Braid (PC)

“So Braid is one of those games that kind of came out of nowhere to become a big hit, probably will be remembered as a classic. Except I didn't get a chance to play it until after reading all the positively glowing reviews and discussions of the...”

“So Braid is one of those games that kind of came out of nowhere to become a big hit, probably will be remembered as a classic. Except I didn't get a chance to play it until after reading all the positively glowing reviews and discussions of the game, so I went into it expecting the Second Coming of Our Lord, The Dreamcast. It wasn't that, exactly, but since so many people loved it, I should probably say what I found lacking. Now, since I gave it 4 stars, you should know at the outset that I thought this was a good game, better than most I've played recently. But it wasn't the 5 star masterpiece that it has so often been called.

The first thing you should know is that it is an artsy retelling of the Super Mario story, sort of. In that respect, it is really good. If you loved Super Mario Brothers 3, you will enjoy Braid even if only for the interesting puzzles it introduces as a platformer. Also, the way it forces the player to start thinking about time as malleable is very similar to the way Portal forced the player to think about space as malleable. That's not to say that someone who enjoyed Portal will also like Braid, but if you liked having your perceptions of space altered by a game, Braid will do the same for you with respect to time. Lastly, lots of people have called Braid an "art game". I'm not sure what that means, but it certainly does have beautiful art. Even for people who find the narrative absolutely dull, the art and design are really a step above anything else you're likely to find while perusing Steam.

But again, these are things you could get from the other reviews out there. Let me talk about what I didn't like about the game. The main thing is that the game's dreamlike narrative is really atrociously dull. Super Mario Brothers had a better story than this. (And yes, that is saying a lot.) I think what happened is that the story was mapped out by the game's designers, then they gave it to someone to break into little level-sized bits -- "But keep it dreamlike and rich in potential metaphors," they probably warned. Well, let me tell you something. The original Mario Bros. story was already dreamlike and surreal, such that you had to think it was metaphorical for a real-world relationship-gone-wrong (among other readings). So when Braid tries to portray itself as like Mario Bros., but with metaphors, I can't help but think the designer missed the point.

Also, it turns out that by the time I finished each mindbending, frustration-inducing level, I had really stopped caring about the dreamlike and surreal tidbits of narrative the game proceeded to reward me with. In a game such as, say, Resident Evil, tidbits of narrative so often work because they are incorporated into the game's puzzles (or serve as a thrilling warning of upcoming dangers, or what have you). In Braid, they were just sort of boring interludes before I could get back to solving the puzzles.

But since the only things that really separated Braid from other platformers were (i) the art, (ii) the time manipulation, and (iii) the narrative, the fact that its narrative was a swing-and-a-miss made the game kind of a disappointment for me -- at least after reading all the perfect reviews out there.

One last thing. Braid is an "indy game". That's another reason I give it 4 stars instead of 3. The fact that one guy (Jonathan Blow) essentially made the whole game -- he got a professional artist to do the art, though Wikipedia says Blow forced him to redo it three times before the art matched Blow's "vision" -- is truly impressive. It's probably a must-play, since it will surely be regarded as a classic. And it's a fun game. Just don't go into it expecting perfection.”

“Mind-blowing game. My two sons played it with me, and we walked away sure that we could rewind time after burning the dinner. I'm definitely coming back to this one. ”

“Mind-blowing game. My two sons played it with me, and we walked away sure that we could rewind time after burning the dinner. I'm definitely coming back to this one.
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“If Donky Kong had been written this year, it might have come out looking something like this.”

“If Donky Kong had been written this year, it might have come out looking something like this.”