Parallel Lives – Broken Age Review

<p>It was Christmas day&comma; 1997&period; My grandmother proudly gave me a collection of PC games for the family&&num;8217&semi;s woefully outdated Gateway 2000 486&sol;66&colon; <em>The LucasArts Archives Volume III<&sol;em>&period;  Promising &&num;8220&semi;6 Sensational CD-ROMs&comma;&&num;8221&semi; the box contained such classics as <em>Dark Forces<&sol;em>&comma; the much-hyped <em>The Dig<&sol;em>&comma; the city-sim <em>Afterlife<&sol;em>&comma; and <em>Monkey Island Madness<&sol;em> &lpar;the first two games on one disc&excl;  Technology&excl;&rpar;&period; It also contained a lame demo disc&comma; and <em>Full Throttle<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Full Throttle<&sol;em> was my first exposure to Tim Schafer and point-and-click adventure games&period;  The majority of my gaming experience up to that point was trapped in <em>MYST <&sol;em>and blasting my way out of the pixelated corridors of <em>DOOM <&sol;em>and its many contemporaries&period; <em>Full Throttle <&sol;em>was completely different&comma; transplanting my 16-year-old body into the shit-kicking boots of Ben&comma; a tough-as-nails biker wrongly accused of murder&period; The crosshair-shaped cursor led me through deserts and dive bars in my quest to clear my name&comma; and Schafer&&num;8217&semi;s snappy dialogue kept me smiling all the way through&period; It was my first of many Tim Schafer games&comma; from LucasArts to Double Fine and the latest&comma; <em>Broken Age<&sol;em>&comma; brings it all full circle&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;Broken-Age-2&period;png"><img class&equals;" size-large wp-image-82238 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;Broken-Age-2-1024x576&period;png" alt&equals;"Broken Age 2" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"349" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After years of experimental games&comma; from the 3D adventure title <em>Grim Fandango<&sol;em> &lpar;recently remastered in HD&rpar; to the odd action-strategy pastiche <em>Brütal Legend<&sol;em>&comma; Schafer and the Double Fine team have brought themselves back for a truly classic adventure game in both the chronological and qualitative sense&comma; a return to form for the genre that was sorely missed by 90&&num;8217&semi;s gamers like myself&comma; and a sterling introduction to the genre for a new generation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game breaks some tradition&comma; however&comma; in its narrative&period; Instead of focusing on one character&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;re given two&colon; a boy named Shay and a girl named Vella&period; Shay has lived his entire life on a mysterious spaceship&comma; coddled by a computerized Mother and Father that send him on esteem-boosting &&num;8220&semi;missions&&num;8221&semi; day after day that provide no danger or challenge to break up the cyclic monotony of his existence&period;  All of that changes when he meets a stowaway by the name of Marek lurking in the ship&&num;8217&semi;s hold&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the flip side&comma; we have Vella&comma; a young woman who has spent her entire life &&num;8220&semi;training&&num;8221&semi; for The Maiden&&num;8217&semi;s Feast&comma; an event that occurs every fourteen years where the young women of her village are sacrificed to a Lovecraftian horror by the name of Mog Chothra&period; They do this so that Mog Chothra will spare their village&comma; even though Vella&&num;8217&semi;s grandfather declares that the once-proud warrior people should stand up to the monster&period; Vella decides to save herself and all of the maidens that will be sacrificed&colon; she will kill Mog Chothra&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;Broken-Age-1&period;png"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-82237 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;Broken-Age-1-1024x576&period;png" alt&equals;"Broken Age 1" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"349" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The two seemingly unrelated tales hint at a shared continuity in the first act before pulling back the curtain in one of the greatest twists I&&num;8217&semi;ve ever seen in gaming&period; I won&&num;8217&semi;t say any more&comma; as <em>Broken Age<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s story is one that needs to be experienced without any spoilers&period; It really is that remarkable&comma; achieving a narrative that feels epic in scope even though its focus on characters is intimate&period; The writing&&num;8217&semi;s peppered with Schafer&&num;8217&semi;s trademark sense of humor&comma; giving us characters like Curtis the hipster lumberjack and Harm&&num;8217&semi;ny Lightbeard the new-age guru&period; I caught myself laughing out loud several times over the course of the game &lpar;Curtis&&num;8217&semi;s running gag involving crass wordplay on &&num;8220&semi;stool&&num;8221&semi; was a delicious piece of low-hanging fruit&rpar; and surprisingly choked up in others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The gameplay will be instantly familiar to old-school adventurers&colon; a crosshair cursor&&num;8217&semi;s your primary tool for interacting with characters&comma; the environment&comma; and the cache of items you&&num;8217&semi;ll pick up along the way&period; It&&num;8217&semi;ll be instantly familiar to veterans of the genre&comma; and intuitive enough for newbies to pick up without any real learning curve&period; Even on the Playstation 4 copy I reviewed &lpar;I wanted to couch-game this one&rpar; the analog sticks and buttons were easy to operate and control was precise&period; The puzzles themselves were almost completely fair and logical&comma; although a few more time-sensitive head-scratchers proved to be a little frustrating&period;  However&comma; the majority of the puzzles can be solved with the right combination of logic &lpar;even if it&&num;8217&semi;s weird video-game logic&rpar;&comma; observation&comma; and perseverance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;Broken-Age-3&period;png"><img class&equals;" size-large wp-image-82239 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;Broken-Age-3-1024x576&period;png" alt&equals;"Broken Age 3" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"349" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Graphically&comma; <em>Broken Age <&sol;em>is simply stunning&period; The entire game world&comma; from the backdrops to the characters to the tiny incidental details that make the environments feel alive&comma; is brushed with painterly strokes&period; Its sumptuous colors and delightfully overstated animation set the aesthetic somewhere between retro cartoon and oil painting&period; Aurally&comma; the game is a real pleaser&comma; with vibrant&comma; fully orchestrated music and an impressive voice cast that includes Elijah Wood&comma; Jack Black&comma; Wil Wheaton&comma; and Jennifer Hale&comma; as well as many other talented actors and actresses&period; Everything meshes together perfectly to create a world that is as beautiful as it is memorable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Almost two decades after I played <em>Full Throttle<&sol;em>&comma; Tim Schafer and his talented team have once again drawn me deep into a point-and-click adventure&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re an adventure gamer looking to have a classic itch scratched&comma; <em>Broken Age <&sol;em>is the perfect game&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for a fantastic story to keep your attention all the way to the end with only a few frustrating puzzles along the way&comma; <em>Broken Age <&sol;em>is the perfect game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;