Broken Pieces

Broken Pieces is a nostalgic mystery adventure that feels like it might be missing one or two components still.

Broken Pieces caught my eye as it seemed like it had the potential for a fulfilling single-player adventure. After spending quite a lot of time immersed in multiplayer games recently, this promised to be a welcome change of pace. Find out whether Broken Pieces hit the mark in my Rapid Review below.

Broken Pieces manages to be a fine start for the studio. Now we can hope that the future will bring more great games from this dev team.

Broken Pieces isn’t a bad game, but it's not very impressionable either. In fact, I found that none of its components stood out at all and this psychological thriller was certainly missing the 'thrill' aspect.

I really enjoyed my time playing Broken Pieces. It’s an engaging sci-fi adventure game with an intriguing story. The pacing of Elise exploring Saint Exil as well as the time loop element was great, especially the alarm clock reminding me of Groundhog Day. Some of the objectives did feel like filler but with fresh game mechanics such as weather, managing daytime and more as part of puzzles the game kept my attention.

Overall, Broken Pieces by Elseware Experience, Benoit Dereau, Mael Vignaux and Freedom Games was a journey that I’ll remember for some time. Well paced and not overly complicated in its puzzles, this adventure felt well balanced as it tells its mysterious tale.

Broken Pieces is a creative game with a plot containing a variety of puzzles, decent exploration, and questionable combat. Being the only character in the entire game, it can get rather lonely. However, that adds to the overall experience of being, well, all alone. Although this was under the psychological thriller genre, it was neither psychological nor thrilling – but it was unique. It may not be as mind-provoking as expected, but it had an intriguing story and a fairly smart protagonist, even if she was a terrible shot.

Set in a picturesque village inspired by real world French Brittany, Broken Pieces is an adventure thriller game with a great foundation. The premise, visuals and soundtrack are all interesting and make a great first impression. The execution of everything else however is a bit rough around the edges. With questionable combat elements, convoluted puzzle mechanics and a story that feels incomplete, Broken Pieces feels a little too much like its title.

The mysterious thriller about the invasion of a picturesque French village could have gone better. When the game ends, you boredly click on exit, you uninstall the game with the feeling that you actually forgot what happened in it.

Broken Pieces has a decent narrative and puzzles that mostly make sense, with a camera system designed to evoke nostalgia. But the combat sections, few as they are, are mediocre and players need to quickly become invested in the story to keep moving forward, finding puzzle solutions, and returning to their home before 8 PM.