The International House of Mojo

I must admit I got bored and didn't finish the Act 2. Some characters in the game are really cool (the Tree, the lumberjack-type guy...), sadly most, including protagonists seems dull.
I didn't back this game only because my country wasn't on Kickstarter list yet and boy am I happy.

Totally disappointed. few hotspots, slow story rythm, cutscenes introduction to events is weak, design reminds me kid books illustration, many boring puzzles.
A poor result. Want to feel back to old adv game ? I was quite surprised by "Captian Brawe part 1" by Bill Tiller. there should be a free trial somewhere.. http://www.gamehouse.com/download-games/kaptain-brawe-a-brawe-new-world-episode-1

I hear what you are saying there, however, cast your mind back to Feb 8, 2102.
Tim pops up on Kickstarter asking for $400K to make a game and a documentary about it. The documentary was about capturing the entire game making process, from inception, through development, to release. There was never any promises made as to the content of the game, only the style.

I've finished Act 1 and it has all of the charm of a classic PnC, perhaps even more. In fact, I'd play it again over a couple of the old LEC adventures.
So, perhaps it is easier than the old games, however this ensures that it can be commercially successful now, preventing it from being immediately anachronistic with pixel hunting, etc. (this makes me wonder how a TTG King's Quest would have ever worked)

You have a good point though - people need to really understand what they are getting themselves into when the back a Kickstarter project.
A lot of people got swept away with the promise of a new PnC adventure in the classic style. Maybe they should have considered (especially hearing commentary from people like Ron Gilbert about his thoughts on the genre over time and how he would do things differently) what the "new" part would bring...

Personally though, I couldn't be happier with the game, and the insights into the process.

As an aside, if there were a Led Zeppelin folk album, I'd approach that cautiously, but I'd still give it a listen :)

Tim did say he wanted to make a game that was like what he might have made immediately after Grim Fandango, though. And whilst maintaining a classic level of difficulty, GF was less like the early LucasArts adventures in its mechanical approach than Broken Age is...

http://fanboygaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/shut-up-and-take-my-money.jpeg

I don't really disagree with you because indeed their promises were very vague. It's just when I hear that Tim and Ron Gilbert (who was very much in the initial Kickstarter pitch), want to make a p'n'c game like they won't let them anymore I don't really see stuff like Broken Age. Lesson learned I guess. It's like kickstarting a new Led Zeppelin album to learn they only want to do folk music now. Nothing wrong with that but still...ehhh.

Yeah, if the "puzzle" consisted of a single dialogue line that read as follows:

"Tim Schafer wants to make a point-and-click adventure game, and you can help."

Reading anything past that or implying that supporters were "tricked" is absurd: it not only teases ignorance in regards to DF's general game-making aesthetic, but also feels like whingy entitlement.

I liked the story of the boy, the girl part was boring (especially the could world part). All in all this feels very much like a game for kids and the art style supports this. I would not say it's bad, but it's certainly far from what I was hoping for. Mostly it's so modern and mainstream it doesn't seem like a game that a publisher wouldn't want. Getting oldschool adventure lovers to finance this was... well... tricky. Like a puzzle from an oldschool adventure game.

I don't agree with valkian. I don't mind at all easier and simpler adventure game experiences, but there's no need to shoehorn some "evolution" ideology into it. True - player expectations are different nowadays than in 1998. Games are much cheaper, there's a far greater choice of them and game designers naturally adapt to their modern audience and critics, but I wouldn't call it game design progress.

I agree with Valkian. I've played a lot of recent adventure games, all much harder than Broken Age, but none of them have resonated with me to such an extent.

All the criticisms I just read make me go "Oh, you just don't get it". Complaints about the one-click does it at all (a la The Dig) and it being too easy is clear indication that you don't understand that we are not in 1998 anymore. Even adventure games evolve and playing this game to me felt like playing a modern adventure game (even more so than The Cave did). Broken Age is a game that nods to classic adventure gamers but takes priority in addressing many issues that made adventure games unwelcoming for the wider audience. No pixel hunting around the screen, no backwards puzzles, no archaic verb menu. This game was easy for us, hardcore adventure gamers, but I can assure you it's not easy for the average gamer and that's good, that's really good.
Quit whining and be thankful that you still get to play new adventure games. Broken Age was awesome and if it felt short is because A) This was only half of the game, or less and B) It was so good.

I was quite disappointed by the game.
It was way too easy. It was hardly a challenge at all.
It felt like playing a Humongous Putt-Putt game or Blue's Clue.

Yeah it was in this way especially that the game sets itself apart-- the music and 'place' of the game is at a higher level. Just imagine how badly the secondary characters would be voiced over in a run-of-the-mill adventure game and how instead they are all very well done in Broken Age.

While I liked the presentation and general story a lot, I'm still somewhat disappointed about several aspects of the game, especially the "scale".

First of all there weren't too many hotspots in the scenes to interact with, just to explore the world a bit more (not to mention the reduction to just one interaction button - I would have liked to at least have a "look at" and "interact with" choice). Puzzles were way too easy (pretty much each solution was obvious as soon as an obstacle occured), which more choices in interactions might have dealt with to some degree.

With around 4 hours playtime (so around 8 in total for both parts) I also felt it was MUCH too short for the budget they had. Other companies like Daedalic and King Art manage to make much "more game" out of considerably smaller budgets, so that's the major letdown for me.

But to be fair, I loved the visuals (and the engine allows for some really neat stuff, both for the backgrounds as well as the characters and their animations), and I LOVED the soundtrack and voice work. The story is sweet and hooked me immediately, so that's another reason why I just would like "more" of it.

Ah well, let's see what part 2 brings to the table.

I liked it a lot. Both Broken Age Act I and Broken Sword Episode I were done really well as far as ending the first chapter, and setting up the second. Both felt like big payoffs, in that the looming threat of the first part was dealt with, but they set up the bigger storyline to come. I felt they both lived up to their respective legacies well. I can't wait for the final chapter of both games.

I actually got stuck in Broken Age Act I twice, but it wasn't due to the difficulty of the puzzles, but that I didn't realize you could go further in the scene (going left at the roots in Vella's story and going further up in space in Shay's story).

They did say that the puzzles in Broken Age would ramp up in difficulty as the game went on, so the puzzles will probably be trickier in Act II.

Like I mentioned a couple of posts back I wasn't really that interested in the game, but it pulled me through to the end and I am interested in act 2 for sure.

The puzzles were very simple though. I thought it was actually much easier than a telltale game.

I was a bit... disappointed, actually. It was too easy, too watered-down. It didn't feel like an old-school LucasArts adventure at all, but rather more like a Telltale adventure.

It was OK.

Zaarin is our copy editor. He is now fired.

Love this game, nice review (no spoilers, which is great), couldn't agree more, but I'm not really objective when it comes to Tim Schafer. Anyway, there are some typos: wass kickstarer

I loved every second of this game. Great review!