Broken Age - Double Fine's Kickstarter Adventure Game

[Bubbles]

First part != first half. The second part could well be 15 hours long.

 

[Ravel myluv]

I wouldn't call Sam and Max seasons puzzles clever, but maybe I'm just allergic to the whole use-inventory-to-resolve-puzzles trope.

 

[Metro]

$5+ million for this shit? Hilarious.

 

[evdk]

First part != first half. The second part could well be 15 hours long.

In that case I would really like to know where are they going to get the money to make that 15 hour masterpiece, when this game burned through most of their cash already.

 

[Metro]

Can't wait for MASSIVE CHALICE.

 

[Bubbles]

In that case I would really like to know where are they going to get the money to make that 15 hour masterpiece, when this game burned through most of their cash already.

Android and iOS sales. This kind of game can make monstrous profits in the portable markets.

 

[Bitcher1]

I could live with easy puzzles, but you're saying it's not even (particularly) funny?

Fuck that noise.

 

[felipepepe]

I find amazing just how many fanboys are posting positive reviews on steam, after playing less than an hour... I guess that soon Tim will be back to posting pictures of him smoking money.

First part != first half. The second part could well be 15 hours long.

In that case I would really like to know where are they going to get the money to make that 15 hour masterpiece, when this game burned through most of their cash already.

I hope t is at least longer, considering they will obviously re-use the locations from Episode 1, but with switched characters.

 

[Bubbles]

I find amazing just how many fanboys are posting positive reviews on steam, after playing less than an hour

Who says they didn't finish it in that time?

 

[evdk]

I find amazing just how many fanboys are posting positive reviews on steam, after playing less than an hour

Who says they didn't finish it in that time?

Well, that's a pretty damning review in itself, isn't it.

 

[felipepepe]

I find amazing just how many fanboys are posting positive reviews on steam, after playing less than an hour

Who says they didn't finish it in that time?

They did:

Only 10 minutes in but its AWESOME, such a polished work of art, amazing voice acting, beautifully painted scenes and an intriguing story.

Just got my hands on Broken Age, and it's already charmed me. It's been so exciting watching this come together in the documentary, and the results are worth the wait. Are all point-and-click adventure games this good? I've been missing out...

I have played the girls story for about an hour and I must say, I am blown away. Like most other backers, I am a huge fan of the old Lucusarts adventures, and this has exactly the same feel. Lighthearted whimsy, and dreamlike imagination. This comes in huge part from the lovely crayon art style, as well as supurb voice acting, and some memorable characters.

There are 51 reviews praising it as the best thing ever, and only 4 negative reviews, including mine and evdk's....

 

[Aeschylus]

Well, I think I was right about the 'press' preferring this sort of thing to actual adventure games: first review arrives, PC Gamer: 86 (frankly absurd if you're viewing this as an adventure game).

 

[felipepepe]

The best classic adventures constantly found new spins on the formula, and Schafer and his fellow Lucasarts designers were no slouches at this back in the day—the physicality of Full Throttle, the freedom of the Monkey Island games, and the time warping of Day Of The Tentacle all coming to mind. So far, Broken Age hasn't even attempted to carve out something similar, though there's still time. I hope the second act has something clever in mind.

Whether that happens or not though, this was a good use of that Kickstarter money. Broken Age might not be close to the length and complexity of previous Tim Schafer games such as Grim Fandango and Full Throttle, or an instant classic like just about every Lucasarts adventure not a bad anagram of "Escape From Island Monkey," but it's still a fine reminder of them.

And really, that's what should have been expected. Those games were very much products of their time, and in specifically promising to be one rather than update the idea like Ron Gilbert attempted with The Cave, this was always going to be a celebration rather than a modern successor. As that premium-grade nostalgia trip though, it does a fine job. Like a reunion concert of a band you once loved, or a candy shop selling a particular brand of candy that brings to mind childhood summers of sun and sea and all that other cliched crap, Broken Age is a well deserved chance to remember the old days and realize that they're still closer than they might sometimes feel—even if the second part is a little further away than intended.

So he agrees that the game falls short, but it's ok, because it's totally impossible to make good games again.... so let's give fucking 86/100 to this, just 4 points less than the 90/100 they gave to Monkey Island 2.

Primorida, on the other hand, gets 55/100, because it didn't waste 3 million dollars on animations.

 

[otsego]

So he agrees that the game falls short, but it's ok, because it's totally impossible to make good games again....

I recently thought about picking up PC Gamer mags again, as I had a sizable collection a while back and would eagerly await the next issue so I (my parents) could buy it - yeah I was a kid.

Then I very recently had a strange dream where I was browsing a store and PC Gamer had reduced in size so much that it was now printed on newspaper and that was the new format.

People around here use free newspaper to cover wet benches while waiting for the bus.

That's a much better use for PC Gamer these days.

 

[Aeschylus]

I didn't actually read the review, that's pretty ridiculous .

If he thinks it is a nostalgia trip, then he never actually played any of the games he listed.

 

[SCO]

I just played the Blackwell bundle. How much better is it than this game?

 

[evdk]

I just played the Blackwell bundle. How much better is it than this game?

Substantially.

 

[Zed]

I finished the game in 3 hours.

The game had like 2 puzzles or something?
This was no more adventure game than something from Telltale.
I was hoping for a proper adventure game

Still, wasn't awful. Just disappointing and not at all what I wanted to back.

Good:
Music
V/A
(too bad none of those have a huge impact)

Neutral:
Story (whimsical and too childish, but at least unique)

Bad:
Puzzles and blockers.
Humor (chuckled... once).

 

[Aeschylus]

I just played the Blackwell bundle. How much better is it than this game?

I don't have the highest opinion of the Blackwell games (thought they were too easy, overly reliant on one sort of puzzle), but they were better in terms of depth, environment interaction, and characters.

 

[pakoito]

Act 1 finished. Must admit I didn't expect the plot twist at the end. Charming as fuck, great soundtrack, visuals are awesome, couple of visual bugs here and there but it's mmmkay.

Other than that it's not a very *ahem* challenging game. The boy's part is just ridiculously easy, and the girl one got me stuck just because an inventory lottery puzzle. Having replayed Torin's Passage full 999 points not so long ago (no guide, just childhood memories), this falls a bit short.

 

[evdk]

Act 1 finished. Must admit I didn't expect the plot twist at the end.

Have you led a completely sheltered life up to this point?

 

[pakoito]

In my defense I have been feverish for the past couple of weeks and I'm under the effect of heavy medication.

 

[Blackthorne]

I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but my favorite thing I've read about it on the internet today was here when some chucklehead said part two might be 15 hours long.

Heh. Keep dreaming, kid.


Bt

 

[Stabwound]

I like "8-bit mode" aka "there's something wrong with my videocard mode"

 

[Dexter]

Okay, I got to somewhat stay on the Neutral side I guess, for a moment there I thought I’d be entirely on the “shit sucks” side of things, but the part with the girl kind of got me more into the game (there were also a few jokes that didn’t miss entirely, the part with the stool was pretty funny I guess).

+ The better part is the one with the girl (better voice acting and overall story/characters/landscapes)
+ Background art and sound design are pretty good
+ Story is okay, some nice twists although I saw them coming

- IT’S A TABLET GAME through and through, some parts of it even unnecessary so, for instance the need to click on the leftmost lower corner to open the inventory all the time is annoying and unnecessary on the PC since there is actual mouse-over, they could have at least implemented it that it opens automatically if you hover over the left bottom corner of the screen.
- There is only one “interaction verb” for every object and using objects on things isn’t anywhere near a replacement of a proper verb wheel, there are very few hotspots to interact with and you get a lot of repeating dialogue when trying to use inventory objects with things and, there are also not many situational funny bits
- Definitely a case of animations/cut scenes over gameplay
- The game is rather childish as was feared
- There are still some bugs and things, had a few times when transitions were rather abrupt or even skipped through a line of dialogue, when dialogue subtitles were displayed outside my view, had a crash and some FPS drops/chuggy animations at times

I got stuck once (I didn’t realize an area goes to the left and right and missed an item rather early on that you need near the end of the game)

It’s not really bad or awful, but it certainly is no Monkey Island, DOTT, Full Throttle or Grim Fandango.
I played some other Adventures recently, including Deponia or a lot of the Wadjet Eye Adventures like Gemini Rue or Blackwell, even Emerald City Confidential not to talk about “The Walking Dead” if you count it as one that I found better, even what I’ve seen of STASIS so far looks to be better. I still need to play Primordia – don’t hit me :/

All said, it was still worth it to back the relatively low amount, even if for the documentary alone, because that part was brilliant as I’ve said several times. I’d view the game (so far) as a nice bonus, but not something I would have bought before a 75% Off or similar.

Required somewhere between 4-5 hours to finish.

I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but my favorite thing I've read about it on the internet today was here when some chucklehead said part two might be 15 hours long.

I'm thinking that was rather well hidden sarcasm.