Recent reviews by FuzzyPuffin

There are a lot of reviews comparing this game to Riven (and Myst). Riven is my favorite game of all time so I thought I'd comment on that. It's hard for me to play Myst-style games without thinking "THIS ISN'T RIVEN" so take my biases with a heavy piece of salt.

The game is probably the most Riven-esque in feel to any non-Cyan game I've played. From the adobe walls to the strange steampunk machinery, they really nailed the atmosphere. It's not quite as alien, though--nothing quite on the level of Age 233. I wanted to be a bit more surprised at what I found around the corner (there was one moment in particular at the end of the game where I felt this, and I wanted that more often).

Puzzle-wise, the game was a mixed bag. Overall, the weirder the machinery, the better the puzzles. The game has a Riven-like connectivity to it in which puzzles will interrelate, and you will use what you learned from one puzzle to solve another. When these things happen the game is at its best.

The worst parts of the game were the unimaginative puzzles. There are some that you will have undoubtedly played in another game, and that was really disappointing. (There was one in particular that seemed to be pulled straight from Riven, but made a bit easier.) There are also some sound puzzles I wasn't too fond of. Cyan is guilty of this crime too.

The other major difference is that unlike Riven, this game uses an Inventory. Not to an insane degree like a LucasArts title, but it's still there. I'm not usually a fan of this because pixel hunting is unfun. The game has an option to put an effect over interactable objects, but this reduces immersion. I can't say this was a major issue, though. Usually it's easy to find what you need.

Now let's get to the story. I won't get into specifics, but there were also similarities to Riven's theme here The major problem with this game is that barring a few exceptions, the environmental storytelling doesn't adequately support the story they want to tell. For example, the reason for the existence of most of the puzzles is super lame. In Riven, every "puzzle" had a reason for existing, and communicated story and character.

Towards the end, the game delivers an awkward monologue to the player for about five minutes, and it spoonfeeds the backstory. This would have been much more satisfying to piece together yourself over the course of the game by interacting with your environment.

I know I'm probably sounding super negative, but that's only because I can't see Quern out of Riven's shadow. Despite myself, I still really enjoyed it. But if you want a more recent game that does a better job of marrying its story and gameplay (though it still doesn't come close to Riven), I recommend Cyan's latest, Obduction.

Chapter three is a fitting end to the trilogy. If you liked the first two, you'll like this one. Art, music, and voice acting remain just as strong.

The puzzles seemed much easier this time around––I was never stuck for more than fifteen minutes or so. This might be a good thing as inventory-based puzzle games can be illogical. While there were some clearly "absurd" solutions, it was always clear what to do. For the third game, it would have been nice to have had some harder non-inventory based puzzles. (For the record, I did have to look up some hints for both the first two chapters).

The story is satisfying yet holds no real surprises. Although everything wraps up nicely (in a climax not unlike a certain Star Trek movie, but the tone is far more appropriate here) it felt a bit rushed. It's just as long as the previous chapters, but there are so many story beats to cover that it feels at times that we're playing an abridged version of the storyline. I would have liked to have seen a bit more interaction and more dialog options among some of the heroes and villains in the endgame.

My biggest complaint is in the Underland itself: for all the buildup in the first two parts, it was a bit too generic-paradisey. I enjoy The Journey Down for its unique setting and characters, but the Underland itself didn't live up to the rest of the game, and it was a much more minor part of this chapter than I thought it was going to be.

I hope I'm not making the story sound worse than it it is. They are really minor issues all things considered, and TLJ remains my favorite of the new Lucas-style adventures that we've seen in the past few years. I certainly enjoyed it more than, say, Broken Age (and it felt much more complete than that game). I hope many people buy it so SkyGoblin can do something much more substantial next time around.

Broken Age is definitely one of the more unique adventure games in recent years.To echo some of the other reviewers here, the game exudes charm. The art direction is exquisite and unique. Shafer's trademark humor is here, but it's understated. Below the humor there are weighty themes of independence and growing up, and I'm interested to see where it all goes (and not just because of the amazing ending!)

The puzzles, at least in Part I, are simplistic and not very satisfying to complete. (On the upside, this means the game avoids "adventure game logic--you will not be combining a string of objects in an illogical fashion). They are a harder in part II, but one thing that really bugged me was one particular puzzle in which you needed information from Character A, which you received from character B. (You can switch between them.) But you don't actually transmit the information narratively in the game (you just switch) so it breaks the internal game logic of the world. This made the puzzle a lot harder than it should have been, but it would have been so easy to fix.

Pro tip: give the wrong objects to people. You will often get amusing, unique answers. Also, map the right-click button to the inventory. The interface was obviously designed for tablets, and while it works on PCs, the default mappings should be different.

The ending felt rushed and unsatisfying. I felt Schafer had a much longer idea in mind and had to shoehorn it into something the budget would allow. While I still enjoyed the journey, the destination wasn't the best.

The best thing to come out of this Kickstarter is still the documentary––if you even have a passing interest in game development I recommend watching it.

(Oh, and the music is VERY well done.)