Finally, there is another game to be excited about, unless you are a single genre player that’s not interested in puzzles, mysteries, and complex storytelling. For those who are, you have come to the right place. This new and very first game by Elseware Experience, a studio consisting of only five people, has created a game that could rival games like Alan Wake. This psychological thriller surprised me greatly with just how fleshed out it actually is. These days, it is rare to have a game come out that feels finished and does not need a hundred patches to work out the kinks. Now, it is not the perfect game, but for its genre and styling, it is good, which is high praise for me. I love story-driven games, and I could name around ten that I rate quite highly, and for this to possibly be a part of that ten is impressive.

Broken pieces follow the story of Elise, a woman trapped in a sort of Groundhog Day, however, everyone else has vanished, including her music-creating partner Pierre. Equipped with her cassette player. Yes, very retro. For those too young to remember tapes were once used to record sounds, play music, and even watch movies. Crazy right? Music is stored on magnetic tape stored in a cassette. Loathing my getting older aside, Elise, with her cassette player, trusty pistol, and magic storm stone must venture out to uncover why this quaint French coastal town of Saint-Exil is now a ghost town, with literal static ghost people that pop up and give you a hard time. Get your Sherlock on as this story has layers, with multiple different factions, each with their insights as to what is happening. Use clues they have left to uncover the mystery and find your way back to Pierre if you can.

The first thing to know, and something I love, is that you have the option to use both PlayStation and Xbox controllers if you want to. For this, though, I stuck with the mouse and keyboard, but the controls are very straightforward. The camera is fixed overhead and you can change to a different angle by clicking the mouse wheel, similar to most other story-based games. The character movement reminds me of old-school Resident Evil but it’s a little more modernized, which I enjoyed. It is like a hit of nostalgia.

One mechanic that did slightly annoy me was the carrying capacity. You can only carry one large item at a time, so like an axe or a lever, not both, and there is only one place to store items, which is at your home. You must leave one behind and come back for it, and with the character movement set at either walk or an easy jog, having to run back and forth just felt slow. It was almost like a constant fetch quest to even just collect your own gear, and most of the story is made up of fetch quests. Go here, find this, go back, if you need something else, go there and come back. You do unlock semi-shortcuts along the way, though the long trips can be time used to listen to tapes that you find, helping to explain plot points, clues, and places of interest, or just you can just listen to the sultry sounds of Pierre.

There is also combat, and this does help break up the monotony of the back and forth, but was not as engaging for me. For instance, when using your gun, you have to stand still and wait for the aim icon to be tight so you do not miss your target. You can’t move, but you can dodge using the spacebar, and it works when there is one enemy, but if you use dodge or your pushback ability(shift), or your one shot blast(F), you then have to wait for the aim to tighten again. This gets old quickly and to use any ability you have to be aiming, and if you try to gain some distance to give yourself time to aim, the enemies will just teleport to you.

Luckily, most of the combat is easy, but I have been taken out twice, and oh boy, does that suck. When you die, you start back at the house at the start of the day, so everything you did after leaving the house you have to do again, and there are no checkpoints, so all the fetch questing starts again. Now to remedy this, it gives you an option at the very beginning by choosing between the standard game mode or the story. The latter diminishes the combat to focus more on the story, so you won’t have to worry so much about the restarts. If the story is not enough for you, there are some optional puzzles to solve and collectibles to find. The puzzles can be challenging, which makes solving them all the better if you have the patience.

Visually this game is quite good, especially coming from a small developer. There was definitely care and attention to detail put into this. This is not uncommon as there is more genuine love put into it, but being smaller, the budget is not always there to polish it, however, they managed to make this little ocean view town, ghostly as it is, quietly and eerily stunning. From abandoned cars to paved streets, there are spots where you change the angle and allow for stunning views. Interactable objects are highlighted, so even though you can miss things, you will eventually find what you are looking for, and it did serve me well.

There is music in-game, but for the most part, it is purely ambient which suits the game well. You are, after all, literally walking around an empty town devoid of life except for some birds. When you get closer to the ocean, you’ll hear the ocean breeze, seagulls squawking, and waves crashing, with some creepy and haunting melodic noises added to the mix. If that is a little too scary for you, remember, Pierre is here to help. You can always throw on one of his tracks to keep your mind off of the harsh reality that you are alone for reasons you are unsure of, with no way of knowing if anyone you know, or the one you love, is still alive, or if you will ever escape this time loop.

I love these games. They’re a nice change of pace from the action and team deathmatch games. Broken Pieces is not without flaws, but as the first game produced by Elseware Experience, it is very impressive, and I cannot wait for what they will create next.

Written by: Adam Brasher