Broken Age will be released in two parts. We plan on doing a formal review once it is complete. Until then, here are our impressions of the first episode.
If I took a lesson out of the first act of Double Fine's Broken Age, it's that we control our own fate. It's a theme that the game proudly sees through from the beginning of both of its concurrently-running stories, all the way to its cliffhanger ending. It's a wonderful story of dual destinies, all cleverly tied together in gripping, emotional, and humorous fashion.
Vella lives in a peaceful village, where all appears to be well on the surface--all except for a looming monster called Mog Chothra that feeds on human sacrifices held during its Maiden's Feast. Vella is the chosen sacrifice, but her story is about a refusal to blindly accept her fate. In sabotaging her sacrifice, Vella sets out to change the world and come of age on her own terms. Meanwhile, Shay's story is slightly different. He lives aboard a spaceship of manufactured safety, where daily "missions" unfold like something out of preschool television. Like Vella, his story is about finding the meaning of growing up and finding himself against a computer that seeks to imprison him in perpetual childhood.