Broken Aperture

Alright. [i]Broken Aperture[/i] is done and dusted. I guess you could characterize this game as a walking simulator with lite puzzle elements. I think part of the story was lost on me for reasons I'll mention below, but ultimately, this is a story about the inception of a relationship and the broken end of a relationship. Maybe? Something like that. Definitely, Freya and Alan had issues. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3716172555 I think the walking simulator aspect of this game in the maze garden in particular was pleasant and nice looking. The library was meh. Freya's home was similarly kinda meh. The puzzles were pretty easy and boiled down to a sliding puzzle, two combination locks, and the proper sequencing of some coffee books, with some find the object puzzles mixed in. I think they served the purpose of adding a bit more substance to the game. It's visually pleasant if uninspiring, outside of the maze garden, which was truly a pretty environment. The voice acting was decent right up to the point where the [spoiler]big argument[/spoiler] happens. That was underwhelming. And actually, the voice acting overlapped and blurred together making it difficult to sort out what was actually happening. I have questions, and it led to the entire story resolution kind of making zero sense to me. Too much was lost as a result of that buggy section. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3716172541 And actually, that brings me the biggest point of contention I have with this game. It's very buggy in general. The voice acting was bugged as mentioned above. I encountered two bugs with the transition to the library. At least five of the achievements are either bugged or potentially placeholders for the DLC (one definitely isn't a placeholder though). The captions are broken. The FPS was a bit all over the place. There were instances of some assets clipping into other assets. It was far from a clean experience. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3716172517 I think I'm going to end my review there actually. There is a quality experience to be had here, but at present, the game is too buggy to recommend, especially when those bugs were actively inhibiting story reveals. I'd like to see those bugs addressed in more than a "we're looking into it" type fashion. With the bugs addressed, you are getting about a 30-40 minute game unless you get stumped on one or more of the puzzles, which you probably won't be. With that in mind, if you are still interested in checking this game out, I think the sales price of $1.49 it's seen recently would be the way to go. [b]I received this license via our IndieGems Curator program.[/b] [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/]Robilar's Reviews[/url], it would be appreciated. Cheers.[/code] [code]Also follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] for more reviews like this one.[/code]

I don't mind short games but I expect more than 35 minutes if I am paying for a story driven experience, even if the narrative is decently paced (which it is), you have to give me like 90 minutes so I have the time to appreciate the journey. You can travel between different memories of the character with walking-sim gameplay, so you should have utilized that to create more variety and navigational escapism -- the garden area and the library part were not bad, but I think the game needed at least another 3 dreamy locations like that. The story was a little too simple for my taste, there are dozens of games on Steam that do exactly the same thing where the character is going through grief and collects their happy memories, and generally those games have more depth or context (at least those that are worth playing), where this game just leaves it at the surface level. I didn't really mind the actual delivery of the story, I think the voice actors did a good job conveying their emotions in the moment, but overall the experience is very basic, there are too many games that have a similar narrative and are more compelling. There were a few puzzles, I pretty much solved all of them under 1 minute so they didn't add a lot to the gameplay, I think the use of a hint for the lock was clever, but the game needed more puzzles like that with more locations. The visuals were just okay for the price, I think the garden area looked pretty good, you had a decent amount of detail for the apartment, granted you only have a few areas, so maybe you could have done more interactions just to kill more time and provide more context for their problems. I had to switch to medium settings because it felt like the light effects were not properly optimized, I could feel them having an effect on the camera movement. [h1] Pros: [/h1] (+) Fully voice acted, decently. The pacing of the narrative was not bad, if it was at a bit longer and maintained that pacing I think it would be a decent game (+) The visuals/detail were okay for the price [h1] Feedback: [/h1] - 35 minutes is just too short, I think you should aim for a few hours for walking-sim games, it's a cheap game, but there are demos that are the same length. I think the areas like the garden and that book location were not bad, but I was expecting another 3 locations like that at the minimum (On that note, it's always beneficial to add more optional interactions and more optional achievements, make the player want to explore and look at things) - the narrative was a little too simple in my opinion, I think you will find many games on steam that do the exact same thing, but with more depth and context, with multiple hours of visuals. So, what it is about this game that makes it stand out or makes it any different than anything I played before? - it felt to me like the light effects on high settings were not optimized, but I can't speak for anyone else, I could feel it affecting the camera - check if the achievement is working, not sure what it was for but I didn't get it [b] Overall Thoughts: 4/10 [/b] I played so many great walking-sim games over the years that had a similar narrative, this felt like the exact same experience but much less in terms of context, not sure if it was like a learning project, but it's a little too simple, you need to come up with a more original narrative and settings. I think the voice acting was decent, the locations were not bad, but you should have more memories to explore, the game is just too short, and does not have anything new to offer that I have not experienced before in greater depth. I would recommend at least aiming for a few hours of exploration, maybe with more optional content or achievement hunting. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]

Overall an enjoyable game! There are a few points that could use some polishing, but I enjoyed my time with it. The emotional climax of the game (no spoilers, sorry) makes the effort leading up to it both heartbreaking and worth it all at once. Excited to see what kind of additions the team makes in the future!

Good game.

Broken Aperture — Cozy puzzles, gentle vibes Broken Aperture surprised me in the best way. Its story doesn’t try to be grand; it’s simple, a little quirky, and honestly pretty cute just enough narrative to nudge you forward without getting in the way of the exploring. The real draw is the puzzle design. Most challenges are intuitive and satisfying to solve, with a couple of spots that spike the difficulty just enough to make you stop, think, and feel clever when the solution clicks. As a walking-sim first and a puzzle game second, the pacing is relaxed. Environments invite you to slow down, look around, and piece things together at your own tempo. When the game leans into that calm rhythm letting the puzzles emerge naturally from the spaces it’s at its best. A few sections ask for a bit more precision or backtracking than the rest, but they’re the exception, not the rule. Verdict: If you’re in the mood for a laid-back stroll with brainteasers sprinkled in, Broken Aperture delivers. Its charming, uncomplicated story pairs well with puzzles that feel fair yet occasionally spicy, making the whole experience a pleasant, low-pressure escape. Pros Clever, readable puzzles with a few satisfying head-scratchers Simple, charming story that keeps momentum without bloat Relaxed, exploratory pacing that suits a walking sim Cons Occasional difficulty spikes / slower patches / No Achievements Score: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

Ran into a bug during the library level where the screen cut to black and restarted the level without the UI on screen. From that point on I wasn't able to pick up all the books because "my hands were full". Thankfully there was a level select option in the menu so I could just skip it but for a walking sim game like this I question why that's even a feature unless either A. you don't want to make a save system or B. you want a cheap way of negating soft locks. The voice acting in the argument scene was also just really emotionless and felt like popcorn reading. Other than that it's fine as long as you know you're only getting 30 or less minutes out of it and it mostly consists of picking up items.

For the most part Broken Aperture seems to be a well crafted and relaxing experience. Given the short length of the game and numerous bugs I encountered over my playthrough I was tempted to not recommend this game, but I believe some of these bugs and issues could be fixed in time. Some of these issues are as follows: The text box was stuck on bottom of screen for the beginning of my game. Some plants in the maze seem to have collision issues while others do not for no reason. The graphics options seemed to make little to no difference in some areas, but in other areas putting the graphics on low or medium would make it almost impossible to see. Maybe it was just me but I was confused and had no guidance in certain areas especially after the "he proposed" achievement where I wandered around for quite some time before seeing the memory. By far the biggest issues I had were in the library level where I could not figure out the correct order for the bookshelf puzzle. This may have just been me again missing something but the first time I tried to back out of the puzzle and it reloaded that level for me putting the player at half height. On my second attempt the books started to vanish after clicking them for awhile all except for one. I must admit I was unable to complete the library due to this issue but skipped to the level after. I am listing these issues here so that hopefully they may be fixed in the future. If they are I will hopefully return to the game and change this review later on. I look forward as well to coming back to collect the stuffed dinos as I did not finish this. Otherwise I enjoyed this game for the most part and look forward to what Dinobyte Softworks has planned for the future.

A very fun and relaxed game with interesting puzzles.

Great game! I'm looking forward to what more content this has in store!