Broken Age: Act 1

 PC
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 361 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 261 out of 361
  2. Mixed: 48 out of 361
  3. Negative: 52 out of 361

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  1. Snordix
    Jan 29, 2014
    0
    God, I need to vent this. Broken Age is a REALLY bad game; bland as hell. Basically they **** up everything. Not only is it a bad, boring and shallow game, but it becomes glaringly obvious that it is a big step back from LucasArts games.

    There's no look/take/use/etc. Only left click and everything will be conveniently solved for you. The problem with this is that the game lacks the    God, I need to vent this. Broken Age is a REALLY bad game; bland as hell. Basically they **** up everything. Not only is it a bad, boring and shallow game, but it becomes glaringly obvious that it is a big step back from LucasArts games.

    There's no look/take/use/etc. Only left click and everything will be conveniently solved for you. The problem with this is that the game lacks the descriptions you would get by looking at stuff in the backgrounds; plus there hardly is anything to interact with. This sadly means that a big part of the charm - listening to humorous or moody phrases or one liners is absolutely gone.

    But the worst part is not the controls, or the easy as **** puzzles.

    As Ron Gilbert recently said in an interview with Tim Schafer, adventure games are really an excuse to look at pretty sceneries and listen/read good writing. Well, the game **** fails to deliver any of these.

    It's so goddamn bland and uninspired that you can almost taste the unmotivated design team.

    The sceneries are devoid of any real detail. Yes, they look pretty, in a gay-as-hell-21st-century-progressive-fairytale sort of way. There just isn't anything of interest to look at. Forget the interiors and computer huds from Full Throttle.
    Also, the characters don't show any **** emotion. The voice acting is the typical sedated crap you get nowadays. It's almost like the developers tell the actors to not put themselves into the characters, but instead make them all sound the same. Plus, as the expressions from the characters' faces change pretty much NOTHING, the game doesn't really put a definite emotion through.

    The game world is simply not interesting. Other thing that bugged me was when they zoomed the characters' faces in the dialogues; you can see the poor quality of the backgrounds up close: blurry, not very defined; you can pretty much tell they were made with photoshop in a hurry. I'm certain that if they had pixelated everything in the game it would all look sharper, and well, better.

    Music was pretty off too. At times it felt pointless and irrelevant. At others, strangely out of mood.

    And the writing is as bland as everything else. Not funny, not moody. This guy **** lost it. Forget the "nerd" 1990's-Simpsons humor you would find in DotT, you'll find none of that.

    What else can I say, I did not expect too much when I saw the first screens they released way back, expecting a sort of snuggle-feel-good game, but hell this was really mediocre. What the **** did they do all this time? Were did all the money go, to voice actors?    … Expand
  2. DeusXCom
    Oct 11, 2014
    4
    I didn't have any expectations, nor did I back this project, so I don't really care what they promised and didn't deliver, although if they really promised oldschool LucasArts style adventure, I understand the negative reactions. I recently played "The Dig", one of LucasArts old masterpieces and that is an adventure on completely different level of quality. Broken Age is more like a candy,I didn't have any expectations, nor did I back this project, so I don't really care what they promised and didn't deliver, although if they really promised oldschool LucasArts style adventure, I understand the negative reactions. I recently played "The Dig", one of LucasArts old masterpieces and that is an adventure on completely different level of quality. Broken Age is more like a candy, it's sweet and colorful, pretty to look at, but not much else, no depth. It seems like the target audience here is about 6-12 years old, both boys and girls. Nothing wrong with that, but it felt quite boring to me. It also uncovers the problem with the point and click gameplay itself, which is just not something enjoyable at all. Adventures always depend on good writing and story, is it here? Well, it tries, but the biggest problem is that they delivered just the half of it and that's why I must go down with my score. Why are you releasing a game that is only halfway done? I finished this in under 4 hours and it's obviously cut in the middle. Is it ok nowdays to release games when they are halfway unfinished? I don't remember any old adventures being released like this. This is unacceptable, release your games when they are done, 100% finished and bug free, I'm getting sick of developers and publishers releasing these half-products. I would actually want to know how the story continues now, but in months, when (IF) they release the second part I won't care anymore. Disappointed. 4/10… Expand
  3. PoofyPoof
    Jul 23, 2014
    4
    First time reviewer here, but as a backer for the Kickstarter campaign for this, I am very upset with Double Fine with this "game." Over 3 Million bucks and this is what they have to show for it? "Broken Age Act 1" is not what I expected from Double Fine.

    The story, I'll admit is cute, maybe even good. But it's also only half of a story, so I can't even give a full judgment on the    First time reviewer here, but as a backer for the Kickstarter campaign for this, I am very upset with Double Fine with this "game." Over 3 Million bucks and this is what they have to show for it? "Broken Age Act 1" is not what I expected from Double Fine.

    The story, I'll admit is cute, maybe even good. But it's also only half of a story, so I can't even give a full judgment on the story. The cliffhanger also doesn't help. It would help if the game was fun. Well, for me it really wasn't. I kept wanting for it to get better, then it was over before ever getting there! I love a good point & click adventure, and I've been there since the time "The 7th Guest" and "Myst" were released, so I'm no stranger to the genre. Considering new games in the genre that have popped up lately (especially "The Walking Dead" series) I was hoping for at least some of these elements to come through amidst the old-school style gameplaly. Well, that didn't happen. This is literally a re-skin of "Dark Seed," a 20+ year old point & click game. Double Fine did nothing at all to add some new perspectives/ideas/game mechanics whatsoever. It's just "Dark Seed" with a G-rating, except not as interesting, and only half-of-a-game.

    While the art style is pretty, I excepted that 3 million bucks would bring more beauty, more movement, and animation to the visual style. We don't even get that. The music, however, is beautiful and I have nothing that I can say that could possibly be bad about the soundtrack. Truly master quality music.

    Extras? Well, if you count that 8-hour documentary that you can download (which is about 3 times longer than the "game" itself) the I guess that's something. But even that documentary is fully of ego. Of the 8 hours of documentary, about 85-90% is comprised of closeups of Tim Schafer's face. Not even exaggerating. The first shot in the documentary is insulting to unhappy donators as well. Even though the money is fake that they're throwing around on him, it pisses me off that it reminds me that this was a Kickstarter campaign that made 3 million+.

    Shame on me for donating $100. I really thought that considering Double Fine's past, that they would make a masterpiece of a point & click adventure that would give us something different from the crowd of games out there. And shame on you, Double Fine, for making this unimpressive half-of-a-game. You won't find me backing your projects anymore until you make good games again (if even then). It seems like you spent $80,000 building the actual game; $300,000 on a 8-hour documentary to stroke Tim Schafer's own ego; and pocketed the remaining millions. This is a 4 out of 10. And that's because I'm only giving credit to some of the assets that were good.    … Expand
  4. Yuusou
    Feb 9, 2014
    4
    I don't know why but this game isn't showing its value with 3 million dollars of development costs. I'm happy to be a backer of the lower class and didn't pay more than it was needed to get the game. The game is not telling a good or even deep story so far, there's no riddle in this game (even the Riddle of Yorn is not a real riddle) and all the time I get the feeling that I may be notI don't know why but this game isn't showing its value with 3 million dollars of development costs. I'm happy to be a backer of the lower class and didn't pay more than it was needed to get the game. The game is not telling a good or even deep story so far, there's no riddle in this game (even the Riddle of Yorn is not a real riddle) and all the time I get the feeling that I may be not dumb enough to find it challenging. The coming-of-age approach gives me the feeling that it's more like a high school movie story but the settings have been changed so it's not that obvious for the gamer. Seriously: The hints of NPCs are way too obvious, you have about 4 real item-in-inventory combinations, the rest is giving and taking items to / from NPCs and I don't like it if the last answer in a dialogue option is either the exit (which is okay) or the solution (which is not okay). Also the pixel hunting was put to the next level. You have no descriptions of what you're point at, you can't look at, pull, push, pick up or talk to things. No, there's only the developers' pre-defined one or two interactions with the object and that's it.

    Some dialogues are even below the belt (if you know what I mean and I wonder if anybody noticed). It is okay if it would fit the graphical style or general humor, but since there's not much of a humor, these jokes are in some way inappropriate. A Brütal Legend could've used one or another joke way better. The animations look so damn cheap, they're sometimes not even smooth. Even a slow-motion scene looked like my GTX 760 couldn't handle it but my graphics card wasn't challenged at any time. Even Prince of Persia (the original blond white version) had smoother character animations. There are no visible facial expressions, I've never seen real fear in the face of a character, even sadness was not a part of it. A face consists of more than just eyes, eyebrows and mouth. It's also questionable why some of the voice actors put so much emphasis in their voice while the facial expression doesn't fit to it at all. It doesn't make sense if someone is yelling but looks like he's talking to me in a normal way. This isn't the 90s, guys.

    The only good thing is Peter McConnell. Thank you Peter for delivering such a beautiful soundtrack. That's why I go for 4 points, cos I would've given the game a 2 or 1. Even Telltale Games now offer better adventures for the same price but way deeper story for ADULTS, a majority of original Lucasfilm Games title players.

    I can wait for Act 2. I can wait for it forever.    … Expand
  5. artemonster
    May 12, 2014
    3
    This game delivers a very good content, but it is VERY overpriced (too short for such amount of money). Another games of this genre can offer much more for this price tag (hello,Daedalic). Oh, and one more thing: I've played Shay's storyline at the end and it is completely not interesting, and even repelling. to "play along" the story of "saving creatures", when you got it figured out immediately.
  6. failwhale10
    May 3, 2014
    1
    Remember when you played Myst, RIven, Monkey Island, or Grim Fandango? Remember the weeks and weeks of exciting puzzles to solve, and rich story and plot? Broken Age isn't even 1/100th of that. For $25 the game takes about 3 hours to solve. The artwork is fantastic, but the story and game are terrible. Don't waste your money like I did. Big disappointment.
  7. sparriskrigaren
    Jan 30, 2014
    4
    This is the most disappointing game in like 20 years, no kidding. I backed this game with $100, believing it was going to be old-school .. well .. it's not. It's very modern and it's for modern gamers who don't like to get stuck or having to use their brains. Just clickety-click and it's over, no challenge, no thinking - super easy. Uninspired and uninteresting story, horrible art-style (IThis is the most disappointing game in like 20 years, no kidding. I backed this game with $100, believing it was going to be old-school .. well .. it's not. It's very modern and it's for modern gamers who don't like to get stuck or having to use their brains. Just clickety-click and it's over, no challenge, no thinking - super easy. Uninspired and uninteresting story, horrible art-style (I know, it's a matter of taste), short. I know it's only act 1, but it's still A LOT shorter than just about any adventure game I've played. There are like two commands and you just use one mouse button.. seriously? I'm not going to give this a 0 though, since it's not THAT bad, it's just very mediocre and nothing special at all. I really regret backing this and I would never pay money for this game, had I known this is what it's like. I feel so ripped of, they used $3.4 million dollars for THIS? Bland, bland bland. The music is very forgettable, and there's just so little to do and interact with!… Expand
  8. All_Must_Burn
    Jan 29, 2014
    1
    Terrible game.

    Puzzles are WAY too easy. Graphics are sub-par, it looks like a glorified Flash game. Everything feels floaty, and textures are rock-bottom quality (whenever the game zooms in they get terribly blurry) Artistic design is bland and generic, nothing new here though it sure as hell appeals to the hipster demographic. Music is non-existent. It plays in the background    Terrible game.

    Puzzles are WAY too easy.

    Graphics are sub-par, it looks like a glorified Flash game. Everything feels floaty, and textures are rock-bottom quality (whenever the game zooms in they get terribly blurry)

    Artistic design is bland and generic, nothing new here though it sure as hell appeals to the hipster demographic.

    Music is non-existent. It plays in the background and stays there, thankfully I guess. It's not moody, and feels like it was added as an afterthought.

    The reason I gave it a 1 is because you can install Full Throttle, or whatever, Monkey Island 2, and get a much better experience.

    In fact, I believe the only reason this game is getting reviews is either due to two things: apologetic buyers who don't want to feel bad for having wasted their money and hopes; and they haven't played a single classic point-and-click adventure game in their lives.    … Expand
  9. horst81230
    Nov 24, 2014
    1
    This game is a trainwreck.

    It got kickstarted with 3,3 million dollars, so the required budget was easily met with a nice little additional pre-sale profit for Tim Schafer. In addition to that, the price tag for this game was $25 and that sure isn't cheap for an adventure game. So keeping all this in mind, here is everything that's wrong with this game: - No McGuffin. What am I    This game is a trainwreck.

    It got kickstarted with 3,3 million dollars, so the required budget was easily met with a nice little additional pre-sale profit for Tim Schafer. In addition to that, the price tag for this game was $25 and that sure isn't cheap for an adventure game.

    So keeping all this in mind, here is everything that's wrong with this game:

    - No McGuffin. What am I even doing in this game? And why? There is no motivation whatsoever to keep playing this game. The storytelling is really really bad.

    - Boring dialogs. Really, boring, with no real information driving the story. And you can't just read and skip through single lines (only the whole dialog), you have to wait and listen. Oh no ... wait... there are actually 5 clever lines in this game about a stool.

    - Bad mechanics. There are fast-travel points to quickly switch rooms, unfortunately most of them are only accessible after traveling through half of the current room first.

    - Bad "puzzles". I actually shouldn't call them puzzles, they are an insult to adventure gamers. This game is suitable for 6 year olds at best.

    - 3h of gameplay. This is REALLY REALLY bad, especially considering that this game is already stretched with useless dialogs and time consuming travel.

    - And this was only Act1 with no Act2 in sight. Throughout the story you don't know what you're doing and even in the end you only get a bad "cliffhanger" with NO explanation. Do you know how good cliffhangers look like? Monkey Island 2 did it right.

    I would probably rate this game an 8, if it was clearly labeled "for children" and priced at $5.    … Expand
  10. thesalon
    Oct 14, 2014
    0
    $100 Kickstarter backer here. Big mistake. Coming up on 3 years now, the documentary and all communication has ceased, and no game in sight. I have to say, while the first half was somewhat amusing, it was a huge step BACKWARDS in adventure gaming mechanics and gameplay. Single click does everything. Puzzles clearly dumbed down for an audience that doesn't play adventure game as much.$100 Kickstarter backer here. Big mistake. Coming up on 3 years now, the documentary and all communication has ceased, and no game in sight. I have to say, while the first half was somewhat amusing, it was a huge step BACKWARDS in adventure gaming mechanics and gameplay. Single click does everything. Puzzles clearly dumbed down for an audience that doesn't play adventure game as much. Really bad atmosphere in a lot of the scenes, somewhat boring, even. All in all, this game was a huge letdown, and it they won't even release the 2nd half and just let it die. Well, I learned my lesson. Don't back DoubleFine games until they are fully released. Seeing as how they said they run out of the money they asked for and then-some just for the 1st half (10x more money then they asked for in the kickstarter) I am not holding my breath regarding part 2.… Expand
  11. conorm185
    Mar 5, 2015
    0
    50% completed. 100% crap.
    You would think with something like 8 times the original kickstarter goal they could complete the game they promised. Sadly, TS is **** at managing his company. Plenty of money to throw parties though.
  12. hw75
    Dec 24, 2014
    0
    This game was a real joke. Nice style and could have been a nice game, but this is just like 1/10th of what an adventure game should be, at least. Takes you 2 hours to finish, puzzles are super easy. I don't understand where those good reviews come from, having in mind that this title is sold at full price. Don't recommend at all, maybe if it was 2 bucks, but not more.
  13. G_Freeman
    Jan 16, 2015
    4
    I'm sorry to say the game I gleefully backed isn't any good. The puzzles are simple, and it's very short. But the main problem for me is it's just so boring and laboured.

    I never came close to laughing out loud like the Monkey Island games; instead it's all heavy handed metaphors and forced quirkiness. It's like expecting a meaningful but deranged and hilarious act by Louis CK, and    I'm sorry to say the game I gleefully backed isn't any good. The puzzles are simple, and it's very short. But the main problem for me is it's just so boring and laboured.

    I never came close to laughing out loud like the Monkey Island games; instead it's all heavy handed metaphors and forced quirkiness. It's like expecting a meaningful but deranged and hilarious act by Louis CK, and getting a bloody Wes Anderson movie. I'm not sure I'll even bother with the 2nd half when it's eventually pushed out.

    And now I mention the delays and how fraught the project is; you've lost me as a backer for future projects. Again, sorry Double Fine.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

49
#49 Best PC Game of 2014
69
#69 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
82

Generally favorable reviews - based on 64 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 54 out of 64
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 64
  3. Negative: 0 out of 64
  1. RPG Fan
    Apr 14, 2014
    90
    A game that will resonate with you and make you nostalgic for something that you might not even remember forgetting.
    Read full review
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Apr 7, 2014
    80
    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]
  3. Hyper Magazine
    Mar 9, 2014
    70
    Well written and charming but Broken Age plays it too safe to be particularly memorable. [Apr 2014, p.67]
See all critic reviews »