Broken Pieces (Review)
By Rae
Brought to us by Elsewhere Experience, Broken Pieces is their first title as an indie developer. The game, set in coastal France, revolves around a village’s mysterious tragedy and the only villager who has escaped the chaos.
Elise and her partner Pierre thought they found a quiet paradise when they moved from the city to Saint-Exil - a tiny town on the coast of France. However, when fanatic cult activity begins in the area, no one is ready for what will take place. A little over two weeks after “the attack,” Elise decides it’s time to check out the local lighthouse for clues. She is the only one left in a town whose population has mysteriously vanished, and she’s desperate to know why. During her explorations, she’s attacked by ghostly figures only called “the devoted” - figures which multiply drastically at night, meaning she has to be home before sundown.
The first choice of a Broken Pieces playthrough is between regular combat and combat reduced. Regular combat is the intended gameplay experience, while reduced offers fewer enemy encounters, and simplified fights – you won’t have to spend much time dodging and fighting as much as reacting when devoted show up to harass you.
The combat is probably the most awkward part of the overall gameplay, and while it’s doable, it’s not particularly fun. Because I ended up choosing reduced combat for my full story playthrough, I wasn’t ultimately too bothered, and I would recommend this mode to anyone who’s interested in experiencing the story itself, especially as the combat only features the same type of enemy each time and doesn’t add too much to the gameplay overall. Unfortunately this also means that it’s hard to agree with Broken Pieces’ classification as a survival horror at all as it plays much more like a puzzle game with sporadic attacks.
Broken Pieces feels a lot like classic survival horror experience in some ways, featuring quite a bit of puzzle solving, fixed camera angles, and gathering clues to solve the mystery of what really happened in Saint-Exile. Some aspects – like the fixed camera – add to the claustrophobic atmosphere as you move through different areas of the town and explore abandoned buildings. Others – like not being able to aim and move – are relics I would love to see left behind by now.
Of course, the most important part of any game is is the story worth it?
Broken Pieces has an uncomfortably unsettling and fascinating premise - Elise is surrounded by true, deep loneliness. Being entirely alone is a fear many of us have, or at least something that should leave most people feeling uncomfortable at best. It’s hard to not want to know more about Elise and Pierre’s happy little pre-attack life, and it’s fun to discover bits and pieces about the townsfolk as you explore. I was thoroughly invested in finding out what happened in Saint-Exil. I knew there was a chance for an unhappy ending, but all that exploration at least had to lead to something.
Sadly, the conclusion of Broken Pieces feels underwhelming, especially after all the player’s hard work. With an unclear conclusion, what seems like it’s supposed to be an overwhelming feeling of existential dread just ends up being disappointment, and I felt like I had put 6 hours of exploration in only to end up exactly where I began.
Overall, I think Broken Pieces has a strong foundation and I’m interested in future Elsewhere Experience releases. The game is beautiful and the premise is engaging. What didn’t work for me was the weak combat and the final fizzling out of a story that was built up through each new location and puzzle. Would I recommend this one? Probably not. But I think it’s worth keeping an eye on upcoming titles - there were a lot of things in Broken Pieces that did work, and hopefully in their next release, the studio will build upon those things.
