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 diffic…

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…

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 s…

A very fun and relaxed game with interesting puzzles.

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