Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure telling the stories of a young boy and girl leading parallel lives. Vella Tartine has been chosen by her village to be sacrificed to a terrible monster — but she decides to fight back. Meanwhile, Shay Volta is living a solitary life on a spaceship under the care of a motherly computer, but he wants to break free to lead adventures and do good in the world. Adventures ensue.
Puzzle solutions are always a few short minutes away and long gone are the genre's nonsensical conundrums that have plagued gamers for years.
Against all odds, Broken Age has proved to us that adventure games are all but dead, and that Double Fine and Tim Schafer still have the ability to surprise, astound, and humor us.
I don't regret contributing to this journey in the least, and frankly, I feel like the first half of Broken Age is very much worth experiencing. And that's how I'll rate it—as an excellent first half with a middling second half. What a shame.
Tim Schafer's warm, humanist adventure is a game of two halves, but its triumphs outweigh the flaws.
Despite the large wart that some of the more hardcore puzzles present, however, Broken Age remains a beautiful game, overall. Yes, it has its blemishes and frustrating personality flaws. Deep inside, though, Broken Age is a good guy — or girl — with its heart in the right place. Give it a shot if you like classic point-and-click adventure games.
