By now, most have experienced waking up in a dungeon with no idea how they got there or why… well, in video games anyway. Although in this case, there’s much more to it than mere captivity for reasons unknown: the entire world has been turned on its head and nothing is as it should be, in this strange adventure.
Upon exiting the dungeon, quite the adventure awaits Tobias (that’s you): talking trees, strange mechanisms, puzzles, obscure conversations and at least a few “uh, what?” moments. Seeing how the game has an odd habit of dropping hints, semi-cleverly disguised as witty qips, I rarely found myself pondering what to do next, for more than a few moments at a time. This was likely done to ensure the story and humour could be enjoyed with a minimum of interruptions, rather than overwhelm the player with brainteasers. Well, certainly beats getting stuck!
As far as the interface goes, unlike most genre entries, this one has done away with the ‘standard’ controls, opting instead for what can best be described as a context-sensitive setup: depending on what your cursor is hovering over, you’ll be presented with one or two actions, triggered by clicking the left or right mouse button. Oh, and there’s no audio, but the developer “might add sound/speech in the far future”.
It does have great art, smooth animations, and enjoyable comedy, all of which help keep it afloat. But after playing for a good bit, I started feeling somewhat disconnected. I don’t know… it could be so much more with even the most basic of sounds. Aside from that, it does seem like an enjoyable experience and one that’s just the right amount of quirky; be sure to tell Weirdo I said hi.
According to its creator, playing through Breakage should take a good 2-3 hours, which is a decent length, considering the complete lack of a price tag. Time for you, as Tobias, to figure out what the heck happened and maybe, just maybe, fix it too!
