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Expectation is terrible thing. Its ugly sister, hype, is even worse. Broken Age, the first adventure game from genre pioneer Tim Schafer in 16 years, the game that blew open the doors for crowd-funded gaming, groans under these twin burdens.Best, then, to just judge the game for what it is, separate from its inherited legacy and scrutinised production history. It's just that, under those criteria, what you find is a nice but largely unremarkable adventure game. It's a game that makes no terrible missteps, yet that's largely because it never attempts anything bold enough to risk landing flat on its face.
What you get is two stories in one, each following a frustrated young soul breaking free from parental and social constraints. Vella is on the verge of womanhood, and is due to be sacrificed to Mog Chothera, a gigantic monster, as part of a traditional festival known as the Maiden Feast that will keep the village of Sugar Bunting safe for another year. Everyone seems quite OK with this fate - even her parents, who are proud she's been chosen for such an honour. Only her crotchety grandfather, who still remembers when the townsfolk were feared warriors rather than pacifist bakers, kicks against this wilfully submissive stance. Vella, of course, opts to choose her own path and the bulk of her story involves finding a way to kill Mog Chothera.
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