Broken Age - Double Fine's Kickstarter Adventure Game

[J_C]

So, with a budget of a couple of millions, it is nowadays only possible to make a 4 hour game?

How do the puzzles compare to those in the Deponia series?

8 hour game.

 

[suejak]

For a shitty story, it's nice to see it generating such discussion amongst the diehard anti-fans of the Codex.

It is not a shitty story.

No, I think it was very well-written.

If you do not understand the game I strongly suggest you play it again. For, in a sense, Broken Age is a game for those who appreciate fine art and good video games. The entire spectrum of each and every possible human emotion takes ground within Tim Schafer's Tour de force. It is a vast testament to the very nature of humanity. Every heart beat, every pulse, eye wink, instance of love, and raw anger.

Growing up, isolation, independency, and a yearning for more -- through Schafer these emotions are bottled and aged until they acquire a new taste, a new flavor. For long these primitive feelings have been but caged songbirds, long held captive by the vessel of the human spirit. Many have tried to set these creatures free and many have failed. ButSchafer, great, generous, bombastic, salacious Schafer, he opens each lock, so gracefully, so prodigiously, that the very act of turning the tumblers is an act of supreme divinity unto itself, and within his text these birds of human expression are given flight. They soar upwards with great wings, higher and higher towards that vast empyrean of which we call meaning.

In short, Broken Age is a game for those who are tired of video games. Tired of the trite, the mundane, the excruciatingly familiar. But, paradoxically, it is also for those who are hungry for the very thing they loathe. For Schafer puts them in spotlight with such precision, such subtlety and beauty, that they appear anew -- as if one were experiencing them for the first time. We become the children of Schafer and we are born again, into a world with colors yet to be perceived, and great beauty yet to cherish and behold. A whole new world so graciously crafted by the storyteller grandmaster himself.

WHERE THESE PEOPLE COME FROM?

Jesus Fucking Crhist. I like and defend the game, but I'm not going to defend it as the holy grail of video game, which pulled out something amazing. Do not understand the game? What is there you cannot understand? The story is not that deep. god, how can you overanalyse a simple thing this much? That writer is a pretentous idiot!

I don't know the context and it's a little over my head, but anybody who's a college-educated native speaker of English should be able to peg that as satire. Figures your average Codex lugnut wouldn't be able to pick it up, but try another read sometime.

After all, this is a forum where pro-Nazi, antisemitic, and slur-based humour is "edgy". Not exactly intellectual superstars we got here.

 

[m_s0]

Anyone with a college education has probably encountered worse cases in RL - and that's professors I'm talking about here - not to mention on the Internet. I'd like to think this is trolling, but you just can't be sure. You've got too much faith in humanity, I think.

 

[suejak]

Anyone with a college education has probably encountered worse cases in RL - and that's professors I'm talking about here - not to mention on the Internet. I'd like to think this is trolling, but you just can't be sure. You've got too much faith in humanity, I think.

Nah. The writing is too good to be legit. It's very obviously satire.

"John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is only 80 pages long and cost me $11.

Ergo, the book is terrible and not worth $11.00" - Another comment by the same guy.

He's a box of funsies.

 

[m_s0]

There is still hope then.

 

[PlanHex]

I don't know the context and it's a little over my head, but anybody who's a college-educated native speaker of English should be able to peg that as satire. Figures your average Codex lugnut wouldn't be able to pick it up, but try another read sometime.

After all, this is a forum where pro-Nazi, antisemitic, and slur-based humour is "edgy". Not exactly intellectual superstars we got here.

If anything, I think exposure to the codex will permanently ruin your sarcasm detector, since you so often find yourself thinking "haha, this guy is kidding, right?" but soon find out just how wrong you are on that count.

 

[Harold]

If you do not understand the game I strongly suggest you play it again. For, in a sense, Broken Age is a game for those who appreciate fine art and good video games. The entire spectrum of each and every possible human emotion takes ground within Tim Schafer's Tour de force. It is a vast testament to the very nature of humanity. Every heart beat, every pulse, eye wink, instance of love, and raw anger.

Growing up, isolation, independency, and a yearning for more -- through Schafer these emotions are bottled and aged until they acquire a new taste, a new flavor. For long these primitive feelings have been but caged songbirds, long held captive by the vessel of the human spirit. Many have tried to set these creatures free and many have failed. ButSchafer, great, generous, bombastic, salacious Schafer, he opens each lock, so gracefully, so prodigiously, that the very act of turning the tumblers is an act of supreme divinity unto itself, and within his text these birds of human expression are given flight. They soar upwards with great wings, higher and higher towards that vast empyrean of which we call meaning.

In short, Broken Age is a game for those who are tired of video games. Tired of the trite, the mundane, the excruciatingly familiar. But, paradoxically, it is also for those who are hungry for the very thing they loathe. For Schafer puts them in spotlight with such precision, such subtlety and beauty, that they appear anew -- as if one were experiencing them for the first time. We become the children of Schafer and we are born again, into a world with colors yet to be perceived, and great beauty yet to cherish and behold. A whole new world so graciously crafted by the storyteller grandmaster himself.

WHERE THESE PEOPLE COME FROM?

Sounds like David Cage. High praise indeed.

 

[RPGMaster]

So, with a budget of a couple of millions, it is nowadays only possible to make a 4 hour game?

Jack Black doesn't work for free you know.

If he worked for more than ten minutes on this game I'd be surprised.

 

[J_C]

So, with a budget of a couple of millions, it is nowadays only possible to make a 4 hour game?

Jack Black doesn't work for free you know.

If he worked for more than ten minutes on this game I'd be surprised.

Yeah, in Act 1 he has 10 or so lines. Him and Tim being bros, I don't think he asked much money, if asked anything at all.

 

[abnaxus]

If you do not understand the game I strongly suggest you play it again. For, in a sense, Broken Age is a game for those who appreciate fine art and good video games. The entire spectrum of each and every possible human emotion takes ground within Tim Schafer's Tour de force. It is a vast testament to the very nature of humanity. Every heart beat, every pulse, eye wink, instance of love, and raw anger.

Growing up, isolation, independency, and a yearning for more -- through Schafer these emotions are bottled and aged until they acquire a new taste, a new flavor. For long these primitive feelings have been but caged songbirds, long held captive by the vessel of the human spirit. Many have tried to set these creatures free and many have failed. ButSchafer, great, generous, bombastic, salacious Schafer, he opens each lock, so gracefully, so prodigiously, that the very act of turning the tumblers is an act of supreme divinity unto itself, and within his text these birds of human expression are given flight. They soar upwards with great wings, higher and higher towards that vast empyrean of which we call meaning.

In short, Broken Age is a game for those who are tired of video games. Tired of the trite, the mundane, the excruciatingly familiar. But, paradoxically, it is also for those who are hungry for the very thing they loathe. For Schafer puts them in spotlight with such precision, such subtlety and beauty, that they appear anew -- as if one were experiencing them for the first time. We become the children of Schafer and we are born again, into a world with colors yet to be perceived, and great beauty yet to cherish and behold. A whole new world so graciously crafted by the storyteller grandmaster himself.

WHERE THESE PEOPLE COME FROM?

Here's my short review:

Broken Age has heart. It has soul. If Broken Age sang the Blues, you'd want to listen. This is a game made by people who genuinely loved what they were doing, and it's clear that rather than asking themselves "How can we best serve the market?", the developers instead asked "Wouldn't it be awesome if . . .?" It has all the enthusiasm and the quirkiness (for better and worse) of an indie game, but the production values that only a multi-million dollar budget will buy.

It has flaws - plenty of them - but ultimately it's a great game. I have had more fun with Broken Age than with any adventure game released in the last few years. Broken Age is not "game as art," as Heavy Rain and (more recently) Beyond: Two Souls have tried to be. Instead, it is "game as game", something that has been equally rare recently in the adventure genre. There is a focus on gameplay, on puzzles, on depth of setting and on immersion. Broken Age is enjoyable, addictive, and deeply satisfying, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. If the Codex gave numerical scores, I'd give this an 8.5 out of 10. Since we don't, pretend you didn't see that.

 

[suejak]

I brofisted you and wrote "Amen" into the reply box, then I had to take it all back when you said "there is a focus on gameplay, on puzzles."

 

[Infinitron]

suejak http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=165

 

[suejak]

Oh, fuck if I read any RPG content anymore ever

 

[suejak]

I've played for three hours in three separate one-hour sessions, and I still think it's a great game. It's way too easy, but it's incredibly well-written and well-conceived.

Anybody who calls this a kids' game is far too preoccupied with being a grown-up. This is more mature than any of the grimdark popular shooters whose nihilistic philosophy is that murder makes a man. Both Vella and Shay's stories have a deep, fascinating irony to them that can be interpreted allegorically or left as is. They're well-written, charming, and funny.

It's good shit and Shafer is a talented man.

Also, I noticed many people saying they didn't laugh or didn't find the game humorous. Blows my mind. This game is incredibly funny.

 

[Metro]

What else do you need? Suejak and J_C approved.

 

[Bubbles]

Hm, might buy it after all then.

 

[evdk]

What else do you need? Suejak and J_C approved.

Morgoth. We need Morgoth.

 

[Sceptic]

Puzzles in a adventure games are just artificially extending gameplay... I can't take the Steam forums anymore.

Do I need to link to that J_C discussion from last year?

 

[Morgoth]

I am not approving this game. You can all go home now.

 

[Astral Rag]

That steam thread almost made me lose the will to live.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTdy1Yp1h5A

 

[Redlands]

That steam thread almost made me lose the will to live.

Well, you can't spell Steam without AM...

 

[suejak]

Completed the game just now. Really good stuff. Easy puzzles -- possibly rushed puzzles (too many items received through dialogue and too little item-combination) -- but extremely good in every other respect.

 

[J_C]

felipepepe must be pretty butthurt about the game, since he went bitching and moaning to the steam page of the game, even made a separate thread. And evdk followed him.

 

[RK47]

If you do not understand the game I strongly suggest you play it again. For, in a sense, Broken Age is a game for those who appreciate fine art and good video games. The entire spectrum of each and every possible human emotion takes ground within Tim Schafer's Tour de force. It is a vast testament to the very nature of humanity. Every heart beat, every pulse, eye wink, instance of love, and raw anger.

Growing up, isolation, independency, and a yearning for more -- through Schafer these emotions are bottled and aged until they acquire a new taste, a new flavor. For long these primitive feelings have been but caged songbirds, long held captive by the vessel of the human spirit. Many have tried to set these creatures free and many have failed. ButSchafer, great, generous, bombastic, salacious Schafer, he opens each lock, so gracefully, so prodigiously, that the very act of turning the tumblers is an act of supreme divinity unto itself, and within his text these birds of human expression are given flight. They soar upwards with great wings, higher and higher towards that vast empyrean of which we call meaning.

In short, Broken Age is a game for those who are tired of video games. Tired of the trite, the mundane, the excruciatingly familiar. But, paradoxically, it is also for those who are hungry for the very thing they loathe. For Schafer puts them in spotlight with such precision, such subtlety and beauty, that they appear anew -- as if one were experiencing them for the first time. We become the children of Schafer and we are born again, into a world with colors yet to be perceived, and great beauty yet to cherish and behold. A whole new world so graciously crafted by the storyteller grandmaster himself.

WHERE THESE PEOPLE COME FROM?

Here's my short review:

Broken Age has heart. It has soul. If Broken Age sang the Blues, you'd want to listen. This is a game made by people who genuinely loved what they were doing, and it's clear that rather than asking themselves "How can we best serve the market?", the developers instead asked "Wouldn't it be awesome if . . .?" It has all the enthusiasm and the quirkiness (for better and worse) of an indie game, but the production values that only a multi-million dollar budget will buy.

It has flaws - plenty of them - but ultimately it's a great game. I have had more fun with Broken Age than with any adventure game released in the last few years. Broken Age is not "game as art," as Heavy Rain and (more recently) Beyond: Two Souls have tried to be. Instead, it is "game as game", something that has been equally rare recently in the adventure genre. There is a focus on gameplay, on puzzles, on depth of setting and on immersion. Broken Age is enjoyable, addictive, and deeply satisfying, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. If the Codex gave numerical scores, I'd give this an 8.5 out of 10. Since we don't, pretend you didn't see that.

Great review, will watch LP on youtube when I get home.
Looking forward to more releases like this.

 

[Astral Rag]

This "adventure game" tries to phone home.