Broken Age Act 2

The first act of Broken Age hit all the right notes, offering up a compelling and witty story filled with complex characters, empowering messages, and just the right amount of weight placed on a handful of relatively simple puzzles. Unfortunately, the second and concluding act loses much of its predecessor's magic. Most of the characters are still appealing, and the dialogue remains frequently funny, but our heroes have lost their dynamism. And in place of smart allegories and clever twists we've been given a straightforward adventure with a predictable, one-dimensional villain to struggle against.

Perhaps worse, the puzzles have grown exponentially in opaqueness. It's often incredibly difficult to work out what to do or how to proceed. And when -- after seemingly endless mindless attempts to drag random items onto various characters and objects to make something happen -- you eventually stumble upon a solution, you'll likely be left wondering how or even if you could have figured it out through any semblance of logic. It's basically six or seven hours of trial-and-error play punctuated by snippets of giggle-inducing conversation. This frustrating second act is a disappointing conclusion to a two-part game that began with immense potential.