Braid

[Mr. Teatime]

For those who are unaware of this game, it's definitely worth checking out.

It's a 2D platformer, currently only available in the Xbox Live Arcade, in the style of classic Marios - at least, on the surface. You go through six worlds, and solve cleverly designed puzzles. The trick is that you have control over time - can reverse it, fast forward, etc. As a platformer, it's compelling.

But the thing with this game is that it's got a story - the guy is searching for his princess. But why? What's his motivation? Why does he have control over time? Etc etc. At first it seems a bit emo - the princess rejected him. Now he's endlessly searching for her, but she's never at the end of the level - interesting, but cliche'd in any other medium.

But it's not. By the time you reach the end, you realise what the game is really about, and - well, I guess some might call it pretentious, but it certainly aims high, and is probably the closest a game has got to in-depth, high-concept literature I've seen - possibly moreso than PS:T (although I prefer PS:T). And it's certainly not cliche'd. It tries to tell a story, and describe a theme, on multiple levels (with a single stroke at the end, the game suddenly takes on a new meaning - then a new meaning after that) - and for this, among other things, I really think it deserves to do well. The fact that it does so in a 5 hour game, within the guise of a simple, sprite based platformer, is only to its credit.

I imagine the game will win a bunch of awards when they come to be awarded, and I also suspect it will be hailed (well, in fact it already is) as definite proof that computer games can be 'art'.

So - yes, I've played better games. I also have problems with any 'artform' getting overly pretentious - that's something I'm sensitive to, and I find myself criticising (literature) classics and non-classics because of it. But then I remind myself that this is a computer game.

Nothing's really been done like this before in a computer game. It's more abstract than PS:T, but stands as unique as that game, in a different way. I highly recommend you guys check it out, if you haven't already, if only because I believe this sort of experimentation should be encouraged. I hear it's coming to the PC as well.

 

[Sarvis]

Agreed, great game all around!

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Sounds like a lot of postmodern bullshit a la Portal. Please tell me it's something different, because I could put some Microsoft Funbucks to good use.

 

[Jedi_Learner]

Why would I want to play as Todd Howard?

 

[Mr. Teatime]

Sounds like a lot of postmodern bullshit a la Portal. Please tell me it's something different, because I could put some Microsoft Funbucks to good use.

Didn't get round to playing Portal. But Braid is worth the purchase. If you want you can play it simply as a platformer - it's very good, the puzzles are excellent and the art and music is very good as well.

But really it's the higher concepts that make the game special. They are a little obscure but when you realise what's going on.... well, as I said, this is as close as a computer game has come, IMO, to 'literature' - or perhaps 'art' is a better term. It's a story but it's exploring something on a different level to the story, and it's really quite cleverly done. There are three levels to it - the basic story, the story once you reach the end and realise something, then the story when read as an allegory, where it's more conceptual, replacing the hero and the princess with... well, I'd suggest you find that out for yourself (having said that, the game is unashamedly obscure, and I can't see how anyone could find all the story reveals without the aid of a guide - the reveals go on long after you reach the end of the 'game', and there's very little hint that there's more to find, or where to find it). This is in addition to the fact that at all three levels, the gameplay and levels and game design slot into the theme/concept/plot very well.

It's not perfect - you could feel it's pretentious and get annoyed by it (I felt a little of this myself), especially as it doesn't go out of its way to explain things - but I can't think of another game that's even tried to do this sort of thing. Books yes, films sometimes, but a computer game, well, it's a first as far as I'm aware, and for that it deserves to do well.

 

[Zinc]

Why would I want to play as Todd Howard?

=)

Braid looked and played beautifully in the trial, and I would really have liked to have bought it, but then I found out they charge British people the equivalent of $20 for the game, when it is only $15 in USA. It may not seem like a lot of money, and it isn't, but it is the principle more than anything. For this, I'll wait for it to come out on PC and pirate it probably.

 

[Lumpy]

Sounds like a lot of postmodern bullshit a la Portal. Please tell me it's something different, because I could put some Microsoft Funbucks to good use.

Postmodern bullshit a la Portal? What the fucking fuck? There were puzzles, and there was a funny evil computer, and that was about it. Please, do explain what the postmodernism was.

 

[Jormungandr]

Eh, the dialog could have been scrapped altogether and Braid would have been just about the same. It doesn't add much, just some exposition at the beginning of each world, which usually tries to make the new time mechanic introduced in that world a metaphor for what he learned in the text.

Really, it reads much like something a philosophy major with a hard-on for Mario Bros. would write.

But the game itself is absolutely wonderful, so go buy it. Even if it's $15 for an XBLA game, it's well worth it. Many of the puzzles are very, very clever, and the artistic style of the game is quite beautiful, as is the music.

 

[Mr. Teatime]

Well, the dialogue doesn't make much sense until you fully complete the game - by...

spoilers

Spoiler

.... collecting all the star pieces (8 in all) that are hidden. Then you can actually reach the princess at the end. And, er, well if you go on gamefaqs there's a story guide that explains it. But basically Tim's a scientist working on the atomic bomb during the Manhatten Project. And the princess is the bomb. It sounds completely random, but does kind of make sense, if you read one of the story guides that pieces it together. And when you finally reach the princess, with the eight star pieces, she explodes and creates that wall of fire you get in the final stage.

But it's way too obscure, I think, for a single player to get it while playing the game. Maybe that's intentional. And it's not fantastic literature. But for a computer game to even try is well worth praising.

edit: spoiler tag - r00fles! - Fez

 

[Jasede]

Spoiler

Why don't you?

 

[Jormungandr]

Well, I did finally finish it last night. I was ashamed to have had to use a guide for one of the puzzle pieces in World 5, but hey. So. I did get to the epilogue, and it was an interesting revelation. I certainly take back the comment about Mario

Spoiler

That, upon rewinding, you see that Tim was the monster, and Tim was chasing the princess. And yeah, Brainbridge. Only thing is that World 1 and the epilogue text don't tie in all that well with the remaining worlds.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Braid is a really good band

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Yahtzee last "review" was about this game.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/203-Braid

 

[Dire Roach]

Those of you who didn't get a sexbox360 for Kwanzaa, or have no friends who did, might like to know that the PC version of Braid was released today. You have no more excuses to avoid experiencing this piece of REAL ULTIMATE VIDEOGAME ART. Begin the inventorial nonremoval process at once!

 

[Silellak]

Sounds like a lot of postmodern bullshit a la Portal. Please tell me it's something different, because I could put some Microsoft Funbucks to good use.

Postmodern bullshit a la Portal? What the fucking fuck? There were puzzles, and there was a funny evil computer, and that was about it. Please, do explain what the postmodernism was.

Seconded. What the fucking fuck? Who the fuck took Portal THAT seriously?

Also, more on topic, Braid is quite awesome, if a bit pretentious as others have mentioned. It is not necessary to make your game QUITE so obtuse.

 

[Dark Matter]

Braid is now out for the PC. Go get this gem ASAP if you haven't already played it.

 

[Dire Roach]

GET OUT OF HERE STALKER

 

[Fat Dragon]

Played this before months ago. It was fun but the music really got on my nerves at times.

 

[PlanHex]

Who the fuck took Portal THAT seriously?

Super happy fun time(!):

http://www.heroine-sheik.com/2007/10/17 ... -lesbians/
http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/f/por ... 6221774024

Also, tried the demo for Braid earlier. Seems pretty good.

 

[JarlFrank]

Who the fuck took Portal THAT seriously?

Super happy fun time(!):

http://www.heroine-sheik.com/2007/10/17 ... -lesbians/
http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/f/por ... 6221774024

Also, tried the demo for Braid earlier. Seems pretty good.

We’ve talked before about how the guns in first-person shooters act as phallic avatars–that is, as penises. But in a world of women, this gun doesn’t shoot bullets. It shoots orifices. Openings. Fine, vaginas. Vaginas you, a female character, have to enter/exit to solve puzzles. I don’t say this often, and almost never with so much support and enthusiasm, but that is so gay.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello?

Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen!

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

braid: fun and clever puzzles (though some of them require you use mechanics that haven't been really introduced), charming art design, decent music when its playing forwards, short length, and a highly pretentious story that tries to hard.

 

[TheSmilingDude]

It's an obligatory purchase if only to keep the "Moar Brown!!11!!oneeleven!!" movement at bay. While introducing great mechanics and great execution of those mechanics, the game is mostly stuck up its own arse.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

Wow another fucking indie PUZZLE/PHYSICS PLATFORMER you can just never have enough of these!

 

[Wyrmlord]

Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Hello, hello?

Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen! Don't just stand there, come eeen!

I always have something special for people like you. Come here, stalker. I always have something special for people like you.