadly however, adventure games are generally concerned with puzzle solving, and the puzzles found in Broken Age just don't test your little grey cells as much as one would like. They are logical and integrated into the game very well, but there is very little challenge to them. Hopefully, this is down to the game looking to get progressively harder as it goes on and Act 2 will be more challenging. As it is, Act 1 feels a little light.
Apart from the ending of course, which I'm thinking about a lot. Broken Age: Act 1 is a wonderful piece of work, well worth the time and money put into it, an excellent piece of videogame fiction, but it just needs some work being an actual videogame. Let's hope Act 2 maintains the quality but ups the difficulty.
Broken Age is charming, attractive, funny, and all-around entertaining. For fans of adventure games, it leaves little to be desired short of its second act. If that meets the standard set by the currently playable bit, Double Fine looks to have dropped a classic in its wake. Regardless, the experience of Act 1 is enough to recommend outright — don't hesitate to add this title to your library.
The Broken Age will win you over in minutes, and what it lacks in length or difficulty it makes up for in pure personality. From talking Spoons to a guru who makes people remove vowels from their names in order to attain true lighten-ness, it's a weird world, and you'll feel part of it in way we haven't seen since the lost age of adventure games.
Broken Age is both a huge success and a cautionary tale for Kickstarter backers. While the game absolutely delivers on great gameplay, story, and production value rarely seen in the genre, its short length and the fact that you'll have to wait months for the second half of the game are worrying.
Joking aside, there's a valuable comparison to be made between Broken Age and Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse. Both are throwbacks to the golden age of point and click adventures made by creators who helped define that era.
Broken Age can't quite overcome the problem that's plagued the adventure genre for decades: obscure puzzle solutions that force players to use every item in their inventory in as many ways as they can think of.
Broken Age: Act 1 may be overly traditional, but it possesses plenty of artistry and charm that players will love.
Broken Age is silky smooth, deliciously humorous, visually stunning and completely delightful.
There may not be much actual "game" in Broken Age Act 1, but as a window into two interesting and charming adventures it easily fulfills the Kickstarter promise. The presentation is beautiful and unique, as are the settings and characters. The puzzles are the weakest parts, with a stripped-back interface that offers little beyond combining things and using them on people and specific spots.
If the first act truly is half of the game, there is some reasonable concern that Act 2 might need to be considerably longer to resolve everything without resorting to an overly-expository info dump.
Arguably the biggest Kickstarter story sticks its first landing. Broken Age is a cute, colorful tale about growing up. While the 'game' part of the experience is pretty straightforward - like an old-school adventure game - the world is full of charming and unique characters. Sit back, figure out some puzzles, and experience the wonderful little tale that Double Fine has crafted.
You'll find a lot to like in Broken Age. It has a beautiful world populated by a colorful cast of characters and an alluring mystery that doesn't unfold in the way you expect it to. This is Double Fine Productions at its finest, and it's on track to finish strong with Act 2.
Act One of Broken Age starts off strong, with an incredibly well-written storyline that props up some occasionally weak puzzle work. Let's hope Double Fine can follow through with Act Two when it arrives later this year.
Broken Age reminds me why I fell in love with adventure games in the first place.
Not the revival of the classic Lucasarts form some would hope, but a great first instalment all the same.
Whimsical, witty, and beautiful: this is a sumptuous adventure with all of Double Fine's usual care and attention lovingly lavished throughout.