Didn't like the final act all that much, which is a bummer because of how fun and relaxing the main 5 levels are. I think there's something really special here, with some fun references and the aesthetic sensibilities of a typical second life server (in a good way). If you love puzzle platformers and the aesthetic speaks to you then I certainly recommend this one, just know that it didn't fully stick the landing in my opinion.

also, if I were to write a one sentence meme review about this it'd say
"Indie devs try not to have secret horror elements in their game challenge (VERY HARD)"

Incredible aesthetic from the visuals to the music depending on how you feel about vaporwave. I personally love seeing that early Internet age visualized. When we genuinely thought this would be a new wave of knowledge and connection that would bring us into the future for the better only for the modern day to be way more cynical and just suck shit. The game does a great job of deconstructing that.

I found it fascinating how lonely this game could feel. Connected and alienated all at once. People are there but very little of them are actually talking to you.

As an adventure game, it's quite charming and gets a lot of good use of it's mechanics. Everything gets its moment to shine.

I think the bigger issue I had was how janky they felt sometimes. I'm willing to say a good portion of that is because I played on a controller through steam and this was clearly not meant for a controller. Though I'd appreciate if you could move just a little bit faster.

If there was anything truly wrong with this game, it's the back two levels can be super tedious. Still very visually striking, but the least enjoyable gameplay wise due to some pretty egregious backtracking through platforming sections and really annoying placement of side quest objectives.

Again though, it's got a great style and I'm excited to see what the devs got next with the sequel.

ENG: We control a nameless user navigating through diverse and extravagant virtual worlds. Similar to Jazzpunk, but not tonally, of course.

Anyway, as tools that will help us to advance through these places, we will have at our disposal:

- A "liker" with which we can give likes to ads.

- A katana to get rid of annoying pop-ups that block our way.

- A credit card to consume to your heart's content.

- A cursor to swing between links.

- A camera to get even more likes.

- And finally, a sort of compass that acts as a checkpoint.

Strange reflections of an internet that never existed. Conscious parody or senseless glorification? I think the former. Browsing these spaces feels genuine. With quirky characters we are told a simple but effective story.

ESP: Controlamos a un usuario sin nombre navegando por diversos y extravagantes mundos virtuales. Similar a Jazzpunk, no tonalmente, eso sí. Acá todo tiene tintes retro y vaporwave.

De cualquier modo, como herramientas que nos ayudaran a avanzar por estos lugares, tendremos a nuestra disposición:

- Un "liker" con el que podremos dar likes a anuncios.

- Una katana para deshacernos de las molestas ventanas emergentes que nos bloquean el paso.

- Una tarjeta de crédito para consumir hasta el hartazgo.

- Un cursor para balancearse entre los enlaces.

- Una cámara de fotos para ganar aún más likes.

- Y por último, una suerte de brújula que actúa como checkpoint.

Extraños reflejos de un internet que nunca existió. ¿Parodia consciente o ensalzamiento insensato? Creo lo primero. Navegar por estos espacios se siente genuino. Con unos personajes estrafalarios se nos cuenta una historia simple pero eficaz.

i went into this expecting nothing more than a quirky vaporwave meme game and i wasn't disappointed. i was kind of hoping for something more if i'm being honest

that said though, the visuals are stunning (geocity being my favorite) and the music is good. innernet's atmosphere is freaky and i'm all for it. the puzzles aren't really anything to write home about, but the platforming sections in both geocity and innernet were fun

minor nitpick i guess but there were some graphical glitches i encountered. sometimes when opening my questlog it would linger on the screen for a couple seconds, i found a very specific spot in geocity where you can see out of bounds and there's another in the dtop building. i should also mention that it's surprisingly easy to softlock yourself, such as in the mixtape quest

These sorts of first-person adventure games don't normally impress me, but I feel the need to spread the good word of Broken Reality. It's a delightfully weird homage to ye olde internet during the 2000s and early 2010s, and you can feel in particular areas that the small dev team do legitimately miss it. I realise it's just nostalgia informing me, but I do too. As well as that melancholic undercurrent in some areas that I always love, the art style was pretty tremendous. It can be way too much sometimes and can hurt your eyes, but I think that's part of this game's charm. I thought most of the puzzling was very straightforward and easy, dialogue writing was mediocre and the overarching plot was obtuse and didn't have much development, so Broken Reality is just for people who want to see the weirdness on display.

Broken Reality is a fascinating and mesmerizing romp through a decaying internet. I love these small indie games that are weird first person adventure games. They are usually VERY endearing to me, and this one even has insane visuals to go with it. Probably 2nd favourite game style wise (behind Lego Island).

There is also the bonus of this being so heavily Vaporwave inspired. I was super heavy into that shit in high school so this is just gonna hit me harder. Getting a bunch of songs from real vaporwave artists just adds to it. This also has probably one of my favourite gaming musical experiences with the very last sequence in this game.

A perfeita experiência Vaporwave em forma de jogo.

Broken Reality é um jogo ala JazzPunk (outro ótimo jogo), onde a principal graça não está em fazer os objetivo principais, mas sim em explorar os mundos CHEIOS de piadinhas, referências e sidequests loucas e aleatórias. Todo o tema e visuais de Broken Reality foram feitos em torno do VaporWave, que é um movimento estético bem específico da era digital - e que é muito dahora por sinal, deem uma pesquisada.

A única crítica maior é que, em relação aos objetivos principais, algumas vezes você vai ficar perdido sem saber o que fazer, pois o jogo não te dá boas indicações quanto a isso. Mas fora isso, Broken Reality é, de longe, uma experiência única que merece ser jogada.

This game genuinely makes my heart ache in a way I find difficult to put to words. It's a vibe, it's the music, it's the looking glass into an alternate future in which the internet retained it's carefree whimsy that it was so packed with in the mid to late 90s. The game seems tailor-made for people like me, people who have been lost between generations, who developed in an age that came and went so quickly that we barely had the ability to appreciate it at the time. If you listen to vaporwave to go to sleep, if you fell in love for the first time listening to Floral Shoppe, this game was made for you.

I'm going to be thinking about this one for a while, on the surface its a brilliant game but the deeper story, design and ideas in general elevate it further.

The aesthetic and style is phenomenal, personally I can't get enough of the vapor-wavey early 2000's....windows XP style? just hook it into my veins. The music's fantastic and sometimes it was nice just to stop for a little and enjoy the atmosphere.

The idea of collecting likes to advance in an internet based game is pretty novel and it makes the game feel very non violent and a bit different, the pure joy in any game of picking up a lot of collectables lying around can't be beat honestly.

Please give this game your time, I don't know if its for everyone but I feel like everyone should try it.

This game is rather strange to quantify, because, on the one hand, I found Broken Reality to be a rather mesmerizing experience, chock full of abstract beauty while wallowing within the deepest pits of irony that Vaporwave is synonymous with, but on the other hand, it's a deeply frustrating experience of meaningless checklists stretched out far past its welcome.

To note, I reached the final level of Broken Reality before I decided to just shelf the game. I spent around 7 hours in the game, going about the multitude of quests and scavenger hunts for "likes" and so forth, but I was soft-locked at the very end of the game, requiring me to go through what would seem to be another several hours of backtracking to see the end credits; frankly, I didn't have the patience to do that. Out of my own impatience, I just went ahead and looked up the ending online, gathered the story bits from that, and called my experience with this game finished. Ultimately, I find it a shame I called it quits with the game, but it helms a multitude of pacing issues that severely hamper the experience.

Broken Reality is ultimately a simple game mashing up first-person exploration titles with a general Metroid-Vania flavor, all doused within the ugly yet extremely charming aesthetics of Vaporwave, and if that sales pitch sounds like something you'd be interested in, then you'll definitely find something enjoyable about the game. I know I found my fair share of fun with it in uncovering the strange, twisted secrets of this virtual space gone mostly abandoned/corrupt, but the overall pacing of the game didn't keep me invested throughout the experience; several moments of the game drag on for far longer than they should, and that's a shame considering the talent put into this project, however, an hour or two shaved off the game would've greatly impacted the game for the better.

I'm torn on Broken Reality; ultimately, I'd recommend it, especially for those fascinated by internet culture, but I'd just be aware of the sluggish pace come the final hours of the game; if you can handle that, you'll probably have a blast.

This game deserves a much greater analysis in the future, one I'll have to do soon.

Nice mix of walking sim and puzzle-solving with vaporwave A E S T H E T I C S. The game takes place in NATEM, a Second Life-esque virtual world. Gameplay is mainly about collecting likes that will open the new areas, but there are also quests given by various "users". These quests require you to solve puzzles with the help of your tools, such as a credit card or katana. There are mildly annoying bugs in the game, but they don't cause you to start the game from the beginning, so they're usually bearable (at least in my case).

Some nice music and aesthetics to look at.

The gameplay felt off though, movement felt unnecessarily slow at times. Also having to constantly switch back to the camera/modes just to try and not miss collectibles was annoying, and this was only exacerbated in one of the later levels, because it was such a mess to look at.
There was also a handful of bugs like slow-mo being stuck on, thus having to quit the game to fix it, but the menu is bugged and won't let you quit on some levels. Also one of the quests was not completeable on my run.

It was alright though. On one hand it was a surprisingly long game, on the other the gameplay made it overstay its welcome near the end, not for everybody.

I think the best way I can describe the experience playing this game is like this:

Imagine it is a hot summer day and you are relaxing in the public pool. It is inexpensive and a rather decently pleasant experience. Then at around a little over half of your trip is over this one weird child with mild physical deformities climbs to the highest diving board. He screams "CANNONBALL!" at the top of his lungs and splashes into the water and voids his bowels and the entire pool is tainted. The rest of your time is a miserable and awful experience.

That is what it is like playing this game.