Make like a train and chew, chew, chew!
Review Supplied by DoubleFine
Point and Click adventure games are pretty much a corner stone of my childhood. They hold a very special place in my heart. I remember one summer when I was much younger than now, playing through all the SCUMM games available at the time. Ranging from Day of The Tentacle through to Monkey Island. I loved them and could not get enough of them but they one day then pretty much all disappeared.
Still to this day I find it hard to connect to modern games that loosely call themselves point and click adventure games because they just do not have what the original games had. It is that sense of adventure, the idea that you have to work out how to progress through problems that block your path to working out the conclusion to your adventure.
Broken Age changed this for me. Tim Schafer had worked on pretty much all the games I loved when I was young and Broken Age was the first point and click title he had worked on since Grim Fandango. With this said the only thing I expected from this game was for it to capture the wonder that I experienced as a child. It did not fail.
Broken Age tells the story of two teenagers, living in different worlds, experiencing the same issue of living with tradition. They are both sick of the traditional way and seek a way to break this. The journey they both take to fulfil their desires take them to strange places and meet interesting characters. The story is broke into two acts and upon the conclusion of the first act you will be dying to move on to the second act to see the epic conclusion of this tale.
As you would expect from a point and click adventure there is a lot of interacting with the world. This ranges from examining objects to speaking to other characters of the world. As with any Point and Click adventure it is all down to the puzzles. They are like invisible walls stopping you from advancing until you produce the correct item at the correct time. Sometimes it can get frustrating but most of the time it is fairly obvious and you may kick yourself once you work out the solution.
The only difference from original Point and Click games is that the interaction is context-based.
Originally every item would have a verb for the action (look, pull, push etc) meaning there were only so many different actions a player could try until you got the right answer. In Broken Age you can pick an item up from your inventory and try to combine it with anything on the screen. This makes the game feel more fluid as you are not scrolling through all the different actions on one item - you just "use" it now. So basically if you believe you have the right item for a certain puzzle you can just use it to solve it. A lot more simple. Also to make life easier, as you can play as both characters when ever you want, there are separate inventories.
If are looking for a perfect example of a 90's point and click game, Broken Age is for you.
Broken Age has an excellent story told at a perfect pace with a perfect voice cast. All the voices suite the characters and their scripts. Yes it is short but it is not all about how long a game is, but rather the quality of what there is.
Broken Age manages to capture what originally drew me into point and click adventure games when I was younger. There is a real adventure unfolding here - you feel like you are there being pulled along for the ride and when it finishes you will be happy with the overall conclusion.
9/10
Broken Age is out Now on PS4, PsVita, PC, Ouyu, Linux, Mac, Android & iOS
Who Should Play This?
- Fans of old 90's Point & Click Adventure Games
- Puzzle lovers
- Gamers looking for a good story with interesting characters
Who Should NOT Play This?
- Not keen on having to use your nogging to advance the story? You may be using a guide a lot.
- Haters of (old style) Point & Click Adventure?
- Dislike Ol' Wil Wheaton? Yea - he is in this. So is Elijah Wood!
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