Broken beyond repair
Won't last an Age
You know what's classic, Broken Sword is, as is Sam and Max Hit The Road, along with Simon The Sorcerer and Monkey Island 3. You know what isn't? Broken Age. Now I don't mean classic as in old, I'm using it as a measurement of quality, if it will be remembered fondly for decades to come. I can't see Broken Age being remembered for much and if so, it wont be fondly. If anything, Broken Age will act as a cautionary tale, a reminder that publishers do have a reason to exist and letting your figure head be in charge of money makes for a bad idea. Some people will say that it's more like: "careful what you wish for" and that times have moved on from point and click adventure games. But that isn't true, in fact Charles Cecil's return with Broken Sword 5 was somewhat successful , which was also kickstarted (and got less than a third of what Broken Age got) there's also lots of great modern point and click games; Gemini Rue, the Blackwell series, The Inner World etc. Then people will say "but Ollie you're viewing those old classics with rose tinted glasses" again that isn't true. All those classics I listed and many more, I only recently played in the last few years, as they were released way before my time (yes I'm that young). The original Broken Sword is genuinely breathtaking still today, it stands the test of time. Broken age doesn't even stand up a year and a half after the initial acts release.
I'm selling these fine feather jackets.
Now, yes I'm being rather harsh here but let's get into the meat of the issues. Is Broken Age funny, is it well written? Yes..... And no. Back when act one was released I was very forgiving for some of its downfalls, mainly because - like a lot of people - I thought act 2 would make up for some of its issues. Act one set up a really good narrative, had some real poignant, relatable issues about growing up, about finding your place in the world. It's two story's that ran concurrently were touching, that two people completely separate from another could be in very similar situations; both feeling trapped in their lives, something we can all relate to in life. All that was strong in act one is completely dropped in act two for an extremely tropey plot about civilisations using others for their own gain, you know, evil villain nonsense. What's more infuriating is that act one ended on a strong cliffhanger that suggested that Act two would find both characters working and interacting together and spin the gameplay on its head. Well I suppose it does spin things on its head by switching the characters over, leaving Vella to explore Shays ship and Shay to explore shellmound and meriloft. That presents the biggest problems with act two, but we'll get back to that in a little bit.
Did you get the number of that donkey cart?
The writing isn't without charm but act one felt more fresh mainly because everything was new, whereas in act two, we spend the whole time talking to the same bunch of characters, by that point the novelty of their personalities has worn out. Hearing about how a tree hates humans got tiring in act one, to then have to hear it all over again feels lazy. Some 'jokes' fall flat, especially one involving stools with the implied double meaning, which like almost everything else is recycled in act two aswell, being the exact same joke. It's almost as if the spark went out in Tim Schaffer and the rest of the teams excitement, act one feels much more impassioned whereas when it comes to the second half it feels like they no longer care. Exposition is delivered in droves in the early stages of act two, almost immediately removing all sense of mystery for the rest of its running time, as if they needed to get that out of the way as soon as possible. The whole Middle portion of the second part has little to no plot advancement at all, resigning you to play shopping for items instead. Admittedly the characters we do get are all interesting and more importantly well voice acted, (as sure as well, considering the talent behind them) you have talking utensils, a hipster lumberjack, zealous worshippers and a family who have joined a cult. But as I mentioned we see too much of them, maybe if some of them were held back for act two it wouldn't have been a issue.
Sam, this isn't the Lincoln tunnel!
Here's where I'm going to be completely frank, Act two recycles almost all of its locations from the first and it's unacceptable. At that point it no longer feels like an adventure.... In an adventure game. The environments and backgrounds are beautiful but there's only so many times you can admire them before you shout: "yes I've seen this a dozen times, show me something new". I find it hard to believe this was the intention, the original plan for act two, they had higher ambitions surely? It's more likely that most of their funds were spent on act one leaving the second with the leftovers. Compromise is written everywhere, it's hard not to imagine where the story could of gone if they weren't restricted to so few locations. Isn't that part of the thrill in these games, entering a new area and discovering all the secrets within. After all I don't remember the different acts in Monkey Island having no new locations, they in fact had whole new islands to plunder for items. Without that, Discovery is replaced by monotony. After all this, the least you can expect is a satisfying ending right? The 'ending' isn't bad, no, it's non existent, it simply just ends. If the game had gone on for another 20 minutes or so they could of at least got to a point where you feel the characters story had some resolution, that any of this mattered. Instead it ends on silence, which I was also left after watching the ending..... Silent.
Seen any clowns around? No, you're the first today!
The puzzles are the one thing that feel completely different from the two acts. Most of the puzzle solutions in the first act are relatively simple and logical, leaning more towards item combinations. However act two focuses more on obtuse, downright perplexing puzzles. Some people will be immediately drawn to either the act one style or the act two style, though personally I really hate needlessly obscure puzzles. There's a conundrum revolving around untying knots, which like several other head scratchers are poorly signposted. You'll spend ages simply not knowing what to do, listening to the same lines of dialogue over and over again. Most of act two's playing time is attributed to backtracking, travelling between locations to obtain the right objects necessary, though to be fair a lot of point and click games suffer from this. There's one puzzle which I'll see in hell, in fact it's a whole series of puzzles. Towards the end of the game you find yourself having to re-wire robots to give them different functionality's, the problem is, it's all trail and error, tedious and repetitive. That's what you'll feel after going through one of them, unfortunately there are several more of the exact some puzzle. The reason the puzzles in act one were easy could be ascribed to the lack of hotspots within environments. Unlike a lot of other point and click games, some of which I've mentioned, Broken Age lacks a lot of the optional content that helps with world building and makes puzzle solutions harder to find. Some of the best moments in adventure games are the funny interactions you can have while examining random objects, remember the store in Monkey island 2? None of that here, though you can show any object in your inventory to other characters which often do bare some humorous remarks.
The biggest department that Broken Age shines in is it's voice acting. Double fine have employed the help of some pretty big names including Elijah Wood (Lord of the rings) Jack Black, Will Wheaton and Pendleton Ward (creator of Adventure Time). A lot of the characters personality is from the casts line delivery. There's a surprising amount of emotion conveyed and the animation on the characters certainly help, I'm glad they don't just stand motionless with moving mouths like most other games in the genre. The soundtrack is also very well put together and works especially well during plot heavy moments.
Broken Age in essence is a disappointment then, a game that had so much promise, of which was shown during act one, squandered for obtuse mini games, a contrived villain plot and the biggest offender; recycled content. In a Age where point and click adventure games are having a resurgence, it's the smaller studios, the ones on tighter budgets that are being more creative and pushing the boundaries of the genre because Double Fine sure aren't doing it.
Pros:
- Act one's story is charming
- Voice cast is strong
- Beautiful hand drawn art.
Cons:
- Act two destroys all momentum
- recycled content
- insane leaps of logic
- tedious backtracking
5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment