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Kickfinished: Broken Age Part 1 now available to non-backers

The meals of Mog Chothra present themselves.

The first half of Broken Age has been released; read our Broken Age Act 1 review.

Four hours or so of the first Tim Schafer-led graphic adventure in 16 years are now buyable and playable for just shy of £20 on Steam. A bit like a real game might, rather than a nebulous concept predicated on nostalgia and desperation for an ill-served genre.

Don’t worry: it’s turned out good.

I spent much of last night with Broken Age. It must be the most polished point-and-click adventure game ever made – as you’d hope. The UI is quietly pretty. The way it cuts in and out of conversation is exquisite.

The voice acting is stellar; its celebrity vocal chords bent to understated ends. But perhaps the thing I’ve enjoyed most is recognising Schafer’s voice in the writing – his silly, toothlessly snarky sense of humour. That’s not something I expected to care about going in as a fan of Double Fine, not Lucasarts.

Buy it now, and know you’re only getting half a game – and not a half built especially for episodic structure like Telltale’s are, with a climax and a cliffhanger. You’ll also be entitled to the second half, expected sometime before the end of 2014. The game was split into two in July, after Double Fine ran out of money.

It’s a good half, though. D’you think you’ll buy in? Or maybe you’ve been playing it for two weeks already, as a backer?