![]() It’s safe, familiar (literally), and unchallenging. ![]() Shay doesn’t simply sit in his room and refuse to do his childish challenges. Yes, it’s a heavy-handed simulacrum, but it neatly captures such a common feeling of teenage years. The Dad computer seems to understand the issue, but is too impotent to do anything about it. The Mom computer is entirely unsympathetic to his frustration and stupefaction, determined that he stay the same little Shay he always was. But Shay is no longer a child, and this puerile existence has become a patronising prison. The whole ship looks as though it were designed by Fisher-Price, classic children’s toys implemented as computer controls, Shay’s entire existence essentially a nursery school. ![]() Living on an apparent spaceship, monitored by a daytime and night-time robot, Mom and Dad respectively, and entertained by the requirement to complete a series of childish tasks. Shay’s metaphorical existence is perhaps more overt. But it suggests something so much larger for the second part – how will she handle her family once she has the revelation that the sacrifices are in vain, and are made to a mechanical ship from their own world? How will the town she lives in react to the news, the guilt and horror of the truth? How will Vella identify herself now she is no longer “chosen” for this ignominious role, and has a new freedom to be the woman she chooses to be? In Act 1, quite a parochial approach to such a large issue is taken, with Vella escaping to explore very small new parts of her world, and attempting to free a few others from the delusion. Vella’s rebellion against that could have been so meaningful. Her life deemed disposable for the sake of their own. Her family, with the exception of her grandfather, had tentatively bought into the delusion that letting their daughter be sacrificed was a great honour to her and them – something, which when viewed from the daughter’s perspective, is monstrous. ![]() Vella’s story took the classical tale of maidens being sacrificed to save a town from a monster, but presented it from the perspective of a potential maiden who wasn’t going to accept her fate. The two main characters, Shay and Vella, were each in allegorical situations that represented perspectives of teenage life. I've explored why.īroken Age Act 1, as well as being a whimsical, slightly melancholy fantasty adventure world, was a game about adolescence. While Broken Age Act 2 is a let-down in many ways, not least the dreadful puzzles, for me the complete abandoning of what had seemed so special in the first half is what sucked the most. So, with that in mind, the following article contains plot spoilers up to the very end of Act 2. It wasn’t possible for me to get into exactly why Broken Age Act 2’s story is quite such a betrayal of the first half’s potential in my review. ![]()
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