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dkirschner's Broken Age (PC)

[February 7, 2021 01:32:45 PM]

Creative point-and-click with a clear Double Fine feel and a cool history of crowdfunding in games. What I liked best about this was not only the inventive settings, but the fact that you can switch back and forth between two interconnected stories. They don't seem connected but they are. Both Shay and Vella are teenagers confined by routine or tradition, and they each seek to break free.

Shay is a lonely boy in a space ship. His mom (an AI) is a helicopter parent, and his entire world is built around giving him the illusion of autonomy. It reminded me of the Truman Show. It's so cleverly done that it sucks the player into the illusion, making you think that you are guiding Shay toward some independence, making you think that he is doing some new, daring, rebellious things. But the joke's on you...until the end of Act 1!

Vella is a girl chosen to be sacrificed to a Lovecraftian monstrosity. The sacrifices are a necessary part of life that prevent said monstrosity from destroying the town (and it seemingly visits every town). Vella is opposed to this and frustrated that girls have to die according to tradition, so she escapes the monster and spends Act 1 figuring out how to kill it. There is a huge twist at the end of Act 1/beginning of Act 2..!

I started with Shay and played until I got stuck. Then I switched to Vella and played her Act 1 all the way to nearly the very end before getting stuck there. Both stories are interesting, but Vella's has more varied locations and characters. I think just the fact that Shay's story takes place entirely on his ship, while Vella's spans multiple villages, made the difference.

Anyway, I used a walkthrough to get a couple puzzles and finished up. I'm stopping here because, by all accounts, Act 2 pales compared to Act 1, especially because Shay just retraces Vella's steps, and the puzzles are apparently obtuse. While I did enjoy Act 1, it wasn't fantastic or anything, so I'll just read the rest of the plot...aaaand there are some twists!