Unlike many other point and click adventures that attempt to replicate the old days with classic PC pixel art, Broken Age has a charming hand drawn art style that makes each frame vibrant and burst with personality (unless you turn on the game’s retro mode which is simply headache-inducing). It felt rushed and I couldn’t help feeling that so much potential had been carelessly thrown aside. I was left with an overwhelming feeling of emptiness considering how invested I became in the characters and their stories. The conclusion had its big climactic event in true devastating fashion, but it all came to a screeching halt that left many loose ends and had me saying, “is that it?”. However just like Broken Age picks up intrigue from the very beginning, so too was I left with many questions when the credits began to roll.
When the mysteries unfold, you are met with a story that’s wonderfully wacky in true Schafer style. The Art of Storytellingįrom the get-go, Broken Age omits an unnerving sense of mystery, making you often think “that’s not quite right”. The humour, the wacky setting and its colourful cast of characters had me wanting to go through each possible dialogue option with its great comedic timing. Tim Schafer’s pedigree experience didn’t have me doubting this prior to loading it up for the first time, but I was certainly reassured within the game’s opening minutes. On top of the impressive voice work, Broken Age is also coupled with well written dialogue. Each voice actor gives an exceptional performance, providing a level of quality that you wouldn’t generally find in a run of the mill point and click adventure. That’s also not to take any credit away from the other voice actors who might not be household names, with Masasa Moyo doing an impressive job voicing Vella and David Kaufman as Marek. With Elijah Wood providing the voice of Shay, Jack Black as Harm’ny Lightbeard and Wil Wheaton as Curtis the Lumberjack, you know you’re in good hands, uhh… voices. The dialogue and voice acting is absolutely top notch, which isn’t surprising considering its all-star cast. With Broken Age overlooking this convenient feature, its pace can sometimes feel disjointed and slow. I wouldn’t say that I am a seasoned point and click adventurer, but I’ve certainly noticed the benefit that a simple fast-travel, whether it be in the context of the game or simply a menu option, can be a lifesaver when tracking back and forth to collect key items and speak to certain characters. What Broken Age did not ride the point and click evolution wave on is fast travel, meaning its lack thereof.
Not to say that there weren’t moments where I felt stumped, but being able to come back to these puzzles later certainly helped me to relieve my mind and regain my confidence. Broken Age’s ingenious storytelling method of being able to swap between the two stories exquisitely allows the player to take a break from moments like these whilst still being able to move forward with the plot. These moments can be tiresome, resulting in moments where your brain turns to mush and there is nothing left to do but to either keep trying or look up a walkthrough. Point and click adventures are also prone to having moments that leave the player at a loss with nothing but a feeling of hopelessness as they fall into the monotony of exhausting all ideas. These puzzles are very clever but simultaneously, also feel disjointed I praise the ingenuity, but I couldn’t help but feel that an in-game feature could have made this process more seamless. I used the Switch’s Capture feature to make this a smooth process and when they became more complicated, I took photos from my phone so that I could have the answer in one hand and the game in the other. In addition, there are puzzles in the latter portion of the game that has you memorising clues and patterns from one character’s story in order to solve a puzzle in the other. This can be jarring at first as us gamers aren’t often privy to that level of storytelling freedom in a point and click adventure, but there were often natural breaks in each arc’s plot progression that successfully avoided the game’s pace suffering as a result. Classically Innovativeīroken Age has you freely swapping back and forth between Vella and Shay’s stories, to the point that if you get bored of one story (not that you would), you can proceed with the other.
#Broken age walkthrough vella full
Broken Age sees the return of Tim Schafer’s comical ingenuity and with it, an interwoven plot full of unsettling mystery. Vella Tartine and Shay Volta both find themselves helplessly controlled until one day, they decide to break away from their social norms and take control. Where two stories, on two entirely different corners of the universe, are so distinctly different, so too do they share similarities. Check out Switchaboo! Two Stories Collide
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