the return of adventure games and Tim Schafer to the PC: Broken Age
Those who follow this blog for some time will know that I love the adventure games of the mid-nineties in the style of Lucasfilm and Tim Schafer, there is a certain charm in all that time when the PC and the adventure games were like a fingernail and the creative mind of Sierra and Schafer took success after success, of course the formula soon wore out and with the withdrawal of the latter from the development of video games seemed that the genre fell into an era of oblivion for several long years until his return, that making use of current fundraising methods such as crowdfounding made one of those games that despite not being the masterpiece that many were waiting for, it does put the adventure game genre back on the radar of many, with an endearing story that is based on two main characters and a host of situations that invite us to explore space and time aboard the mechanics of Point & Click.
The new work of Double Fine studio is one that shines for its artistic charm, its tone that varies between the epic, the fun and the small drama in the middle as well as its cast of characters, many of them having in their cast to actors of great renown as Elijah Wood or Jack Black just to name a few, but that throughout the adventure have a huge acting weight raising the work a higher level along with all that mystique of the classic adventure games, Shay and Bella's adventure involves many situations in different environments so that throughout the adventure we will have a cast of secondary characters of the most remarkable in which it is demonstrated that the main creative Tim Schafer has not lost even a little of his ambition and characteristic touch when carrying out this project, because they take us from the smallest situations to all the top of stopping temporary threats and save our skin, all this without neglecting at any time the narrative nor the style of gameplay of the works of the antaña Lucasfilm.
Broken Age is a story of tradition, of how this can have its chiaroscuros and how two teenagers try to escape from all that monotony in search of adventure, on one side is the lonely traveler Shay who lives in a spaceship looking for new planets to inhabit and in which his only companions are his robots, on the other side is the young Vella who lives in a village clinging to the tradition of fearing a monster that threatens to destroy the village often, both characters live their separate stories until deep into the adventure but that does not mean that it is boring but quite the opposite, Thanks to all the characters that abound in both worlds is achieved a fairly successful immersion that embraces the viewer and surrounds the viewer with each of the designs and characters, most of them have an overwhelming personality that make us want a little more interaction from them in the story, in Shay's ship we have a computer taking care of us that does not stop challenging us in every step we take while in the village of Vella there are all kinds of characters that make life and deserve a separate mention.
The whole plot is well accompanied by gameplay that offers a Point & Click perspective with a couple of puzzles nothing advanced during several of the areas as well as an exploration component that is quite simple, in which we look for objects that we can have in our inventory and use them to solve several of the puzzles that the game has, Broken Age goes all out to emulate many of the Double Fine games making the game more than a walk in which to get lost and more of a challenge in which we have to use our head to see what object we can put on the scale to advance in some door, it is these small challenges that gives flavor to the game as the rest has the plot as a central element of which we never take off and tends to be the most careful of the whole experience.
Broken Age is one of those adventures that leave you with a tear in your eye, its story is one of the most twists and turns to leave you in the final act with an elegant but effective revelation, the design of each level as well as the characters is at its highest level for Schafer's team and every dialogue and conversation feels meaningful, as if we were getting to know a small world while focusing on one of the many stories it can tell, Broken Age is a game that despite being released a few years ago I think is still very current especially if we talk about remarkable graphic adventures in the video game.