Braid: A review

Have you ever made a mistake, and wished you could take it back? Have you ever stayed up all night musing about time? Have you ever seen trees and clouds morph before your eyes in dimensions you can't explain? If you answered yes to any of these you might be a hippy. Okay, Foxworthyisms aside, this game is a beautiful work of art that only takes a few hours to play through. There is a lot of depth in this game and once you get past the cliche of saving a princess who is in a castle (that is never the castle you go to), there is quite a bit to appreciate.

Fuck you Toad.

The game is a puzzle game that spans six worlds. Each world has unique visuals that compliment the mood of the game, and the story that is unfolding as you solve each puzzle, hoping to get closer to the person you love.

The main game mechanic involves the manipulation of time. Anyone who has played Prince of Persia is fairly familiar with this concept. A long with the manipulation of time each world has a different mechanic such as a ring that slows down time, an alternate reality, or a world where the direction you move effects the flow of time, and how each mob traverses the world.

The game sets a striking atmosphere. The visuals are the most pleasing of any game I've ever played through. My joke about being a hippy is kind of accurate, as the colors sort morph and give the backgrounds a strange dimension. Despite the game being a 2D side-scroller the backgrounds shift through colors to offer a unique experience I have not seen in any other game.

The music is very pleasing, and actually assuages a lot of the frustration you might feel while playing this brain-buster. Many times I've caught myself whistling the main theme, or playing the tune in my head. As you progress through the levels the soothing music makes it so much easier to stay calm, and not through the controller through your monitor.

I've played a lot of video games throughout my life, and many of them have been mediocre at best, but every now and then a game like Braid comes a long that is truly wonderful. I've never been more frustrated, yet so motivated to finish a game before. The level designs require you to look at all the ingredients to come up with an effective solution to progress. There are so many "AHA!" moments that you just can't quit.

Another aspect that makes this game special is that it was designed by an independent developer. It has no corporate funding, and from what I can gather by the website it was self published. The game sells for Twenty dollars, and it is well worth it... but its part of the "humble-indie-bundle" which is a "pay what you want" package of some seriously impressive independent titles. I purchased it last winter during the steam holiday sales for five dollars I believe.

The game while highly worthy of praise is not without faults. I found it was far too short. I would have liked to play longer, through worlds with even crazier mechanics. I think a world where gravity and time could both be manipulated at the same time would have been cool. Also they could have adjusted the difficultly curve a little bit. This game gets labeled as "casual" but it picks up in difficulty so fast that it may turn the not-so-hardcore gamers away from it. The difficulty jump from world three to world four is so immense that I found myself getting annoyed feeling stupid that a game was beating me.

Despite the slight flaws I recommend this game to the fullest extent. It's up there with games that I will never forget such as Warcraft Two, Half-Life and The Legend of Zelda. Even if you aren't a gamer, and have no interest in gaming it is worth sitting down and figuring it out --especially if you like puzzles and logic games.