Broken Reality 2000

it was worth the wait

千禧年，如梦亦似幻 先说游戏缺点： -可能会卡关（部分引导会比较差），个人卡关卡了3个地方，浪费了不少时间在探索中 -部分交互不够明显，存在一定bug（比如我提前触发了老虎机房间的机关，再接取任务后这条线就卡死了，是bug还是剧情设计？很难说） -传送兼地图指针这个道具显示重要道具时存在bug（尤其是丛林地图收集徽章的部分） -部分地图设计不够亮眼，没有记忆点 再说优点： +如果抛去卡关的时间，我的探索体验是很满意的。尤其是找到冲浪板的那一刻，赶路不再费时费力，基本全地图畅游，探索之前感到疑惑的地点，拿到收集奖励……这些就是对我解密最好的抚慰了 +风格强烈的蒸汽波走路探索模拟器，从打开游戏开始截图就没停过。 +部分地图的设计非常有意思，个人进度已经到meme博物馆了，半数以上大地图令人满意。 从一些任务、交互还有地图前后探索设计上来说，作者肯定是下了功夫的，部分不合理的流程和解密可以持续修正。 希望作者能够持续优化游戏体验，下一部作品一定继续支持。

Good but the first one was way better

For those who haven't yet tried it, the first BR was essentially a first-person metroidvania adventure. It took place in a virtual world resembling tropes and homages to vaporwave, classic internet culture, and more. Much of its charm would be difficult to grasp if you weren't alive during the 90's or earlier. But for those that were, it was the ultimate nostalgia trip. Full of puzzles, fun tasks, jokes/references, easter eggs etc, it is rare for me to describe a game as fun and ALMOST perfect as Broken Reality. I say "almost", because unfortunately the game's sheer brilliance somehow couldn't keep up to its final level. It was impressive how the game managed to maintain a consistent rhythm throughout its story of showing you things so different from what you just experienced before, yet managing to never feel less fun. That is... [b]until[/b] the final stage came, and that fun severely plummeted. Regardless though, the game remains an unforgettable experience that I still replay to this day. So... what to say about this sequel? BR2000 is absolutely worth playing (hence the thumbs up) on its own merits, since you're unlikely to find a gaming experience this unique. On another hand, I can actually understand where many negative reviews are coming from. You could say BR2000 suffers from a sort of identity crisis that even players themselves cannot universally agree on: some look at it as a worthy continuation of the first game, others are claiming it lacks much of the original's magic. I'd say both are valid to certain degrees, but I still lean slightly towards the 2nd unfortunately. [h3]The positives and improvements[/h3] Returning to the virtual world of NATEM, much has clearly changed. Things are more "3D" and the inhabitants have grown in numbers. Of course, despite NATEM's online community being active as ever, there's obviously "something wrong". As one of NATEMs virtual users, you will progress and soon find out. Plenty of NPCs are waiting to be met, each of whom has their own unique quirks that will make you laugh, or at least be entertained. In this overall sense, BR2000 follows the exact same formula as before, which is totally fine. What has certainly changed though is the gameplay, with a couple of new items. Unlike in BR, you don't acquire everything from the 1st level, instead gradually building up your stock throughout the story progression. This was a good change IMO, as it helps enhance the metroidvanian features even more. The bow is a welcome addition, providing additional challenges such as target shooting. Then there's a surf/hoverboard that allows you to travel on water, and move much faster on dry land. The returning inventory items have also undergone some overhauls. The liker is pretty much the same, but everything else has their purposes enhanced. The katana now has directional slices, which the player must apply to the "weak" sides of the virus ads and the newly-added floating enemies. The camera's hacker no longer lets you just connect the nodes in any random order, now you have to make sure these connections don't experience collisions. With the credit card, withdrawing/spending money feels more important to manage. The teleporter now also has a compass that can let you find secret crates for unlockable inventory skins. Fun! [h3]The downsides[/h3] If you didn't enjoy the first game's slower pace, then don't be reassured here. The standard movement is still a semi-snail's pace, and without any sprint/jump buttons. While the hoverboard does eventually rectify this issue, it takes a while before you get to acquire it. It also doesn't do much to help another issue, which is navigation; the quests give you little to no info on where you need to go, not even in-level maps. While the NPCs will sometimes tell you roughly where to do your task, it can be easy to miss this information, and they won't repeat it even if you speak to them again. So don't be surprised if you sometimes find yourself annoyingly lost. The worlds themselves are not nearly as memorable, or even nostalgic, as before. One thing BR did extremely well is create different hub levels with unique themes that felt surreal and bizarre, but still coherent and not random. Here however, most areas (except for the beach and 1 or 2 other areas) are just... meh. Even for the parts that look visually pleasing when you first arrive, that feeling of wonder quickly disipates once these newly-discovered places are revealed to be either small or linear, meaning that before long you've pretty much seen everything. Compare this to BR's Geocity level; in BR2000 you get a very similar-looking level, but it feels more like a bunch of close-knit alleys, whereas with the original Geocity you could literally traverse blocks of rooftops. It wasn't a sandbox per se, but it gave you the feeling of being on a large, explorable map. Even BR's cruise ship felt more "free-roam" than majority of levels here, and that was one of its more linear segments. I also have to comment on the ending. The final level is better than BR's one. But that's more comparitively speaking, since the majority of BR2000's levels didn't set a high bar in quality to begin with. I got what I think is the "standard" ending of BR2000, and frankly it just made no sense. BR's only ending wasn't very rewarding, but it was at least conclusive. Whereas here, I felt I was experiencing a cliffhanger with no questions answered. And to think one of my biggest hopes for the sequel was to end the story better than the first game did... On a smaller note the music, while really good, wasn't as memorable here. [h3]Verdict[/h3] I ended being more negative than I expected, but in all honesty I genuinely like BR2000. As a sequel however, I was hoping it'd end up being more satisfying, especially given how many years it took to get released. I still say give it a go for its uniqueness and support for the Devs. But don't go in expecting an actual Broken Reality 2.0. 70/100

much y2k, love the memes, do reccomend play

Like the first one but +2000 likes

spiritually profound, this is art.