I’ve been waiting for Act 2 of Broken Age for over a year, and it’s finally here! Broken Age, Double Fine’s point-and-click adventure, was released in two parts, and, as I wrote about last year, the end Act 1 sort of broke my brain. Act 1 really impressed me because the game engaged in many themes reflective of what is broken in our society and games in general. Last year, I loved Vella as a strong female character because she is often skeptical of the status quo and questioning of authority, much to the aggravation of many of those around her. But, I also enjoyed how the narrative explored the ways gaming is broken through the narrative and the game itself.
Broken Age follows the narratives of Vella and Shay and you can choose to play each narrative straight through or you can choose to flip back and forth. The first time I started with Shay, but quickly switched to Vella after I got bored, later realizing I was bored because Shay was bored, which I thought was an interesting way to demonstrate Shay’s narrative. For the second act, I chose to switch back and forth a bit more because both narratives have becoming interesting to me, and I’m waiting to see the implications of the first act. If you haven’t played the first act, don’t worry, this is one game I would not want to spoil for anyone, so I will be discussing the game using only minor spoilers from minor subplots.
When I played last year, I was focused on the commentary the game makes about our world and the games we play, particularly the way the game works to critique some of the issues in gaming, such as the tropes used to portray women, by making fun of the way women are often portrayed. I haven’t played Act 2 long enough yet to see whether this theme continues, but Vella is still Vella, smart and skeptical, and the overall dialogue in the game is still great: funny, pointed, and telling. The theme that has stood out to me the most so far in Act 2 is that of perspective. That is, we all, at least occasionally, have a tendency to view our perspective as the right or true way of viewing something, and this game is tackling that head on. In an early minor scene, for example, Shay is talking to a tree and making assumptions about how the tree must feel having to live as a tree. The tree quickly corrects Shay and sort of rebukes him for making the assumptions in the first place. I felt the first part of this game did a great job dealing with tropes and concepts of other, and I’m pleased to see that listening to and understanding others perspectives seems to be a theme in the second half as well (only now it’s a much larger theme because….well spoilers).
Tackling issues of others and perspective is always important, but especially now. Right now, my Facebook is filled with perspectives of those who seem unwilling or unable to see the world from a different perspective, with people who are unwilling to even listen to the experiences of those who are different from them. Today, folks on my Facebook are discussing the Baltimore protests (or rather, they are talking past each other about the protests), months ago it was Ferguson, and tomorrow, unfortunately, it’ll be something else. Broken Age asks players to stop and consider the perspective of others as the narrative moves along. It’s very well done, and I can’t wait to keep playing.
If you like point-and-click adventures or good narrative, this game is for you. If you don’t like to reflect on your firmly held beliefs, perhaps it’s not, but I recommend you pick it up anyway. It’s $24.99, but I think it’s well worth it. Unfortunately, it’s been so long since I played the first half that I think I need to start over so I don’t miss anything, so it might take me awhile to get to the implications of what the narrative is setting up. It’ll be worth it though.
