eje211

I was impressed by Tørnquist's continuing ability to create living worlds with vibrant characters. He should work on his dialogue skills, I'll admit, but overall I sort of miss being part of that world whenI was playing. ("You should play it again!" You may say. True, but it's a long game.) A few things werea tad frustrating. The way the three story streams, Zoe's, Kian's, and Saga's only connect at the very end. I wanted to know more about Sage! As usual, Tørnquist overscoped and he has to minimize one branch of his story. Zoe was great, but a bit less amazing than in Dreamfall. Still, she was conflicted in ways that made me care about her. The one who blew me away was Kian. I just wanted, and still want, to tear him out of the screen and hope that he will marry me. His decisions are truly difficult ones. His identity is fascinating, and his voice is just so sexy! His "frenemy" Likho is one of the most wonderful characters I've seen in anything from any type of media. There's a whole section where Likho's presence is conditional on a player choice and I'm still glad that I got him to come along. The moment of that specific choice actually contains what I think is one of the most memorable dialogue exchanges in the whole game: "Curse you, Kian Alvane!" "Why?" "Because you give me no reason to hate you!" "How about the fact that I killed your father in front of you?" "Yes, apart from that." I'll admit that I want to tear Likho out of the screen Even more than I want to do it with Kian. I have a thing for very rugged, emotionally conflicted men. And on the matter of interesting men (and women), this is one of the most, if not THE most LGBTQ+-friendly game I can think of. Very close is the first game in the series, The Longest Journey.

This is not identical to the 90s adventure games. It's work of gentler, more mature author. The whole storytelling and aesthetic is obviously meant to be for all audiences, including children while sneaking in more complex issues such as social norms and the difficulties of parenting. It also plays very gently with its art: one half of the game seems to been drawn in crayon the other animated by shiny puppets. The gameplay is simplified. It reduces the length and to some extend the depth of the gameplay, but also the frustration associated with it. It's different than SCUMM but in some ways more adapted to the current times. But what is really compelling is the two main characters and their motivations. Unlike in most games or event most stories they have very abstract goals. Their conflict is more about self-actualization and less about solving an external problem. This is a take that is perfectly well suited to the adventure game genre. The story constantly leaves the player in a state of thinking "I'm not sure where this is going, but I want to find out. Just a bit more." The main draw, though, is how the game is split between two storylines. The idea is that if a player is stuck in one, they can move to the other for a change of scenery. But how are those two characters related? When will they meet? How? Why? Is it even possible for them to meet? This is only the first half of Broken Age. It seemed unfortunately obvious that it would end either on too big a reveal or too blunt and ending. It turns out that the cliffhanger is worth the entire game. We find out a lot, but are left with even more questions. My personal hope is that Broken Age turns out to be sufficiently financially rewarding for the genre of adventure games to come back as a legitimate category in gaming.