The core promise of Double Fine Adventure was to bring Schafer back to his old-school adventure roots, and to that effect the game is a resounding success. Broken Age is a seriously beautiful game that feels like walking through a lavishly illustrated children’s book. Nathan Stapley’s character design might not be for everyone, but his use of color and shadow is unassailable. ![]() ![]() Characters are also hand-painted and animated in a cut-out style (think Yuri Norstein or, if you must, South Park) that blends perfectly with the backgrounds. While everything may be 2D, there’s a lot going on, with numerous background layers, lighting, reflections, and other effects that make the environments feel like more than flat illustrations. Unfortunately, the very late part of the game rushes some of its plot reveals and leaves as many questions as it answers, but in the context of a lighthearted comedy, it’s easy enough to forgive.Įverything is presented in a gorgeous, painterly style. These stories have some clever plot twists along the way that will definitely be remembered. I’m carefully avoiding spoilers, and new players are well advised to do the same because of the novel ways in which this works. The two stories are at once both parallels and inversions of each other, Shay a commentary on the “everyone gets a trophy” generation, and Vella’s a critique of the sometimes blind adherence to tradition that characterizes older generations, and Broken Age highlights how these two stories are more similar than different.Īt first, these stories seem to relate only thematically, but as the game progresses, they connect in more meaningful ways, with clues to puzzles on one side of the game appearing in the other. Vella is a 14-year old girl selected as a ritual sacrifice to a Lovecraftian monster in order to protect her village. Shay is a 14-year old boy, seemingly all alone aboard a spaceship, under the care of an overly-protective computer/mother-figure that has created a whole world of safe, false-achievement that has left him longing for the kind of real danger and adventure that every boy needs. Broken Age returns to the idea of character-switching, but this time its twin protagonists are connected by theme rather than a common quest. Tim Schafer first turned heads with Day of the Tentacle, which offered a unique spin on the adventure genre by giving players the ability to cycle through three characters scattered through time at the same location. Broken Age is charming, witty, and genuinely original in a way that justifies much of that initial promise. Much of the project’s initial success hinged upon the notion that Schafer’s writing would offer a glimmer of the long-declining genre’s glory days, and it’s that legacy that has been placed front and center. Now, when all is said and done, Broken Age is just a game, complete and ready to be judged on its own merits, rather than the crushing expectations that birthed it.īroken Age not only marks Tim Schafer’s first attempt at a point-and-click adventure game since 1998’s Grim Fandango, but his first project as director and writer since 2009’s Brutal Legend. Its runaway success ushered in a new era of crowdfunded game development, and its numerous delays and budget overruns drew ire and controversy. Purchasing this content entitles you to both the PS4™ and “PS Vita” versions!Īdditional hardware required for Interconnectivity.From its genesis as the broadly-defined Kickstarter dream “Double Fine Adventure” to its final realization more than three years later, Broken Age’s development has proven to be as epic a story as any the game itself could hope to tell. This one really hard puzzle that you won't get but you'll look it up online and not tell anybody ![]() Unless you don't think they're funny, in which case we totally weren't trying to be funny ![]() All-star voice cast, including Elijah Wood, Jack Black, Jennifer Hale, Masasa Moyo, Wil Wheaton, and Pendleton Ward Original soundtrack, composed by Peter McConnell, recorded by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra The player can freely switch between their stories, helping them take control of their own lives, and dealing with the unexpected adventures that follow. Vella Tartine and Shay Volta are two teenagers in strangely similar situations, but radically different worlds. Broken Age is a timeless coming-of-age story of barfing trees and talking spoons.
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