Double Fine have become somewhat legendary in the gaming industry now, with Tim Schafer gaining the sort of fanbase usually reserved for a minor celebrity, and it should be of no surprise really. With legendary titles such as Psychonauts under their development belt, people have high expectations for their titles. The “Double Fine Adventure” game earned $3.5million on Kickstarter, breaking all sorts of records, and now we finally have Broken Age Act 1, a type of coming-of-age story told by two rather different characters, in a beautifully designed world.

Broken Age is a Point-And-Click Adventure game that will bring joyous tears of nostalgia to veteran fans of the genre. You take control of two very different characters, Shay, a young lad living aboard a spaceship controlled by an overprotective computer that refers to itself as his Mother, and Vella, a girl due to be used as a sarificial lamb to protect her village from a terrifying monster. The story takes some very unique twists and turns and manages to stay interesting throughout this 4-5 hour adventure that is Act 1.

Aboard Shay’s ship you’ll find yourself breaking away from your oppressive “Mother”, whilst uncovering the reasons why you’re aboard the ship in the first place, and taking control of the vessel for yourself. The environment is somewhat bland, but Shay’s story is rescued by the unique and genuinely interesting world that Shay lives in.

Vella on the otherhand travels from her home village of bakers, to a cult in the clouds and a seaside village. The environment is constantly changing, as are the cast of characters you get to interact with, making her half of the story feel more colourful and vibrant. All Vella wishes for is a way to defeat Mog Chothra, the demonic monster that terrorises her village and others.

Broken Age has several strong points, but it’s debatable if the puzzles are one of them. Puzzles are clever, and like most Point-And-Click games involve making items interact with other items and characters. More often than not you will be given hints as to the solutions of many of these, so they rarely pose much of a difficult challenge. Despite this, they stay fun to solve throughout the adventure. This game is worth playing because of its interactive storytelling, but it isn’t a challenging puzzle game.

And of course, the writing is fabulous. The story is interesting throughout, the characters really feel like they could be real thanks to their personalities and the dialogue can be very genuinely funny. Not necessarily laugh-out-loud, but definitely worth a few chuckles. Writing of this quality isn’t seen enough in games, and it is an absolute joy to experience it in Broken Age.

Graphically the game is absolutely gorgeous. The whole game has a beautiful art style that appears hand-drawn, and makes moving to new areas and meeting new characters a real joy. At no point during this adventure did I feel that the graphics were unimpressive or boring, but instead, they remain lovely to look at and appreciate whilst travelling through all of the areas and puzzles.

The music is a lovely addition to a solid game, adding the necessary ambiance to situations that can be tense or relaxing. This, however, is not the main plus the audio has. The game’s characters are fully realised thanks to a spectacular voice cast, including Jack Black, Elijah Wood, Pendleton Ward and Jennifer Hale. All the characters truly come to life, and although some are more memorable than others, none of the characters overstay their welcome. Some games have poor voice casts, but Broken Age is certainly not one of them, and the personalities of the characters shine through.