Broken Age: Review

There were always legendary teams like Lucasarts or Telltale Games. But along with the teams in this very adventure generation, there have always been significant personalities who tend to freely migrate from the studio to the studio, create their own groups and generally teach all sorts of disgraces.

Take, for example, Tim Shaifer (TIM SCHAFER). Former „resident“ Lucasarts, Giving the world Grim Fandango And Full Throttle, later created his own studio called Double Fine and managed to „inherit“ with such noticeable projects as Brutal Legend And Psychonauts.

However, it seems that any, even the most successful gurus of the industry, from time to time, would like to return to the origins. Okay, maybe not to anyone, but to many. So Sheifer I decided to shake with old bones and release Adventure, combining the traditions of the Golden Age Point-And-Click and some kind of freshly.

If earlier you did not have enough examples to understand what an idyllic picture is, then here they are. That is, he. That is, it.

In any incomprehensible situation, arrange a sacrifice

The game tells two not interconnected stories. At first glance not related, but we understand that everything cannot be so simple! We are allowed at any time to freely switch between the heroes, getting from the world of fantasy into the world of technogenic-cosmic and vice versa.

Both characters, whose fate is offered to us to trace, are teenagers. The girl Vella comes from a small village of bakers, where a girl’s holiday is held annually – an event providing for human sacrifices to please a monster named Chotra. Our heroine was very lucky: she became a candidate for eating. Great honor, universal congratulations, a sweet table and other attributes of a successful one, although they remain a short life in the past, when Velle manage to avoid a monster’s belly, while providing a bunch of new problems for herself.

At this very time on a spaceship, a boy Shai is slowly growing. His only company is a computer endowed with obvious maternal features. The miracle of technology calls the boy a son, protects in every possible way and tries to the best of its strength to create home comfort on the ship – on the one hand. On the other, to ensure a shai feeling of their own need and along the way to entertain. Therefore, the guy performs “toy” missions, saving small woolen men from all nonsense – from an avalanche of ice cream, for example. But the set of tasks does not change from time to time, and they were designed initially not for a teenager, but for a child of about five years old. Therefore, when Shau almost accidentally manages to break out of the daily routine and meet the mysterious Marek, who promised him real missions to save defenseless creatures, the boy is delighted.

The girl on the pole is very sad – the terrible monster refused to eat it. It’s a shame to be unnecessary even a monster! Even as a lunch.

Go to freedom

Indeed, there is no connection between two stories, is it so? However, if you look closer to them, it is easy to notice that there is a semantic roll call here. Both – both the boy and the girl – grow in the atmosphere of lies and absurdity. Both try to break out of the vicious circle in which they got. So, Vella from the very beginning asks everyone in a row – his relatives, the manager of the holiday, from the Narodets from the neighboring village: “Why can’t you just kill the monster instead of feeding it with people?»Naturally, in response, everyone only twists a finger at the temple. How can you attack such a noble creature that spares the cities and weights, does not ruin them, as before, but is content with only small human sacrifice once a year?

Just as the network of the absurd logic of the inhabitants of her world oppresses, oppressed by the endless invisible boundaries set by his caring “mother”. The boy is not even allowed to walk around the ship for his pleasure: he must clearly adhere to the schedule once and for all once and for all. Hinges-at such a time, climb-in the Syakoy. For breakfast – flakes, always flakes, let him give a mocking opportunity to choose from which box this uncomplicated food will be poured today. The contents of the boxes are exactly the same, like the “missions”, which the poor prisoner has to perform every day. It is not surprising that the arrival of Marek, which helps to get away from the attention of the ubiquitous computer, the Shai perceives as a long -awaited liberation.

That’s just whether the liberation? Or a new trap? IN Broken Age It’s not easy with this. All the efforts of the heroes aimed at feeling free, constantly rest against the logic of the world itself in which they live. It seems that this is one of the main ideas of adventure. And from here – the taste of mild hopelessness, which arises, despite the general humorous style of dialogs.

Healthy snoring – evidence of mental harmony. Or at least a hearty meal before going to bed. Great Guru clearly lives in harmony with himself. And it is good at a good time.

Goodbye, coin

Game mechanics Broken Age -This is a typical, classic Point-And-Click model. We go wherever we go, interact with everything that interacts with. Traditional “Examine” and “use” buttons have gone the past, as well as the legendary “coin” with options for actions. Tim Shaifer keeps up with the latest trends in adventure and reduces all manipulations with objects or characters to one single click.

The tasks that you have to cope with are simple and unpretentious. In most cases, it is enough just to carefully walk along a rather voluminous location to understand what to do. There are usually no “unnecessary” items in the inventory: almost everything that we have left is useful for something. Moreover, property does

not disappear suddenly. If we put some kind of thing in our pocket, it will lie in our pocket until we lose it. We will reasonably lose, logically from the point of view of peace and plot.

There are very few multi -way combinations here, and NPC also love to enclose us with a sudden gratuitous issuance of the subject, in the search for which we ran up half the location and completed several related tasks. So, when Velle, who got into a settlement located on the clouds, requires special shoes for walking through the air, she can easily help the local Aunt-Sapihnik find a suitable knife in return for the lost, wait until the heralded lady makes her shoes, discover that this shoes are that this shoesAbsolutely not suitable in size, and only then get a couple of suitable “slippers” as a gift from another girl for sacrifices.

It could be said that multiple runs are slightly tired at levels, but due to the simplicity of mysteries, we do not get stuck anywhere for a long time. And even if you stuck it, you can always switch to another story to ventilate your brains and then bite with new forces at an incomprehensible stage of passage.

You are not surprised that the main driving “core” of the spaceship, this device, knit navigation … a scarf when you need to make a hyper spatial jump? Shaya all this is completely unaware.

Garm’niy and a slight ’

This is not to say that the scriptwriters Broken Age abuse humor. They generally use humor in very limited doses, rather in the spirit of mild irony, without a frank “comic”. Here, for example, people who moved to the clouds to follow their guru, preaching the divine ease and abandoning the “extra” vowels in the name, is a wonderful and very unobtrusive parody of sectarism as it is.

No less pleasant impression is left by the dialogues of Shai with his computer “mother” or with little woolen little men, whom he at some point suddenly finds not at the usual positions of the oppressed, who should be saved from oppressors or from danger, but during the break, behind the gameto cards. It turns out that they are quite satisfied with their position of hired actors, but here the “viewer” himself, for which everything happens, dislikes.

By the way, attempts to use the subject here are almost never rested on standard “excuses” like “no”, “I do not want”, “I will not”. The character says something cute or funny every time when we try to make another stupidity. In essence, this is one of the indicators of a truly worked out scenario.

Add to the characterized above the equation a pleasant drawn graphics with original surreal landscapes and wonderful voice acting with Elijah Wood (Elijah Wood) in the role of Shai – and we get really high -quality adventure. More precisely, part of Advenchura, because in a more or less near future we are waiting for a continuation.

The window of the spaceship has a strange shape, is it not true? In essence, hints of the truth that we learn only in the final part of the first act are scattered throughout the game. But only a very attentive fan of the genre will pay attention to all these little things on time and will be able to interpret them correctly.

Loud name Tim Shaifer again sounded in the field of quests, and sounded powerfully. Broken Age It is impossible to call a revolution in the genre, as you can’t talk about a noticeable rolling in retro-stylistic or retro mechanical. This is just a worthy, interesting game with which you can enjoy spending an evening or two-and want additives.

Pros: fascinating plot;dynamic rhythm of the narrative;A curious idea at the heart of the script;pleasant dialogs;Original art.
Cons: Not detected.