Two separate lives somehow connected by chance. Shay and Vella have very different upbringings but their desire for independence proves to be a bit more overwhelming than they believed.
1. Gameplay
I backed this game on Kickstarter. After learning more about Double Fine, the studio that created Broken Age, I was convinced that this game would be worth my money. Having played through the first half, I have mixed emotions. I started it having recently played Iron Brigade and Stacking, two different games by Double Fine, and having played other adventure games like The Walking Dead and Back to the Future. I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but I expected something along the lines of one of those games (or a mixture of multiple). While this game is a children’s game like Stacking and an adventure game like Back to the Future, it is much more simplistic. Really it’s clearly designed for an extremely young audience. What few puzzles are present are extremely simple, there isn’t much to explore in the environments, and the story is extremely short. I probably spent 30 minutes of my 3 hour experience wandering around looking for the next puzzle to forward my progress (some of which were a bit difficult to find), and the rest of it was spent actually completing the puzzles or in conversations with other characters. The story is divided up into two parts. Shay, the boy, is onboard a ship that treats him like he’s a child, so his story is about breaking free of the bonds imposed on him by his ship. I would say that it was a “coming of age” story, but the game ends for him when he finally breaks free, so there’s no chance for him to realize how he has changed. Vella, the girl, has to escape from a ritualistic human sacrifice and figure out how to kill a huge monster. Her story felt much more like an adventure game and the majority of my time was spent in her quest. Now that the basics have been laid down, I hope that Part 2 will feature a much longer story, more complex puzzles, and a satisfying ending. I’m glad that I backed this game, but it didn’t quite meet my expectations.
It took me around 3 hours to complete this game. Granted, it is only part 1 in a two-part game, but this is still very short. There is little replay value in this game since there are no choices available. The player can interact with the environment, so there might be minor things the player missed, but much of what the game offers must be used in order to progress forward, so there is little for the player to miss.
This game is meant to be a children’s game, so much of it is very simple. Most of the time it practically plays itself. The only times when I became mildly frustrated were when I couldn’t find the next puzzle piece in order to progress onward. There were a few times when I couldn’t figure out what items to put together or couldn’t see the small diamond-shaped stained glass in one area. It was minor, but I do admit that I had to look up the answers to two of the puzzles in order to progress to the end of the game. 2. Parental Notices
Vella’s story surrounds an evil monster called Mog Chothra who requires human sacrifice in order to be appeased. The human sacrifice is called the “Maiden’s Feast”. Young teenage girls are presented to the monster and he takes them. There is no real violence associated with this, they are simply sucked up into the monster via tentacles. The only time when real violence comes in the game is when Vella uses a laser to kill Mog Chothra. There is no blood when Mog Chothra is hit.
Sexuality is not a factor in this game.
Substances are not a factor in this game.
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools currently available for this game.
Almost all of the people in Vella’s world seem to treat Mog Chothra as some sort of god. It’s never directly treated as a religion, but the whole idea seems very ritualistic.
In Vella’s world, the Maiden’s Feast is part of the town ritual necessary for keeping everyone alive. However, she chooses to save herself, violating the town’s cultural norms. While there doesn’t seem to be any official rule of law or law enforcement, she is clearly doing something that is against what the rest of the town permits.
There are no multiplayer modes for this game.
There are only two examples of what could be loosely described as extreme sports. The first is when Shay can put on a space suit and go on a spacewalk. His suit is extremely well padded (an overly-cautious safety measure by his “mom”), but through a series of actions he can lose oxygen. He cannot die though. Vella is rescued from Mog Chothra by a giant bird and eventually flies on that bird to a community in the clouds. If she ever falls off the clouds, a bird comes over and rescues her from death.
Magic is not a factor in this game.
There are no additional factors in this game.
1 Comment
bullshit
6/23/2014 12:28:33 pm
Good damn awful review. It's an easy puzzle game, sure. Did you pay any attention of your 3 hours to the actual story? I'm sorry you breezed over it looking for your puzzle pieces. You missed a well written, engaging and thought provoking tale in the process.
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