Really damned important!
05/12/08 12:34 Filed in: Reviews
There’s been some important games in the past. Of course “Super Mario Brothers”, “Doom”, and “Grand Theft Auto III” are deserving of that label. Well you can add another game to that list. And you can’t even buy it in a store.
“Braid” is only available as a downloadable game on Xbox Live, but you can throw out any and all pre-concieved notions you may have about download-only games. It’s a 2D side-scroller where your character(Tim), battles weird little hedgehog characters, angry rabbits, and a weird boss creature that you kill by dropping chandeliers on his head. It’s really a bit of an homage to the gameplay witnessed in the old Mario side scrollers. But that’s only the beginning. Tim also has the ability to manipulate time. Not a new idea in gaming, true. But it’s the best implementation of this kind of gameplay since Prince Of Persia’s re-imagining on the PS2/Xbox.
You are able to pause, rewind, and fast forward time at your discretion. Later in the game, you are also able to drop a ring that creates a temporal distortion that makes everything close to the ring move in varying degrees of slow motion. Some levels, and objects react differently to your manipulation of time however. Objects and characters(including yourself) glowing green are impervious to your manipulations. And anything glowing pink is allowed to be manipulated by a ghost image of yourself(hard to explain...you just need to see it).
Part of what makes this game so great, is how it forces you to use the enemies around you to reach your goals. This isn’t a game where you merely need to get from the start to the end. No you need to collect many puzzle pieces. Puzzle pieces that are always located in seemingly impossible to reach places. It can be a frustrating game at times. Getting all the puzzle pieces(and believe me you need every piece)will really test your brain. But every time you obtain one of those “unobtainable” pieces, you get this overwhelming sense of satisfaction.
Every piece you pick up gets added to it’s world’s puzzle board. Waiting for you to shift, and rotate around to form an image of a memory that you have forgotten. That’s the thing you see. You’re chasing after your “Princess”. And in order to get to her, you’ll need to piece together your memories of your time with her. And that is what makes this game truly phenomenal. It’s story.
At first, you might feel as I did. That the writing is a little pretentious, or over-written. But in the end it all comes together. The final level left me with my jaw on the floor. I’m not going to give away the ending, but I will say that it is on par with all of the other great moments in videogaming. As good as the final level in the first Halo. Or “the twist” in KOTOR. It’s videogame storytelling at it’s absolute finest.
If you have an Xbox 360, you absolutely 100% have to get Braid. It should be mandatory. This game is both the past and the future. It strokes your nostalgia, while showing you a window of things to come. Downloadable games are the future, and Braid has now set the bar extremely high for every aspiring developer. Stop reading this damn review, buy Braid!
“Braid” is only available as a downloadable game on Xbox Live, but you can throw out any and all pre-concieved notions you may have about download-only games. It’s a 2D side-scroller where your character(Tim), battles weird little hedgehog characters, angry rabbits, and a weird boss creature that you kill by dropping chandeliers on his head. It’s really a bit of an homage to the gameplay witnessed in the old Mario side scrollers. But that’s only the beginning. Tim also has the ability to manipulate time. Not a new idea in gaming, true. But it’s the best implementation of this kind of gameplay since Prince Of Persia’s re-imagining on the PS2/Xbox.
You are able to pause, rewind, and fast forward time at your discretion. Later in the game, you are also able to drop a ring that creates a temporal distortion that makes everything close to the ring move in varying degrees of slow motion. Some levels, and objects react differently to your manipulation of time however. Objects and characters(including yourself) glowing green are impervious to your manipulations. And anything glowing pink is allowed to be manipulated by a ghost image of yourself(hard to explain...you just need to see it).
Part of what makes this game so great, is how it forces you to use the enemies around you to reach your goals. This isn’t a game where you merely need to get from the start to the end. No you need to collect many puzzle pieces. Puzzle pieces that are always located in seemingly impossible to reach places. It can be a frustrating game at times. Getting all the puzzle pieces(and believe me you need every piece)will really test your brain. But every time you obtain one of those “unobtainable” pieces, you get this overwhelming sense of satisfaction.
Every piece you pick up gets added to it’s world’s puzzle board. Waiting for you to shift, and rotate around to form an image of a memory that you have forgotten. That’s the thing you see. You’re chasing after your “Princess”. And in order to get to her, you’ll need to piece together your memories of your time with her. And that is what makes this game truly phenomenal. It’s story.
At first, you might feel as I did. That the writing is a little pretentious, or over-written. But in the end it all comes together. The final level left me with my jaw on the floor. I’m not going to give away the ending, but I will say that it is on par with all of the other great moments in videogaming. As good as the final level in the first Halo. Or “the twist” in KOTOR. It’s videogame storytelling at it’s absolute finest.
If you have an Xbox 360, you absolutely 100% have to get Braid. It should be mandatory. This game is both the past and the future. It strokes your nostalgia, while showing you a window of things to come. Downloadable games are the future, and Braid has now set the bar extremely high for every aspiring developer. Stop reading this damn review, buy Braid!