Where to even begin with this gem of a game. The last time i enjoyed a game this much was Portal, and that’s saying something because i absolutely LOVED Portal. Braid is an xbox live arcade title priced at 1200 microsoft points. (Or $15 for those of us living in the real world with real currency)
Braid is a platformer similar to Super Mario Brothers, but with some Prince of Persian time elements like rewind, slow, etc. This is an extremely simplistic way of describing it though. The time elements are actually far more in depth than Prince of Persia’s. Each world has a different time mechanic. In some your movement to the right makes time move forward and moving left makes it move backwards. In another you can slow time in a bubble around you. In yet another seemingly nothing happens until you rewind. At which point your shadow does your previous actions. All of these different elements are interwoven into the gameplay, with the ultimate goal being the acquisition of various puzzle pieces. Now the actual gameplay is arranged with challenges ranging from simple (a puzzle piece is too high to reach by jumping alone so you have to jump on a monsters head to get to it) to the extremely complicated (you have to have to place a key in a specific location and time things so your shadow will pick up the key and bring it to you). There are some of the best gameplay challenges i’ve seen and really make you feel like you’ve accomplished something when you figure them out. Once you’ve collected all the puzzle pieces you get to view the ending.
I’m not going to spoil it but the ending itself is worth the $15 price of admission. That’s all i’m going to say about it.
The art style of braid is beautiful. The backgrounds look like an impressionist painting. Everything has an incredible hand drawn look and feel to it. I’m a big lover of traditional 2d art and animation so it’s nice to see games like this still being made.
The story is also great. It has your chasing after a princess, and has great little plays on Mario, with guys coming out at the end of levels and saying ‘the princess is in another castle.’ However, lets just say the princess isn’t exactly what you think it is.
All of that leads to the creator of Braid himself…. Mr. Jonathan Blow. Many people around the net are currently saying how much of a pretentious ass he is, and yes there is a slight air of pretention around the way the story is written and shown. I contend, though, that this game would not be anywhere near as special if he wasn’t this kind of person. If he was some slack jawed yokel who thought the word ‘intellectual’ was some sort of insult then Braid would probably be some ridiculous game where the main character blows shit up with a gun. Instead you get a thoughtful narrative, and incredible gameplay which actually ties into the narrative itself (ok that’s all for the spoilers).
Bottom line, buy it, play it, love it. If you don’t understand it, you’re a fucking slack jawed yokel, and should go back to halo.
Posted on August 19th, 2008 by phaedrus
Filed under: videogames
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