Great game from Tim Schaffer!! The visuals are amazing, the story is engaging an the puzzles are far better in act 2. It's very creative how he reused the same rooms from act 1 to a whole different thing in act 2. The plot twist in the story is incredible and the final scene is very rewarding. So sorry for people who create another game in their head and wasn't free to enjoy this masterpiece. :)

Great game from a developer that's attracted an inexplicable amount of criticism for seemingly innocuous things. One of the finest examples of the adventure genre.

It's rare to play a game that feels like so much love and attention has gone into its writing and execution, and Broken Age is one of those games for me.
A beautiful, lovingly articulated and lighthearted look at the relationship formed between parents and children, and the place a person carves out for themselves in society when they come of age. The visual and audio styles are unique and delightful, and the dialogue and delivery are always on the spot.
Indeed, some of the puzzles were a bit "unfair" (whatever that means for a genre whose classics include a game such as Day of the Tentacle), but that subtracts only slightly from the experience.

I can wholeheartedly recommend this game. It's gorgeous, it has a nice story beginning to end, the characters are likeable, and the music and voice acting is excellent.

(I'm reviewing the whole game because there is only one game, it's not two parts. It was initially released when there was only the first half of the content, though).

I'm pretty okay at adventure games, but not the best. I've played quite some (among my favourite are Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Machinarium and Book of Unwritten Tales), and I'm familiar with the general way of how adventure game puzzles are structured. The puzzles ranged from simple to challenging, but I never found them dull or illogical. I reached for a walkthrough once, and when I read the solution to that puzzle, I immediately realized where I had forgotten to connect the dots. I had disregarded some comment by one of the characters as irrelevant and forgotten about it, but it turned out to be relevant after all. That's something that happens to me a lot more in adventure games, and I'm fine with that. Never have I thought "Well how was I supposed to come up with that?". As is common in adventure games, sometimes you do think "Why can't I just solve it this way? That would be way easier!" or "Surely that other character has the necessary qualifications to solve this issue for me". But obviously, if it were way easier, or you would let someone else fix things for you, you wouldn't have a puzzle to solve, now would you? :).

There are some puzzles where Vella or Shay will give a hint when you do it wrong a few times. Sometimes I thought they were a bit soon with that, I would have preferred to muddle along a bit more without any hints.

The characters often have funny things to say, and I've laughed out loud on many occasions. I have properly enjoyed myself playing the game, and I found the end satisfying. Sometimes a game is very nice while you play, but they botch up something at the end that leaves you unsatisfied even though you enjoyed it right up to the end. Luckily, this is not the case here. Oh, on that subject: the pictures surrounding the ending credits give a sort of epilogue to the story, so even if you usually click through the credits, you might not want to do that for this game.

It runs fine on my Linux machine, which is nice, because I only boot Windows for games that don't run or don't run well natively on Linux. But I could use my preferred OS just fine.

I could only find one problem with the game, related to clicking on objects in a scene. It turns out I need a lot of explanation to make clear what the problem is; so here goes.

When you try to use an object from your inventory on an object in the scene, the object in the scene is highlighted. However, when you simply hover your cursor on an object in the scene, it's not highlighted. The cursor does indicate you can click, but the thing you're clicking on is not indicated. This can get confusing when you're trying to determine if something is clickable or not; whether it's background or a usable object. Say there's a person in the scene, and a space ship control panel next to that person. When I hover over the control panel, the cursor indicates I can click. But when I click, it becomes clear I've chosen to interact with the person. This can be confusing: is it indeed the case I can't click the control panel, or was I clicking too close to the person? After several clicks which initiate talking to the person, I'm concluding the control panel is part of the background scene. This can be annoying, because knowing what you can interact with is very important in a point-and-click adventure. Note that there is no pixel hunting in this game; it's not as bad as that. Everything you can interact with has a decent size, it's just that not everything that has a decent size can be interacted with :).

I'm surprised by the amount of negative publicity around this game. These negative reviews are the main reason for me to write this review, because I think they paint a wrong picture of the game and might put off people who would love the game. So I'll admit I might be somewhat biased in my review, although I'm really doing my best not to be. But I feel a lot of the negativity and bashing is also not because of the actual game itself but because of other things surrounding it. People seem to be actively looking for things to fault the game for because there is something else they don't like for some reason or the other. Whether that be consciously or unconsciously.

This game might not be your thing, and that's okay. But I find it very hard to find fault with the quality of this game. If you think this could be your thing, don't be disheartened by the negative reviews. It would be such a shame if you decided not to buy this game because of those, and missed out on the great joy you would have had playing it!

Broken Age: Act 2 is an excellent completion and builds a really solid game. The puzzles are more complex, the characters are more rounded, and the worlds are more balanced (as far as interest and things to see, do, talk to). Plus favorite side characters are developed and make the game truly memorable.
It took a while to get here, but I was not disappointed. There was a lot of hard work involved in making this and it was a really delightful play through.

Puzzle design (with its ups and downs) is actually quite true to many classic adventure games from the 90's , so I do feel we got what we've been promised. Also, some of what people here complain about seems quite strange to me - it's as if they actually forgot what these classic games looked like. I mean, character development? Super-consistent plot? Did Monkey Island (first two parts, that is) have any of that? It's that free design that made those games so good back in the day.

Tras acabarlo hace un ratillo, puedo decir que he disfrutado de una gran aventura gráfica a la vieja usanza. Dos personajes principales muy contrapuestos con unos secundarios de los más tronchantes.

¿Se le puede criticar el reciclado de escenarios en el Acto 2? Buenoo....sí, pero realmente a mi no me ha importado, ya que lo que sucede en esos escenarios es totalmente nuevo.

No entiendo mucho algunas críticas sobre la dificultad de los puzzles en el Acto 2, es que así debían haber sido en el Acto 1, donde eran demasiado fáciles. Los del Acto 2 son pura esencia clásica tipo Monkey Island o Day of Tentacle.

Una pena que no llegara el dinero para un doblaje al castellano, pero bueno, los subtítulos están muy bien traducidos y las voces originales en inglés son desternillantes.

Por lo demás, una música muy adecuada, gráficos más que correctos con unas animaciones muy cuidadas y ,sobre todo, un sabor a aventura clásica de siempre.

Sin duda, se lo recomiendo a todos los amantes de los clásicos de Lucasarts. A mi no me has defraudado Tim.

Beautiful world, fun characters, fantastic story... I couldn't ask for more. I thoroughly enjoyed this game. My daughter did as well! It was funny, it was deep, and it could get frustrating at times with the puzzles. Even so, I read some of the complaints about this game and honestly they seem childish and spiteful for no real reason. I give this game a "9" (not a 10 only because the puzzles got a bit tedious at times). This is one of those games you just have to have in your library, its fun and worth the time and adventure. Don't let the other reviews discourage you from a good time!

I'll give this an 8, after I gave the first act a 7. As before, the game looks and sounds fantastic, on a level that we haven't seen before in this type of adventure game. Animations, music and voice acting are all top-notch and the atmosphere of the different locations is incredible. The puzzles were harder and more satisfying this time, but still rather easy for adventure game veterans (as I assume most backers are).
On the negative side, I have to say that the story unfortunately didn't go anywhere in Act 2. This disappointed me, as the first Act started out well with strong themes of becoming adolescent, rebelling against your parents and exploring the "dangerous" parts of life on your own. Unfortunately, none of this was explored any further in Act II, and in the case of Shay it was even "undone" in a way (no details because of spoilers). I was especially sad about Marek, which I thought was an excellent character in the first half, but the revelations about him in the second act were just too weird and that whole part of the story made no sense. The ending was just blah and left me disappointed.

Conclusion: A beautiful adventure game for young and old that plays in a fantastical world full of strange locations and creatures. There are Interesting themes of growing up, although the story ultimately fails to impress. Puzzles are on the easy side and the gameplay feels a bit shallow due to small amount of hotspots and items, and some repetitions (locations, puzzles). I can recommend it both to adventure game veterans as well as to newcomers.

Finally, after a year, we have the last part of Broken Age.
It improves on the first part but it's just a more of the same. If you didn't like the first act, you won't like this either.
First of all: it's longer than act one. Still not huge, but the two acts together (after all, it's a single game) have a more than decent duration for this sort of games.
The puzzles are now harder and more convoluted than the previous chapter, but they're still on the easy side for experienced adventurers. They're always logical (although sometimes a bit of a twisted logic) and satisfying to solve.
The art is amazing: both the graphics and the music are really beautiful, charming and have a sort of lighthearted, childlike, relaxing property on them. Absolutely lovely.
The voices are fantastic too. The quality of the voice acting is absolutely top notch.
The story is also good, but considering the first act premises could have been something more. I was kinda expecting a second, hidden, layer of narration, some sort of subtext about the whole story, and I was wrong.
The ending is also kinda disappointing, I personally would have liked to explore Loruna and know more about it. Maybe we'll get to in a sequel.
And besides Loruna, the world is pretty interesting and I think it has much potential, also thanks to the art style: I want to explore more of it and know more about it, it's just beautiful. Too bad the low number of hotspots keeps it from being more detailed. Hotspots are mostly used for puzzles, whereas in other adventure games where used to give some nice joke or interesting details about the locations and they did add a lot of depht. Also, most of the locations are straight from the first game (with a twist, often): you just revisit them with the other character, so there's not a lot of variety. Shame.
I would give it a nine, but I'll give it -2 points for the bad interface designed for tablets and for the low number of hot spots.
All in all, a very good adventure game from DF: I just finished it and I want more.

Actually most of the game was quite good. But the ending was gibberish. It was painfully obvious that too much content has been cut to "finely push the game out". That's sad, puzzles and the mood were finely picking up the quality of the older titles and just when I was really getting into it the game ended.

PS. Don't forget to watch the credits, the actual story that should have been included in the game is told through doodle sketches that appear during the credits.

Broken Age: Act 2 lacks a bit of the things that made me like the first game, includding adding some puzzles that were far from intuitive and challenged some of the sense I had, but it still manages to be a lovely game with a lot of heart in it.

I'm SOOOO DISSAPPOINTED WITH ACT 2!

Act 1 has an amazing progression in story and character development. I couldn't stop turning the pages, but in act 2 it got to the point that I just looked up the guide to finish the game. The puzzles became mundane and all I wanted was to finish the story. I'm very disappointed with how it ends. Act 2 could have been developed more in the script phase.

Broken Age never delivers on the initial promise of an amazing adventure in the style of classic adventures from the 90's. It's a decent game though, especially Act 1 while the Act 2 seems rushed and with bad/random puzzle design.

Broken Age had a promising start with Act 1, but Act 2 is a significant dissapointment, full of repetition and bad puzzle design, hurting the game as a whole.
A big disappointment, sadly.

This is almost identical to act 1 with different dialogue and touch ups, but because it's Tim Sheifer it's amazing right? NO!!!!! This is robbery. Do not support this crap! Do not buy this. This is clearly rushed through.

A complete disappointment and abandonment of the premise. Rather than continue the character development and story telling from the first act, it **** the bed and throws a garbage conclusion together that raises far more questions than answers. What a waste.

I didn't know what am I suppose to do to finish the game. I must be so stupid if I didn't cheat. My 10 years old sister who loves playing game even played this game and she went to sleep in front of the computer because she didn't know what to do after she stuck. I tried to give her a hint but she just didn't get it. I also thought maybe the riddle just too hardcore?

I gave Broken Age as a whole the benefit of the doubt after Act 1, as I wanted to see Act 2 before I commented.

Now that I've played Act 2, I can safely that this is an utterly failed project. It is an incoherent, generic title that offers next to little of value. Very little character development, environmental charm or anything of substance is here - yes, it's nicely drawn, but utterly unmemorable.

It has puzzles that are easy in Act 1 and hard for the sake of being hard in Act 2. Just no consistency. Any time the game threatens to get going, it slams on the breaks.

Comparing this to the LucasArts titles of the 90s is really like chalk and cheese. The recently remastered Grim Fandango shows Broken Age up for what it really is - a half arsed effort that's difficult to recommend to anybody, and you have to wonder where exactly the money went for this thing. Three million dollars and we get this?

Tim Schafer, hang your head in shame.

Broken Age was a disaster of a puzzle game and I was so frustrated by the second half. It destroyed any hope of a good game that existed in the first half. THE PUZZLES WERE RIDICULOUS, OBSCURE, UNINTUITIVE, AND JUST TERRIBLY ANNOYING. The three worst puzzles were the all those horrible rewiring and the switching back and forth at the end.

This will be my last Double Fine game and has really turned me off to puzzle games in general. They are just not fun anymore. The game was a hot mess in the sense that fresh vomit is. I became increasingly frustrated and disappointed as the game went on.

Supposedly the promised return to the classic adventure genre of yore.. Couldn't have failed much harder than it did.

The two acts are poorly stitched together, the story isn't coherent and makes no sense on the small or grand scale. Character development is nil, revelations that should be mind-breaking are shrugged off with a "meh" time and time again. The ending doesn't even solve any of the problems!

Puzzles in act 1 are simplistic to the point of insulting, in act 2 they went the other way and just made them so vague and frustrating that they halted the entire game, not complex or difficult or requiring a bit of lateral thinking, just vague and goal-less. One could even get into an impossible glitched state, I ran into that one.

You can get dialogue options for things you've never seen, and many puzzles require the two characters to share knowledge they never can. One requires you to do the exact opposite of what all the signs tell you, or what common sense tells you, and be patient enough for the solution to happen by itself with no indication anywhere that it would, while another relies entirely on metagaming - you can only work out the answer because of the limitations of the game, not because the solution is in the setting.

Long story short, this is not the game we backed. We backed a promise for an old-school adventure game, the type we grew up with and wouldn't see again without a paid-up-front venture like this kickstarter, and we got a cookie-cutter click-to-continue mess with a terribly written story, late. and massively over budget.

This is horrible. The puzzles suck, its all the same area even in shays where THERE IS A WHOLE WORLD to use. Vellas part is stupid, tetius, and no one would make it though without a guide. The ending to the game is just sad and explains nothing. You are expected to watch the credits because if you dont you are left with NOTHING. The whole game as a whole is just sad. Also fk that knot puzzle and computer one.

Act 1 held do much promise that Act 2 simply fails to live up to. As much as I want to like it, and I really wanted to love the Broken Age's Act 2, it is a confusing and unsatisfying experience.

Sorry to say, this game is another example of a game that starts out strong then falls apart.

So that was where all that kick starter money went. Double Fine really broke new ground here being the much loved repeating rooms from dungeon crawlers, puzzle design design of modern warfare shooters, characterisation from mobile games, story twists from fanfiction.net and post credit scenes from Marvel. This brilliant combination is only surpassed by the insanity clearly infecting Tim's entire studio. DO NOT BUY.

So this is what we have been waiting for? The same rehash locations from Act 1, but this time full of annoyingly frustrating puzzles? Act 1 was a disappointment, but at least it was a nice candy adventure for kids, that could have been enjoyed for it's story (if it wasn't cut in half). Act 2 is just pure frustration. Does it have good gameplay? No! it's just a click-fest on everything. Does it have nice new visuals? No! You saw most of it in Act 1 already. Is it at least funny? Not even that. Did I have fun playing this? Absolutely not! I was bored, I was frustrated and it all felt like a waste of time, these are the worst things a game can give you. I even replayed Act 1 again to refresh all that happened to give it a fair second chance, but now I regret ever wasting time with Broken Age. Act 2 is even worse than Act 1. Epic fail. I don't wanna fork that! 2/10

A betrayal of customers and fans in every way. The Kickstarter said they were making a LucasArts style Point & Click Adventure game. This is not that, in any way. So they made people wait a year and a half for basically rehashed animations and artwork, a few new lines of dialogue and little else? Sorry, DoubleFine, but I feel cheated and I don't intend to support your products anymore. It's obvious that the Kickstarter money has been redirected towards other things, like paying bills, and not making the game people paid for.

Since the 'Adventure game' kickstarter, DoubleFine has released an unfinished game (Spacebase DF9), a bad game (Hack and Slash), and an absolute mediocre disappointment (BrokenAge). Does anyone seriously expect Massive Chalice to be any good?

In the meantime, they also released Costume Quest 2, published by Midnight City (who went bankrupt in the process). Nice! I hope people realize there is nothing to be expected from Tim Schafer. He used to be a great game designer, now he is just a washed up hack who can't produce a decent game and scams his fans to keep his business afloat.