Broken Age review - Round 2

[MusicallyInspired]

Just finished Broken Age. Both acts. Right from the start. I purposely started over to experience the entire game in one sitting (well, not one sitting, but one playthrough with both acts in context). That's more like it, Tim. I wouldn't say quite up to Day of the Tentacle or other Golden Era game standards, but much much closer this time. I was scratching my head on a few occasions and when I was worried the game was over it carried on for even a little while longer than I expected it to. MORE of that, please! I was hoping for more locations than what we'd seen in Act 1, but judging by the content of the documentary, it's just great to see the thing finished at all. Not only that it feels done and polished too, not unfinished. I would have said backing the game was worth it anyway even if I didn't enjoy the final product, but I'm even happy with the content this time around (Act 2).

It's obvious what he considers "harder" puzzles are just logic puzzles, but it did stretch it out and not in an un-entertaining way. I was DOING stuff and I had to do MORE stuff just to GET other stuff. I was busy and I wasn't bored once. This satiated my process-of-elimination mind well. It was great. I liked the pacing as well. When I got stuck for more than a while I switched characters and started again where I had left off stuck before and I made progress. It really does work to break up the game, loosen your mind and freshen things up again. A lot of characters and places unfortunately only had one function, but a few of them had more than one and that was very welcome. I didn't feel like I was done with one area as soon as I got there.

I just wish there was a little more to the ending. More of an epilogue. It really felt like it needed one after all the work I'd felt like I put in...which is a very good sign. On the one hand, underwhelming endings aren't very satisfying, but again considering that I felt like I put in a lot of work for a bit of a lackluster reward, that shows that I was enjoying myself and wanted a great payoff. Ultimately, the short ending isn't really THAT bad and it just shows that I cared about the experience. It's certainly no Curse of Monkey Island or KQ7 ending at least.

I wish I could get stuck for weeks again like the old days, but there's no sense in waiting for those days to return. It's a new age and games like that aren't successful anymore so I can't expect it. But this is the closest I've seen Tim come. Just wish the whole game was more like that. Good job. *clap*

Note: This is all a gameplay review. I won't comment on the storytelling as much. It was enjoyable and I didn't think anything was "too stupid" or "on the nose" or "overdone" or "not explained or delivered well enough". Mostly because I don't care as much as others do. I was looking to have a good time playing the game and that's what I had. The story didn't do anything to detract that from me and wasn't too absent either. Good stuff. This proves to me that Tim is still capable of making a good GAME, not just a good STORY, even if it still could have been a bit better in my eyes. That's what I was most interested in with this project and was very pleased to actually find more than a simple shred or trace of it.

[suejak]

I was really curious to hear your thoughts after reading your opinions of Act 1 on the Double Fine forums. Since I'm banned from the Double Fine forums (lol), I'm glad I found you here so I could still see what you think ;)

 

I too was pleasantly surprised by the puzzles in Act 2.

[MusicallyInspired]

Banned? Lol that's too bad. A lot of people enjoyed it. The biggest issues people had were of the wire, knot, and shoe puzzles. I loved those. They frustrated me while I was trying to figure out how they worked, but that doesn't mean they're bad and it doesn't mean I didn't like them. Some people thought Act 1 was way too easy and Act 2 was way too hard. One person even said that there's a special place in hell for the person who designed the wiring puzzles. They weren't even that bad! Some people just freak out over that stuff. I was very surprised and happy to see that DF wasn't afraid of including them, though. It got people drawing on paper again! :) I didn't draw myself, but I did make a spreadsheet for the shoe puzzle.