Broken Age

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

.

Review:

Broken Age is a Graphic Adventure from Tim Schafer, his first game in the genre since Grim Fandango all the way back in 1998. For fans of the old LucasArts graphic adventures, this promises to be a welcome return.

This is a game split into two halves and two parts, with the second half of the game infamously released as a second episode on other platforms over a year later. The Switch version includes the entire story.

As for “split into two parts”, the game focuses on the story of two protagonists, Shay and Vella, with each trying to escape a fate decided for them by others. Vella lives in a fantasy world beset by monsters and is destined to be a human sacrifice, while Shay lives on a spaceship being constantly coddled and patronized by a computer that treats him like a defenseless child. While seemingly unrelated stories at first, eventually a connection forms between the two.

This game’s story and presentation is one of its strongest points. The writing here is clever and witty, every bit the quality we expect from Schaefer’s work. This is enhanced by delightful visuals, wonderful music, and some incredible voice performances from the likes of Elijah Wood, Jack Black, Wil Wheaton, and Jennifer Hale.

As for the puzzles… well, it’s definitely a Tim Schaefer game, all right. To the game’s credit, the “Sierra logic”-style puzzles aren’t quite as pervasive here as they were in earlier games, but there are still head-scratchers here, and you might feel the need to consult a walkthrough here and there.

Still, despite some of the frustration of the classic LucasArts games following us into the modern day, it’s hard to deny the charm and solid writing that’s present here, and fans of the genre will find a lot to like in Broken Age.

tl;dr – Broken Age is a Graphic Adventure by Tim Schaefer. That means you’re getting an incredibly well-written story with a fantastic presentation… along with some frustrating puzzles. Thankfully, the frustration isn’t quite as bad as it used to be, and the story is just as good as those games of old. Genre fans won’t want to miss this.

Grade: B+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}