Broken Age: Act 1

An absolute joy of an adventure. It’s filled with unforgettable characters, incredible puzzles, and one of the most gorgeous worlds you’ll find in games. It culminates with an effective cliffhanger that has me counting the days until I can finish Vella and Shay’s adventure in Act 2.

A game that will resonate with you and make you nostalgic for something that you might not even remember forgetting.

It's a shame, Broken Age seems to have been aimed at a more casual gamer whereas most of its backers are hardcore adventure game fans.

An adventure you must play. And read. And listen to. And have a good time with it.

This game could have come out ten years ago, and it would have been great then, but it's great now too. That's the very definition of timeless.

Regardless, the experience of Act 1 is enough to recommend outright — don’t hesitate to add this title to your library.

Broken Age tells a concise, clever story and, more importantly, knows exactly where to leave off. There’s a sense of accomplishment and closure in the final moments of Act 1, but it still leaves you itching to know what’s coming next.

Broken Age may be unfinished, but it's also delightful, beautiful, utterly charming and you really should play it right this second.

Broken Age is the graphical adventure that we all have been waiting for the last 15 years. A great story with a great cast, pictured with stunning visual style, makes us wait eagerly for the Act 2.

I enjoyed my time with Broken Age. I found the story to be compelling, and I kept coming back to play the game in much the same way I keep making time to read another chapter in a book that's hard to put down.

The Broken Age will win you over in minutes, and what it lacks in length or difficulty it makes up for in pure personality.

There may not be much actual “game” in Broken Age Act 1, but as a window into two interesting and charming adventures it easily fulfills the Kickstarter promise.

I cannot wait for the [free!] update that will bring on Act 2. I also cannot wait to see if Broken Age ushers in a new era of the point-and-click genre.

A shorter first act than is ideal, but Broken Age's world is not to be missed. [March 2014, p.78]

A great graphical adventure, modern and old school at the same time, beautifully written and with such incredible style and personality. But if you're looking for high difficulty puzzles, look elsewhere.

Broken Age looks, sounds and plays so great that you can recommend it to anyone.

The adventure genre is not dead! Brilliant voice acting, humorous dialogue and a different approach on graphics, Broken Age is bound to be a classic among adventure gamers.

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.

Tim Schafer’s Kickstarter game is finally here and it does not disappoint. After finishing Broken Age I spent an hour coming up with theories on how the story will unfold in the second act – and that is the best recommendation. [03/2014, p.70]

Double Fine has produced a high-quality game of decent length with terrific audio and visual production and an engaging, twist-filled and idea-laden story read by an outstanding cast. Look no further for evidence of its compelling nature than the strength of your yearning for the concluding act to be delivered as quickly as possible.

Double Fine at its best. Too bad you can complete this first branch of the story in just 4 hours.

Broken Age - Act I snaps closed just as things are heating up with a twist that I thought I'd figured out but then there's another twist that has me anxious for Part II. I haven't felt this kind of anticipation since LOST — I need to see what happens next!

The standard-bearer for Kickstarter funding does not disappoint, Double Fine providing us a game within a traditional genre that manages to feel both fresh and significant.

This is not Grim Fandango, not Full Throttle, not Monkey Island. This is Double Fine at its best, with a Point & Click adventure that mixes the magic from those SCUMM masterpieces of the genre and the unique visuals of Tim Schafer's imagination and studio. Maybe it's short and the decision to break the game into two Acts is not the best for the game due to its low difficulty, but Broken Age is what it is: A journey that evokes that magic we thought was lost.

Not exactly difficult when it comes to puzzles, but still permeated by the same magic we used to find in the great point-and-click adventures of old. Its only problem, really, it's that you'll be left wanting for more. DESPERATELY wanting for more.

For any fan of classic adventure games, playing Broken Age will be like wrapping yourself in a big, comfy blanket made of pointing, clicking, and a whole lot of laughs.

Broken Age is the best venue I’ve seen for Double Fine’s twisted sensibilities in a long time. They’ve crafted two unique worlds, ­filling them both with just enough silliness to be fun without overwhelming the characters and their ultimately touching journeys.

We expected Tim Schafer to deliver the unique and we weren't wrong. Broken Age stands on the threshold of a classic adventure and a tablet game while retaining a lot of soul. [Issue #239]

There’s an adherence to old design tropes throughout much of Broken Age, but there’s also a yearning to find a way to tell this fun story.

This first act of Broken Age is easily worth your time for the fantastic writing and brilliant presentation alone, but here’s hoping they can really go wild with interesting puzzles and challenges in the forthcoming second act.

It's hard to recognize Schafer in the game, he is more mature now, and so are we. This is noticeable on each interaction, each dialogue, and more importantly, in the way the game uses humor, the obviousness and the absurd to make a stand, through the eyes of two characters designed with heart.

Act 1 of Broken Age is a point and click adventure game in heart and soul, but doesn’t reach the heights of the LucasArts games of old. The game is beautiful and tells a great story; a snack to drift off to during these dark and dank days.

In some ways it’s surprising that - despite being traditional - it doesn’t feel like a Lucasarts game. That’s likely what backers wanted, and whilst those elements are there, this is a Double Fine game to the final letter. It’s gentle, loving, and fun; not a Grim Fandango rehash, but the gaming equivalent of a petting a kitten. If your eyes are not welling up with sheer joy at such a thought, then perhaps Broken Age is not for you.

The puzzles, while never exactly difficult, are for the most part clever and satisfying. But just as Vella finds a way to confront the maiden-eating monster, and just as Shay starts to unravel the truth behind his space-faring daycare, and just as we start to see how these two wildly different worlds might be connected… boom, the first act comes to an abrupt end.

Backers will get exactly what they wanted: a beautiful, funny and well-written adventure game that feels like LucasArts. This is just the first act and it's already difficult and painful to wait for the conclusion to the story of Vella and Shay.

The lack of challenge and a dearth of branching dialogue (sorry – these dialogue trees resemble bamboo shafts) disappoint, yes, but Broken Age always elicits a smile and a desire to continue.

Worthy for its story and world, Broken Age could use more interactivity and more challenging puzzles in Part 2.

Broken Age: Act 1 is an amusing game, but it’s not a great game, and it’s a little disappointing given its pedigree. It has all the charm and personality in the world, but the puzzles are so lukewarm and obvious that they drag down everything with them.

This is only Act 1, of course, as an agonising cliffhanger reminds us, and as such this can only be regarded as a very promising start.

I can't say if Broken Age is all that you hoped it would be. I for one found that this first act juggles its serious core story, humor and absurdities splendidly. My backer dollars seem very well invested, indeed.

Whimsical, witty, and beautiful: this is a sumptuous adventure with all of Double Fine's usual care and attention lovingly lavished throughout.

Apart from the ending of course, which I’m thinking about a lot. Broken Age: Act 1 is a wonderful piece of work, well worth the time and money put into it, an excellent piece of videogame fiction, but it just needs some work being an actual videogame.

Arguably the biggest Kickstarter story sticks its first landing. Broken Age is a cute, colorful tale about growing up. While the 'game' part of the experience is pretty straightforward - like an old-school adventure game - the world is full of charming and unique characters. Sit back, figure out some puzzles, and experience the wonderful little tale that Double Fine has crafted.

If it does away with verb-based actions, it's in the hopes of emphasizing the joys of exploring these two worlds rather than the frustrations of a pixel hunt.

It has a beautiful world populated by a colorful cast of characters and an alluring mystery that doesn’t unfold in the way you expect it to. This is Double Fine Productions at its finest, and it’s on track to finish strong with Act 2.

Of course, that is assuming the second act can satisfactorily tie everything together. Act 1, if played at a relaxed pace while exploring every dialog possibility, is about a three-hour adventure.

It feels more like an interactive cartoon than a classic Lucasarts game, but providing you’re aware of that Broken Age delivers a jolly nice time. It’s just lovely. That shouldn’t be enough, but in this case – it really is.

Act One of Broken Age starts off strong, with an incredibly well-written storyline that props up some occasionally weak puzzle work. Let's hope Double Fine can follow through with Act Two when it arrives later this year.

Broken Age: Act 1 is all about the slow build. Slow isn't boring, however, and a wonderful job is done of carefully constructing the pace while keeping the audience amused. It's a strong start that concludes in a way that makes me desperate for more.

Double Fine’s adventure is confident and charming, the studio feeling its way to a comfortable mid-point between the desires of adventure-game fans and its own motivation to move the genre forward – even if only by a small increment.

When does this game start in earnest? The puzzles are so easy and the story so superficial that it feels like an intro to a game - until die credits roll. It's fun, but lacking substance.

The first chapter is a charming adventure game, featuring a short, but interesting story, great voice actors and a beautiful soundtrack. The puzzles however are too simplistic and most of the side characters get brushed aside too soon. It's still fun, for sure, and some of these issues might be fixed in the second chapter, but so far Broken Age is not the classic we hoped for.

Almost 25 years after The Secret of Monkey Island, Tim Schafer proves that point'n click games are still very lively. Even if it's not completely finished, Broken Age deserves his successful campaign on Kickstarter. We can only hope that the second part of the journey, in April, will be as good as this one. If it could resolve some technical problems and level up the challenge, it could be really great.

A charming first act that gives you an outlook into interesting storylines. But since puzzles are too easy and it is rather short all the hopes lie on the conclusion.

Well written and charming but Broken Age plays it too safe to be particularly memorable. [Apr 2014, p.67]

Broken Age is in many ways an amazing adventure. It offers a unique style and has dialogues which in most cases are of very high class. Unfortunately, the story fails to engage to the point that you have to play on, which is a problem considering that this is only the first of two parts. In combination with a gameplay mechanic suffering from lack of new ideas, the game fails to climb higher on the rating scale. But for the genre buff, there is no reason to keep the pennies.

Clever, funny, and thought-provoking, but even without the weight of expectations this is a surprisingly insubstantial and ephemeral experience.

Perhaps when Broken Age is complete, it’ll feel like a stronger offering — it was never meant to be divided in half anyway, and the forced split feels like it comes just as the game finally hits a comfortable stride. But for a game about young people striking out on their own, made by a developer that set out to gain the financial freedom to do exactly what it wanted, Broken Age feels like it plays it safe; a cushy adventure game with some heart, but absent any sharp edges.

Beautiful art style, well rounded characters, familiar humour, and heart. At first glance, Broken Age is a visually stunning, polished homage to the adventure games of the past. But it’s over all too quickly, without enough challenges to satisfy, or enough innovations to drive the genre forward.

Broken Age does a fine job of creating an outlandish world populated by interesting characters, but is let-down somewhat by its core gameplay.

Pleasant but undemanding, gorgeous but lacking in depth - fans will be forgiven for expecting something a little more chewy, a little more experimental, from a developer who made his name by turning adventure games upside down. Here's hoping Act 2 builds some gameplay muscle to go with the supermodel looks.

The narration is excellent and the presentation very charming, but the puzzles are not even moderately challenging. A good adventure, just not the masterpiece everyone was waiting for.