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Broken Pieces

Broken Pieces is a nostalgic mystery adventure that feels like it might be missing one or two components still.
70%Game Brain Score
story, gameplay
grinding, stability
69% User Score Based on 370 reviews
Critic Score 70%Based on 8 reviews

Platforms

PCPCXboxXboxXbox Series X|SXbox Series X|SPlaystation 5Playstation 5Playstation 4Playstation 4WindowsWindowsPlayStationPlayStationCloudCloudXbox OneXbox OneNVIDIA GeForce NOWNVIDIA GeForce NOW

About

"Broken Pieces" is a single-player Horror Shooter game set in a mysterious, timeless French coastal village. With stellar gameplay and masterful visuals, players uncover an intriguing story by solving the enigma behind this mystical place in a psychological thriller experience. The game's ingenious atmosphere ensures a chilling, immersive adventure.

Broken Pieces screenshot
Broken Pieces screenshot
Broken Pieces screenshot
Broken Pieces screenshot
Broken Pieces screenshot
Broken Pieces screenshot
Broken Pieces screenshot
Broken Pieces screenshot
Broken Pieces screenshot
Broken Pieces screenshot
Broken Pieces screenshot
+6

69%
Audience ScoreBased on 378 reviews
story125 positive mentions
grinding21 negative mentions

  • The game features a captivating atmosphere and beautiful graphics that enhance the overall experience.
  • The puzzles are creative and engaging, providing a satisfying challenge for players.
  • The story is intriguing, with a unique narrative style that unfolds through cassette tapes and environmental storytelling.
  • The combat mechanics are clunky and unresponsive, detracting from the overall gameplay experience.
  • The game suffers from tedious backtracking and a lack of clear direction, making navigation frustrating at times.
  • The ending feels abrupt and leaves many questions unanswered, which may disappoint players seeking closure.
  • story
    331 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story of the game is described as intriguing and well-crafted, with a strong atmosphere and engaging mystery elements that keep players invested. However, many reviewers noted that the ending feels anticlimactic and lacks resolution, leaving some plot threads unresolved. While the storytelling mechanics, such as the use of audio tapes, are appreciated, the overall execution suffers from pacing issues and a lack of clarity, leading to mixed feelings about the narrative experience.

    • “The game has an amazing storyline and plot which makes you feel lonely sometimes, but it enhances the whole experience.”
    • “There's a lot of mystery and the story is very well thought out and meticulously made.”
    • “I highly recommend this game for the story, setting, mystery, Elise, and the beautifully detailed world of Saint-Exil.”
    • “The problem is the mystery and story just kind of stops.”
    • “The story felt rushed at some points and thus became overly confusing.”
    • “The game overwhelms you with 4 different plot lines that seem impossible to fit into a coherent story.”
  • gameplay
    151 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players noting a lack of cohesion among its various mechanics, leading to a disjointed experience. While some elements, such as puzzles and environmental interactions, are praised for their creativity and engagement, the combat mechanics are often criticized for being clunky and repetitive. Overall, the game features interesting concepts and visuals, but suffers from poor execution and a lack of narrative integration, resulting in a gameplay experience that can feel tedious and frustrating at times.

    • “It actually puts many pieces of the great adventure game puzzle in all the right places: the visuals, the location design, the narrative, the gameplay mechanics (well, most of them) and the side activities altogether deliver an enjoyable experience.”
    • “The gameplay was satisfying and the puzzles were not overly difficult but felt rewarding to complete.”
    • “The game has a unique way of storytelling which I liked so far; it drops you in the middle of nowhere without telling you why you are here or what happened, but slowly it reveals pieces of the story by finding hints and clues during your gameplay, which I think adds to the mystery of the game and makes you feel good finding that information.”
    • “It's not awful by any means, and it certainly isn't the worst game I've ever played, but the forced backtracking and lack of an engaging storyline just leads to very flat, stale, and quite frankly, boring gameplay.”
    • “The puzzles feel obscure and overly complicated with frequent backtracking for seemingly trivial things (the night mechanic forcing you to go back to the house at the end of every day is frustrating).”
    • “This game could be a lot more and a lot better if it didn't opt for unnecessary gameplay elements like inventory management, time management, and last but not least, extremely clunky combat mechanics.”
  • graphics
    98 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game have received generally positive feedback, with many reviewers praising the beautiful visuals, detailed environments, and charming art style. While some noted that the graphics are particularly impressive on higher settings and in VR, others pointed out issues with optimization and performance. Overall, the visuals contribute significantly to the game's atmosphere, enhancing the experience despite some criticisms regarding gameplay and story elements.

    • “The graphics are absolutely gorgeous on ultra settings.”
    • “The (Unreal Engine) visuals are absolutely splendid - the game reeks of the refined, sedate decay of a beautiful little fishing village whose prime has long past, yet still retains a vibrant (though now, suddenly missing) community.”
    • “If you enjoy a puzzle game with a mysterious back story and hauntingly beautiful graphics, this is the game for you.”
    • “Also, the game is poorly optimized as even after turning down a lot of graphical details, my GPU continuously ran at maximum heat.”
    • “It slows down a lot on maximum settings and the graphics in general are nothing special to warrant the slowdowns.”
    • “I found this game to be disappointing in part because the graphics are nice, but it does a pretty good job of mimicking an older Resident Evil type game.”
  • atmosphere
    66 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its spookiness, nostalgic charm, and stunning visual design, reminiscent of classic titles like Silent Hill. Players appreciate the effective use of sound design and music, which enhance immersion and tension, while the dynamic camera controls add depth to exploration and puzzle-solving. Despite some criticisms regarding the narrative and combat mechanics, the overall ambiance and sense of place create a compelling experience that many find worth playing for alone.

    • “In my opinion, the game is worth playing for the atmosphere alone, and the well-crafted mystery adds to its appeal and helps make up for the combat.”
    • “The best things this game has going for it are its incredible atmosphere, sound design, and original soundtrack.”
    • “Fantastic adventure game with great atmosphere, good puzzles, gorgeous visual design, and a mysterious story.”
    • “Some of the otherworldly sights on display in this game are stunning, often resembling paintings in texture and atmosphere, so I found a bit of that upended when the game shed light on some of its inner workings, though I understand it may not have been the intent of its developers to obscure every aspect of the narrative.”
    • “It's a shame because the atmosphere set is right, the protagonist is likable and the story could be much more fluent and enjoyable to follow if it weren't for those elements, which look like they don't even belong to a game like this.”
    • “The combat is awkward (a common problem for indie fixed camera games!) and the narrative ends somewhat abruptly, but elsewhere, the experience of fixed multicam survival-horror-lite is absolutely worth playing for its sense of place and time (1991, a fictional remote coastal French village!) and the lonely, wistful atmosphere conjured by audio diaries and sad Gallic rock.”
  • music
    65 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game has received widespread praise for its quality and atmospheric fit, enhancing the overall experience. Players particularly enjoyed the original soundtracks and the inclusion of audio cassettes that allow for immersive exploration. While some found certain character songs less appealing, the majority appreciated the sound direction and how it complemented the game's visuals and narrative.

    • “The sound direction is amazing and the music fits perfectly.”
    • “Music is fantastic, and the addition of audio cassettes that you can find in various places with more music tracks to listen to adds even more depth.”
    • “The music, especially the cassettes you can listen to whenever you want to, are wonderful and honestly the most fun parts of the game are when you're exploring the streets with one of these playing and just soaking up the atmosphere.”
    • “Who cares about his music, his instruments, his... everything?”
    • “They try to use the old and tested French method of giving the protagonist a music player and a lot of benches to sit on and listen, but unlike Life is Strange, this does not seem to be user friendly or even atmospheric.”
    • “And their 'music' sucks.”
  • grinding
    21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The grinding aspect of the game has been widely criticized for being tedious and frustrating, with players noting excessive backtracking and unresponsive combat that detracts from the overall experience. While the game features intriguing elements like beautiful music and interesting puzzles, the repetitive nature of the gameplay and the need to grind for achievements have left many feeling disappointed. Overall, the grinding is seen as a significant flaw that hampers enjoyment.

    • “Frustrating, tedious and ultimately disappointing.”
    • “The environments are large and while you unlock shortcuts through the village, a lot of the time the game will have you going back and forth between points to get items/find locations, and it is pretty tedious.”
    • “Overall, Broken Pieces is a great looking and sounding game marred by fairly needless combat that feels bolted into the game to hook more players in and some tedious backtracking-esque exploration.”
  • stability
    18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game suffers from significant stability issues, with numerous users reporting frequent glitches, crashes, and buggy user interface elements. Many players express frustration over the game's lack of thorough testing prior to release, leading to a clunky and irritating experience. Overall, the stability concerns detract from an otherwise engaging storyline and impressive graphics.

    • “Interesting story line and very good graphics, but the game was not fully checked for errors, problems, and glitches before being released.”
    • “Weird, clunky, annoying - I would even say buggy (the game crashed two times while my storage box was open; see below).”
    • “The game has many glitches that are proving very irritating.”
  • optimization
    14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Overall, the game's optimization has received mixed feedback, with many users noting that it could be significantly improved, particularly in certain combat areas. While some players experienced good performance with high-end hardware, others reported overheating issues and suboptimal performance even at lower graphical settings. Despite these concerns, the game remains enjoyable, especially considering its price point.

    • “Performance / price = 8/10 (spent a nice time with a cheap price)”
    • “Visuals are really good and performance-wise I didn't have any issues; turned on DLSS and was getting 150 FPS at least in most cases with a 3090 at 1440p resolution.”
    • “Lastly, feels like the performance can be better in some places, particularly in the optional combat areas.”
    • “Also, the game is poorly optimized as even after turning down a lot of graphical details, my GPU continuously ran at maximum heat.”
    • “Lastly, it feels like the performance can be better in some places, particularly in the optional combat areas.”
    • “Bit unoptimized, but it's fine.”
  • humor
    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is well-received, with players appreciating the clever puns and funny movie posters that add levity to the narrative. Characters like Wesker provide comedic relief, balancing the serious themes and enhancing the overall experience without detracting from the emotional weight of the story.

    • “Loved the movie posters in the game, so funny.”
    • “Wesker: [chuckling] 'I prefer brute force, but who am I to give tips?'”
    • “- Puns and humor are there to balance and protect her sanity and the toll the events have taken on her.”
  • emotional
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players appreciate the emotional depth of the game, particularly the immersive experience of returning to the house, which enhances their connection to the world. However, there is a desire for a deeper exploration of the protagonist Elise's emotional responses to the unfolding events.

    • “I loved having to go back to the house from time to time; it felt real and made me feel like I was truly a part of that world.”
    • “I also wanted to get more of a sense of how Elise is emotionally affected by everything that’s happening.”

Buy Broken Pieces

3h Median play time
3h Average play time
3-3h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs

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