Broken Pieces

This game might look like a 3D action puzzler, but it has the soul of a point-and-click adventure. In mood, tone, and and pacing it most reminds me of the Syberia series: beautiful, quiet, foreboding, mysterious. The protagonist is a pleasant companion on this journey, though it's never quite explained why this gentle young woman is so good with guns. Actually, very little is explained here and you might find the ending abrupt.

What "point-and-click" means in terms of gameplay: lots of backtracking, little hand-holding, and many moments in which you might feel stuck. Conveniently, the game collects all the objectives and clues for you and you don't have to be a master code-breaker to finish the game. The optional objectives are a bit harder, though, and unfortunately one of them is buggy. The boat near the lighthouse won't reveal the locker code in a default camera mode playthrough. But you can look up the code online.

For people who hate playing on a timer, be warned: there is one here. You do need to get home before dark. While you have a generous amount of time, the timer does cause some anxiety. I hate timers, but for me Broken Pieces was tolerable enough.

The worst part of the game is the action: combat is annoying, repetitive, and just not fun. I could never get the "dodge" button to work and controls are generally unresponsive. This caused me to struggle with some of the harder optional areas. I suggest others not make my mistake and choose the "combat reduced" mode when starting the game (it's not the default). Get your action fix elsewhere, not here.

And it's not the most stable game in the world. I had several crash-to-desktops.

All in all, Broken Pieces has problems. Both gameplay and storytelling could have used more time in the oven. And yet I still found the game alluring: the puzzles are challenging, the town is charming, and the writing is decent. Despite the frustrations, I overall enjoyed my time with it.