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Written by: Matt Weisse
Braid originally came out in 2008, and was sold for $15.00 in the Xbox Live Arcade. While I was not unaware of the game (or of its subsequent widespread acclaim), it had simply never appealed to me for one reason or another, or at least not enough to encourage me to purchase it. However, it recently showed up in Steam’s holiday sale for the PC at a very reasonable price of $1.99, and this motivated me to finally give it a chance a year and a half after its original release.
Jonathan Blow, the creator/programmer/developer of Braid, has made a name for himself within the video game industry as a proponent of originality in game design. And in a literal sense of putting your money where your mouth is, he spent $180,000 of his own money (and three years of his time) to develop Braid entirely by himself (except for the artwork, which was done by cartoonist David Hellman).
In Braid, you play Tim, a man who is looking for his princess. The initial story is vague, but you are quickly given the impression that although you have made a mistake, you hope to find her and somehow redeem yourself. In the game, you encounter goombas and piranha plants, and there is even a dinosaur at the end of each world waiting to tell you that your princess is indeed in another castle.
If this princess bit sounds familiar, it’s because Braid playfully imitates Mario throughout. So we have a platform game with similar characters to Mario, yet this game won an “Innovation in Game Design” award in 2006 – seems a bit ironic, doesn’t it?
The catch is that you can rewind time whenever you like. And yes, this means that you can never die. This is the element that transforms Braid from a cliché platformer to an original puzzle game. As you progress from world to world, different aspects of time manipulation are brought into play. For example, in the second world, some objects are unaffected by time reversal. If all goes well, you will use these time tricks to collect puzzle pieces.
The different tactics you employ in each world are initially simple, but can quickly become maddeningly difficult. Braid is not an easy game by any means. At many points, you will feel compelled to repeatedly slam your head into your keyboard.
Despite this, Braid continues to pull you in because its puzzles are very challenging, but they are all also solvable, typically by using methods that are more simple than you’d suspect. The puzzles are immensely clever, and many of the puzzle pieces will leave you feeling quite satisfied with yourself for having obtained them.
Puzzles aside, Braid’s artwork and soundtrack are gorgeous, and many other critics have come to point to Braid as evidence that video games can be a work of art, just like film or music. The vague story is open to many interpretations, but it manages to be intriguing rather than pretentious. And the ending ranks among the best video game endings to date.
Any complaints about this game are minor, and are more a matter of personal preference than they are faults of the game: (1) It’s a difficult puzzle game – understandably this will not appeal to everyone, (2) It’s rather brief – I think I beat it in 6-8 hours total, and (3) There are eight possible optional stars to obtain, and I’ll be honest, I watched a YouTube video on where they are and I find it hard to believe anyone got more than two of these on their own – they are insanely and unreasonably difficult to get.
Ultimately, if you’re looking for both a challenge and a unique gaming experience, Braid is a must-have. In the land of Mario, Halo 3, Call of Duty 6, Guitar Hero 5, etc., Braid shines as a model of originality. Taking chances is frowned upon in an industry where sequels allow executives to buy pools of money in which to swim, but hopefully the success of Braid will encourage major developers to take larger risks in the future.
Rating: 4.5/5 Falcons
Braid is available now for PC on Steam for $9.99. It is also available in the Xbox Live Arcade.
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