WARNING: I TRIED MY BEST TO AVOID SPOILERS FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT HAVEN’T PLAYED THE FIRST ACT, AND ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVEN’T PLAYED THE SECOND ACT, BUT THIS MAY CONTAIN SOME MINOR SPOILERS SO BE ADVISED. Thanks!
So here’s what happened: When I started playing the second act of Broken Age, I also started writing my first impression blog for it. But I got so addicted and, I’ll admit it, I got SO OBSESSED with solving the puzzles that I didn’t finish the impression blog before I just completely beat the game. So, the beginning of this blog is going to be my innocent and naive incomplete first impression of about the first hour or so of each story (Vella’s and Shays). BEFORE I got stuck on the absolutely impossible puzzles, and got frustrated with the required switching between the two characters. Basically before I knew what I was getting into.
First Impression:
When I played the first episode of Broken Age about a year ago, I fell in love with the way that Tim Schafer tells a story. Splitting it into two seemingly different stories that came together at the end in the most unlikely of ways was such a breath of fresh air when it comes to my run-ins with point and click adventure games.
Act 2 fits this same bill just as well, if not better than the first time. As with the first Act you have the option to start with either Vella’s story or Shay’s story. But the two protagonists settings are flip-flopped. Shay must solve his problems in Meriloft and Shellmound, and Vella must solve hers aboard Shay’s ship the Bossa Nostra.
One of the biggest differences I’ve seen so far from the first Act to the second, is that there are many puzzles where you have to switch between the characters in order to solve them. When I played through the first episode I played through Vella’s entire story before switching over to Shay (mostly because I didn’t realize you could do otherwise). In act 2, not switching between the characters isn’t really an option unless you’re a fan of solving puzzles using trial and error.
—– and that’s it. That was the beginning of my first impression of Broken Age. I wasn’t nearly done talking about how I’m still in love with the artwork, and the voice acting, and the quirkiness of the characters so lets get to that now in my full review.
Bec’s full review of Broken Age Act 2:
As I said in my first impression I’m a huge fan of Tim Schafer’s work at Double Fine. I absolutely love Monkey Island and Grim Fandango, and Psychonauts.
Unfortunately, I was just not as impressed with Act 2 of Broken Age as I was with Act 1. Act one took me by surprise with it’s absolutely beautiful art and quirky character design. It blew me out of the water with its wonderful story concepts for both characters, and the fact that I never would have seen that ending coming, made me so very happy.
What Act 2 is lacking, is that ‘wow’ factor. You start off the same way the first part started off where you can pick either story. Great. Simple. Perfect. The beginning puzzles for Vella were a little tough to figure out, but were extremely satisfying once that light bulb went off. For Shay, on the other hand, there was item after item after item to pick up, and nothing to do with any of them. I just had Alex (ship pilot from Act 1) rattle off 4 or 5 different things that I needed to do without even one hint as to where I should start with them. I’m pretty sure i was just going through talking to every person in Meriloft and Shellmound until there was nothing left to do or say.
Vella’s story started off really strong for me, and suddenly got very boring and repetitive. In Act 1, it was so fun exploring the Bella Nostra with Shay, and going through each of the adventures that his ‘parents’ had set up for him. The ice cream avalanche, the train ride, the hug attack, I mean those little knitted guys are so freaking adorable I could hug them all day. But what I don’t want, is to have to go through and experience almost all of the things that Shay did during the first act AGAIN with Vella.
That was the biggest problem for me. The characters just simply flip-flopped worlds, with barely anything new separating them. You still talk to all the same people, and deal with all the same things. I.e, shrinking Shay’s head vs. making Vella’s head bigger using the elevators. It just seemed like a big case of Deja vu.
I, like any other passionate puzzle-game lover, don’t want puzzle games to baby me and tell me what to do every step of the way. But this game needs more subtle hints. I have no idea how I was supposed to figure out that Hexi-gal puzzle. If I still hadn’t been able to figure out that you could switch between the two stories at will, I never would have ever beat the game.
Now, looking past all of the negative aspects of the game, this is still a wonderful Double Fine game at heart. The characters are still brilliant, and their dialogue is just as brilliantly written with that great amount of humor. The voice actors hired were absolutely fantastic and make the game as great as it is. And nothing is perfect after all. This second act took a year to finish and you can tell that so much hard work went into it because it is THOROUGH. I just don’t see how anyone short of a genius is going to be able to figure out some of those puzzles.
I loved watching that ending cutscene, and I’m sure that the others who couldn’t wait for this second part to come out will love it too. Overall, I will be giving Broken Age Act 2 6/10 Hexi-Pal’s because of it’s beautiful artwork, wonderful voice acting, truly creative (though terribly difficult puzzles), and overall COMPLETE game but it’s lack of new ideas brings it down quite a few points.
‘Til next time
-Bec
P.S Just a tiny tid bit of info: The game took me about 8 hours to complete that’s 2 hours for the first act. SO that gives you a rough estimate of about HOW MUCH TIME I spent playing the second act. And that of course does not include the hours that I laid awake at night trying to figure out what I could POSSIBLY do with a grabbin gary remote, egg shells, peaches, a baby space suit, and a schematic of a super conductive whosit whatsit whatever.
P.P.S I’m starving and will now be thinking about peaches all night.
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