Broken Age: Act 2

 PC
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 34
  3. Negative: 3 out of 34
  1. 4P.de
    Apr 30, 2015
    74
    While the puzzles are challenging and a clear improvement on act 1, the humor as well as the storytelling are below Schafer standards.
  2. PLAY! Zine
    Jun 29, 2015
    70
    As a whole, Broken Age is a must-play for any fan of point-and-click adventures. However it is pretty obvious that the game is forcibly split into two acts and if you have waited for a whole year to see the conclusion of the game’s story, you’re probably going to end up disappointed.
  3. games(TM)
    Jun 1, 2015
    70
    It’s anticlimactic, but perhaps intentionally so. After all, it’s the journey that counts, and both Vella and Shay have come a long way from where they started. Double Fine has proven its honed and tested skills in this genre again, but we can’t help but feel that there was more it could do.
  5. Level7.nu
    May 18, 2015
    70
    Broken Age is a polished and charming addition to a forgotten genre. Even though the puzzles and story could have been a bit better, especially during the second part of the game, the stunning environments and delightful characters makes it a journey well worth taking. Just do not expect any revolutionary elements.
  6. Eurogamer Italy
    May 4, 2015
    70
    Broken Age Act 2 is like a rollercoaster: exhilarating during its best moments, but it doesn’t last enough and stops abruptly. Enjoyable, but not the classic we were hoping for.
  7. Hardcore Gamer
    Apr 30, 2015
    70
    Like Broken Sword 5, Broken Age will be a lot better for anyone who picks it up from now on, but that can’t save this episode from being heavily marked down.
  8. CGMagazine
    Apr 30, 2015
    70
    At worst, it’s a cautionary tale about getting too much money and getting too ambitious with that money. At best, it’s a solid adventure title with wonderful visuals and great characters mixed in with a few bad puzzles and story issues.
  9. TheSixthAxis
    Apr 29, 2015
    70
    After such a long wait, it’s a shame to see that Broken Age’s second act, while continually beautiful and charming and with much more challenging puzzles, doesn’t quite manage to live up to the promise from the end of the first.
  10. GameTrailers
    Apr 28, 2015
    70
    Act two may not capitalize on the potential of act one, but there are still plenty of moments that can bring a smile to your face or cause you to laugh-out-loud.
  11. Cheat Code Central
    May 3, 2015
    68
    Broken Age: Act 2 may stumble a bit trying to be something it isn’t, but what it is, is still gorgeous and enthralling, and I’ll put up with some frustrating puzzles and backtracking for that.
  12. Games.cz
    May 25, 2015
    60
    The second part of The Broken Age is broken. Everything is in its place, but the charm and meaningfulness of the story are lost.
  13. Gameplanet
    May 11, 2015
    60
    The second act of Broken Age addresses the difficulty concerns of the first, but revisits too many familiar locations, and fails to up the ante or tie things up in a satisfying way.
  14. Everyeye.it
    Apr 29, 2015
    60
    This second part should've transported graphic adventures fans back in the days of old. Sadly, it practically wastes all the good premises of the prologue. Most of the puzzles don't make much sense, and you'll be mostly exploring areas that you already know. Also the narrative looses momentum, and seems to forget from where it all started.
  15. GameSpot
    Apr 27, 2015
    60
    The moments when a solution just makes you say "Really?" in a frustrated tone and when you wander seemingly without direction occur often enough to rob Broken Age of a sad amount of its magic.
  16. PCWorld
    Jan 20, 2016
    50
    Broken Age's first act was mediocre but had potential. Potential that its conclusion squanders.
  17. USgamer
    May 4, 2015
    50
    Together, Broken Age Acts 1 and 2 make a solid game that players will look back on fondly. Unfortunately, the second act doesn't live up to the promise of the first. Themes are dropped, puzzles seem a bit more obtuse, and the environments feel like a retread of the first act.
This publication does not provide a score for their reviews.
This publication has not posted a final review score yet.
These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation.

In Progress & Unscored

?
  1. Ars Technica
    Dec 9, 2015
    Ultimately, there's more meat on the second act's puzzle bones, especially due to a memorable final-blast puzzle, and while the game's ending was more of a whimper than a bang—and it included some cockamamie ways to tie up the plot's loose ends—I appreciated the restraint on the writers' part to not force melodrama or melancholy on what eventually transpired.

Awards & Rankings

97
#97 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 145 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 64 out of 145
  2. Mixed: 37 out of 145
  3. Negative: 44 out of 145
  1. samuraigaiden
    May 2, 2015
    0
    A betrayal of customers and fans in every way. The Kickstarter said they were making a LucasArts style Point & Click Adventure game. This isA betrayal of customers and fans in every way. The Kickstarter said they were making a LucasArts style Point & Click Adventure game. This is not that, in any way. So they made people wait a year and a half for basically rehashed animations and artwork, a few new lines of dialogue and little else? Sorry, DoubleFine, but I feel cheated and I don't intend to support your products anymore. It's obvious that the Kickstarter money has been redirected towards other things, like paying bills, and not making the game people paid for.

    Since the 'Adventure game' kickstarter, DoubleFine has released an unfinished game (Spacebase DF9), a bad game (Hack and Slash), and an absolute mediocre disappointment (BrokenAge). Does anyone seriously expect Massive Chalice to be any good?

    In the meantime, they also released Costume Quest 2, published by Midnight City (who went bankrupt in the process). Nice! I hope people realize there is nothing to be expected from Tim Schafer. He used to be a great game designer, now he is just a washed up hack who can't produce a decent game and scams his fans to keep his business afloat.    … Full Review »
  2. Fuz
    Apr 28, 2015
    7
    Finally, after a year, we have the last part of Broken Age.
    It improves on the first part but it's just a more of the same. If you didn't    Finally, after a year, we have the last part of Broken Age.
    It improves on the first part but it's just a more of the same. If you didn't like the first act, you won't like this either.
    First of all: it's longer than act one. Still not huge, but the two acts together (after all, it's a single game) have a more than decent duration for this sort of games.
    The puzzles are now harder and more convoluted than the previous chapter, but they're still on the easy side for experienced adventurers. They're always logical (although sometimes a bit of a twisted logic) and satisfying to solve.
    The art is amazing: both the graphics and the music are really beautiful, charming and have a sort of lighthearted, childlike, relaxing property on them. Absolutely lovely.
    The voices are fantastic too. The quality of the voice acting is absolutely top notch.
    The story is also good, but considering the first act premises could have been something more. I was kinda expecting a second, hidden, layer of narration, some sort of subtext about the whole story, and I was wrong.
    The ending is also kinda disappointing, I personally would have liked to explore Loruna and know more about it. Maybe we'll get to in a sequel.
    And besides Loruna, the world is pretty interesting and I think it has much potential, also thanks to the art style: I want to explore more of it and know more about it, it's just beautiful. Too bad the low number of hotspots keeps it from being more detailed. Hotspots are mostly used for puzzles, whereas in other adventure games where used to give some nice joke or interesting details about the locations and they did add a lot of depht. Also, most of the locations are straight from the first game (with a twist, often): you just revisit them with the other character, so there's not a lot of variety. Shame.
    I would give it a nine, but I'll give it -2 points for the bad interface designed for tablets and for the low number of hot spots.
    All in all, a very good adventure game from DF: I just finished it and I want more.    … Full Review »
  3. Nert
    May 4, 2015
    3
    Supposedly the promised return to the classic adventure genre of yore.. Couldn't have failed much harder than it did.

    The two acts are    Supposedly the promised return to the classic adventure genre of yore.. Couldn't have failed much harder than it did.

    The two acts are poorly stitched together, the story isn't coherent and makes no sense on the small or grand scale. Character development is nil, revelations that should be mind-breaking are shrugged off with a "meh" time and time again. The ending doesn't even solve any of the problems!

    Puzzles in act 1 are simplistic to the point of insulting, in act 2 they went the other way and just made them so vague and frustrating that they halted the entire game, not complex or difficult or requiring a bit of lateral thinking, just vague and goal-less. One could even get into an impossible glitched state, I ran into that one.

    You can get dialogue options for things you've never seen, and many puzzles require the two characters to share knowledge they never can. One requires you to do the exact opposite of what all the signs tell you, or what common sense tells you, and be patient enough for the solution to happen by itself with no indication anywhere that it would, while another relies entirely on metagaming - you can only work out the answer because of the limitations of the game, not because the solution is in the setting.

    Long story short, this is not the game we backed. We backed a promise for an old-school adventure game, the type we grew up with and wouldn't see again without a paid-up-front venture like this kickstarter, and we got a cookie-cutter click-to-continue mess with a terribly written story, late. and massively over budget.    … Full Review »
See all user reviews »