Braid (2008)

Well, this game sure was something alright. By the end of it I was left feeling somewhat confused, conflicted about it even, like not being too sure how to feel about the whole thing, but I'll try to rate it as objectively as I can. The game itself is very well made, very tighly designed, and the presentation is top notch, but it's not without it's flaws, which is why I think a 4-star rating is appropiate. Now, when it comes to my own personal enjoyment of the game, the rating might be a bit lower, but I don't think it would be fair to let my own feelings on it get in the way of me trying to rate it objectively. The visuals and the music are great, no complaints there. I was not too convinced about some of the sound design choices, meaning the sound effects used in several parts, but I think they work well for the most part regardless. The game's narrative is one important aspect of it's presentation, which is told in a fairly nuanced yet cryptic way, and I saw some people criticizing it for that, labeling it as "pretentious". Now, I can see where those people are coming from, but I believe context is important, and Braid predates many of the "artsy" or even "pretentious" indie games that are so common nowadays, so I feel like it's not entirely fair to judge it with the same standards as one would an indie game of the sort released these days, because it's approach to storytelling is something that made it stand out in a positive way when it came out. If anything, I think it would be more appropiate to criticize it for how cryptic it can be, which also ties to it's approach to the game's design. As I said before, Braid is very tightly designed, and it works well from a gameplay standpoint for the most part, however, it can be very specific in the way in which it expects players to tackle some situations, to the point it might be very hard for a lot of players to complete it without a guide, especially when it comes to the absurdly cryptic conditions required to be able to experience the story in it's entirety. Despite this, Braid is still a commendable achievement in it's presentation and design, it's just a bit ironic that something that feels so confident in letting it's story carry it would also go out of it's way to prevent most people from getting the full picture of the puzzle, so to speak.

I think this is a spectacular game, I am just way too stupid to play it. The puzzles are tricky, but the time rewind mechanic is absolutely beautiful and unusual. The super sweet art style and the contemplating classical and jazz music adds up to it. I think this must be considered a classic of platform games as well as art games / arthouse games in general.

Braid is certainly a groundbreaking game with lots of fresh gameplay and a fantastic soundtrack. I have to admit that I found some of the puzzles hard to solve and had to check up solutions on youtube several times. Not sure if thats a good thing or not. Braid got very close to a 5 star rating, but unfortunately I think the story is a weak point of the game. I found it too complicated, pretentious and hard to follow. That's unfortunate, since the ending is incredibly powerful and well done.

I started out absolutely adoring Braid. I thought it would be an easy 5-out-of-5 rating for me. The art is charming. The time/rewind mechanic is really cool and it especially shines in the way each world features a slight tweak on the base concept.

The story is wonderfully obscure. The book passages are written like the best song, full of metaphors that the player can find their own meaning in. I was touched by much of it, especially in how it felt like a very personal view inside the struggles of the developer.

The game is let down by the balance between the general platforming and puzzle piece collecting. If you ignore the puzzle pieces the game has so little challenge it would be hard to classify it as little more than an interactive storybook. Therefore to really play the game you have to focus on the puzzle pieces, and while most of them are wonderfully challenging, a few are so painfully obtuse that it soured my mood on the whole game. If you are struggling there is absolutely no good way of gaining a hint of any type. You either keep banging your head against the problem or look up the exact solution online. It's not very rewarding. To make things worse, when you either look up or figure out some of these more obtuse solutions, you rarely ever apply that knowledge on future puzzles in any way. It doesn't build. It's just a bunch of very unique techniques.

After I completed the game I then did some more research online and discovered even more obtuse secrets that I could have done to unlock even more of the story. These things are so out there they qualify more as easter eggs than they do puzzles. Most people will never stumble on them on their own but what value is there in just doing whatever an online walkthrough tells you?

All that said, I'm honestly not sure this game is really all that successful. It doesn't live up to the potential you feel when you first start playing and that's just disappointing.

I want more Braids. Yes, that was my first after game words. It is because of perfect gameplay and idea of time-control mechanics which is very well implemented and used. These factors makes me so addicted on Braid and when we also count nice graphics and well-taken music then it is fully immersive gaming experience. It is the game with the biggest portion of "aha" moments per game I've ever played. But even Braid is not without faults the timeplay is really short and Braid`s full potential was not really achieved. Summing up the Braid shifted gameplay and game mechanics one step further and I am waiting for games which will draw inspiration...