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Recordkeeping: Broken Age COMPLETE
I think this suffered a bit from being broken into two sections. Somewhere between the first and second part, Double Fine possibly listened to a little TOO MUCH feedback or something and changed the course of the game drastically. That's the problem with Kickstarters, I suppose. So many hands driving the bus.
The first half of Broken Age is a lazy little romp through a fantasy world (which has a serious 'monster kidnapping maidens' problem) and a sci-fi world (which has a serious 'this place is run by patronizing parents' problem.) It's very easy and breezy and quick, you have a lot of wacky conversations, the animation is charming and the characters are likable.
The second half, particularly the END of the second half, becomes Myst Puzzle Nightmare, with the most heinous offender being a puzzle repeated several times where you're:
Wiring something.
What you wire it to matters.
There are six points and any connection between the six is allowed (but not necessarily correct).
The DIRECTION you run the wire FROM matters.
There is a trial-and-error element, you have to experiment to learn how the puzzle works mechanically.
It is randomized, so you can't use a walkthrough to solve it.
And perhaps most egregious to people who don't like adventure-game logic:
You have to use information gathered as one character to solve puzzles as a different character with no chance for them to in-character exchange information. It is entirely player-knowledge based.
That isn't a dealbreaker for me, but I've seen people get real angry at that in the past, so I figured I'd mention it.
Anyway two thirds of this game are QUITE easy and charmingly cartoonish and the last third becomes Puzzle Hell.
If that's what you're looking for, here it is.
The first half of Broken Age is a lazy little romp through a fantasy world (which has a serious 'monster kidnapping maidens' problem) and a sci-fi world (which has a serious 'this place is run by patronizing parents' problem.) It's very easy and breezy and quick, you have a lot of wacky conversations, the animation is charming and the characters are likable.
The second half, particularly the END of the second half, becomes Myst Puzzle Nightmare, with the most heinous offender being a puzzle repeated several times where you're:
Wiring something.
What you wire it to matters.
There are six points and any connection between the six is allowed (but not necessarily correct).
The DIRECTION you run the wire FROM matters.
There is a trial-and-error element, you have to experiment to learn how the puzzle works mechanically.
It is randomized, so you can't use a walkthrough to solve it.
And perhaps most egregious to people who don't like adventure-game logic:
You have to use information gathered as one character to solve puzzles as a different character with no chance for them to in-character exchange information. It is entirely player-knowledge based.
That isn't a dealbreaker for me, but I've seen people get real angry at that in the past, so I figured I'd mention it.
Anyway two thirds of this game are QUITE easy and charmingly cartoonish and the last third becomes Puzzle Hell.
If that's what you're looking for, here it is.