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guysguysguysguysguysGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYS! ...so I've been playing Broken Age...
Yup, Double Fine's famous/infamous project has gone from Kickstarter poster-child to
a having beta version of Act 1 in the hands of backers and reviewers alike, all the way
up to being available on Steam. Now, there was a small note that went out at the same
time as the beta, asking that Let's Players and reviewers didn't spoil the entire plot
for everyone... and asked that backers who were also press to respect the embargo date,
but that got reversed in under 12 hours. Not to say that I want to abide by the rules blindly,
but I don't actually like to spoil the plot of games I think are worth playing. Call that
a cop out if you must, but at least I've got a track record.
There's two playable characters - Shay and Vella - who live in very different worlds.
Shay lives on a space station, coddled by a motherly computer who runs him through 'missions'
which resemble the kind of games children make up entirely in their heads. They're meant
to make Shay feel like a hero, but he's clearly too old for them and craves some real adventure...
one day, he meets someone who might be able to give that to him.
Vella on the other hand, lives in a small rural village and is found awaiting the Maiden's
Feast. She's not too excited about it given that the feast is for a giant village-eating
monster named Mog Chothra, who's graciously agreed not to destroy everything smaller than
him in exchange for getting to eat specially chosen young girls and, as you've probably
guessed, Vella is one of those chosen. She has ideas that involve less getting eaten
and more Mog Chothra getting dead, much to the chagrin of the town's traditionalists. Since this part
of the game would be ridiculously short otherwise, she does in fact escape the feast and finds
herself in lands unknown. Well, I say lands...
Once you're actually in the game, the first thing you'll notice that it's really damn
pretty. Not bump-mapping, ambient-occlusion, 16-times anti-aliasing pretty, but just...
pretty. The art style is vaguely like that of a painting or a storybook, and it has a
'to hell with physics' attitude to character proportions that suits the quirky nature of
Double Fine games perfectly. Besides, you tell me how a flying-jelly-jailbait-eater's
proportions are meant to look.
It's not enough to see screenshots, though, you have to see it in action. Hell, it might
not make sense until you actually have control over it. The animations completely compliment
the art style and are above and beyond what I've seen in point 'n' click games for quite
a while. On top of that, the cutscenes and conversations give you multiple camera angles,
the screen zooms in and out depending on where you walk - it makes a lot of games in the
genre look quite static in comparison. Even with that in mind, it's immediately noticeable
and makes you wonder why none of the other new point 'n' click titles coming out thought
to do anything along those lines.
And perhaps this is only something that appeals to me, since I'm running the game on a now-4-year
old laptop - but none of this extra graphical magnificence slows the game down at all. My
laptop runs at half-speed with the power unplugged in order to save battery power and when I
tried this out, I saw no difference in how fast the game ran. Deponia; you have absolutely
no excuse.
Onto the interface, which is kind of important when you're using it for 100% of the time
you spend playing the game. Now, I thought I was being a bit draconian when I insisted
that a two-button interface was the best way to do point 'n' click game interfaces... Broken
Age one-ups this... or one-downs, I gues- it's a one-button interface, basically. And
it works. Kind of impressive that they've managed to make that playable and it would've
made Mac gamers quite happy about 10 years ago. That leads to my only gripe, however;
to use items from your inventory, you have to click and drag them. I'd prefer to be able
to click on an item to grab it and then click on something else to use the item on it, but
when you've chosen a one-button system I don't really see a way around that. It's a bit of
a pain if you're on a trackpad, especially one where you usually have to tap to click
because the left button is half-broken... but that one's my own problem. But with this
design in place as well as using an open-source game engine, this sets them up nicely for
release on touch-screen-devices... just sayin'.
One thing that did catch my eye was how the game was written. The setting is still as
quirky as you'd expect from the team that brought you Psychonauts and Brutal Legend,
but if you're expecting the completely zany and sometimes slightly cruel humour, for example,
like Day of the Tentacle, you may be taken aback at first. The game is still funny for
the most part, but it has a blunter edge than you might be used to and the story is always
what stays in the spotlight. Even if the idea of a supposedly civilised village celebrating
the sacrifice of their young is just a teensy bit messed up. Thankfully, the story and world
are interesting and fun all by themselves, but the two live in harmony in quite the seamless
fashion. Shay's deadpan stare as he sits on a roller-coaster he outgrew several shirt
sizes ago still gives me a chuckle. And on the topic of story and humour colliding, can
we just talk about how freaking ADORABLE these little maintenance guys are? I want one, I
want ALL OF THEM.
*ahem* sorry, momentary lapse. I've always viewed Kickstarter projects as the equivalent
of leaving a 20 quid note in an old coat pocket - you're down money at first, sure, but it's
a nice surprise for another day. Of course, that relies on you not thinking about it in
the meantime, but I had the Double Fine Adventure documentary to keep me occupied until then
- totally worth backing the project on that basis alone. Still, I'm glad it's finally
out and I'm even more glad to see that Tim Schafer hasn't lost his touch when it comes
to a genre he hasn't visited since 1998... okay, technically there was Host Master and
the Conquest of Humour in 2009 but I'm not sure that entirely counts.
In conclusion, if you've ever played a game just because Tim Schafer worked on it, you've
probably got the right mentality for this. Of course, you've probably already bought
or backed it. Everyone else should expect an expertly made point 'n' click adventure
that I can imagine anyone enjoying. Anyone who wants a story, anyone who wants to solve
puzzles, anyone who wants a story while they solve puzzles.. it's got you covered, that's
what I'm saying.