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Braid
Tim is a man on a mission, to save the princess from the clutches of an evil monster. This mission should be familiar to all gamers, but Braid’s brilliance lies in the way Tim goes about this mission. Without even going into what the mission “really” is, this is one game that no self-respecting gamer should pass up.
Braid is an Indie platform/puzzle game and the brainchild of one man, Jonathan Blow. At first glance it looks like your typical platform game. You control a character that travels from left to right across a level, jumping on enemies’ heads to dispose of them. Along the way there are moving platforms to traverse, spike pits to jump over and sometimes even bosses to fight. All very familiar and clichéd, but specifically designed to be like that. It might sound confusing, designing a game that exposes the flaws of the genre by imitating them and if that was all Braid had to offer, it would never have received the acclaim it did. The highlight of Braid and the feature that propels it from charming platformer to puzzle masterpiece is the time manipulation. When you first play the game, you will probable race for the exit of each level and marvel at how short and easy it is. Along the way you will most likely spot a few jigsaw pieces scattered about that look impossible to get to. You might even discover that with the press of a button, you can rewind time as many times and as far back as you want to. This makes all the platforming even easier as there is no jump or miss-step that cannot be undone and death turns into a learning experience instead of punishment. The true challenge is collecting those puzzle pieces and when you realize this, then the game truly begins. Each of the game’s six levels (apart from the first) have these jigsaw pieces and assembling them is the easy part. Besides the ability to rewind time, each level gives Tim a new power that is related to the theme of the level. This could be the ability to slow down time by dropping a ring that influences everything in the vicinity to a shadowy doppelganger that mimics everything up until the point you rewinded time and created it. My personal favorite is the world where time stands still if you don’t move. Move to the right and time continues forward, but move to the left and time rewinds. This creates puzzles so devious that you’ll swear they are impossible. Killing all the enemies roaming around an area for example. You might even give up on reaching some puzzle pieces but that’s ok as you can go back at any time to try again. The fact that you can rewind time to exactly before you made any mistakes, removes a lot of frustration and ensures that you only have to redo the parts that are really challenging for you and not all the “filler” as well. The stages are all short and to the point, but the feeling you get from finally cracking a puzzle is worth the price of admission alone. Trust me, some very lateral thinking is required for some of them and your skills will be tested in ways only “Portal” has ever achieved. Braid started off on Xbox 360, but the PC version has nothing to complain about. The hand painted visuals are superb and were created entirely by David Hellman. The game might look very simple, but just like with the gameplay, the closer you look, the more detail you discover. Every stage has its own palette and tone that fits in nicely with the theme. The “hub” for all the stages is Tim’s house with each room granting access to a new world. There are very few enemies and those that are present, share more than a passing resemblance to the Super Mario Bros franchise. Even the castle at the end of the level, spurring Tim further in his quest for the princess, will elicit a few nostalgic smiles. Enemies and platforming reflexes are not the point of the game, however and is just an illusion to draw you in. I’m sorry if that sounds a bit vague and confusing, but you will see what I mean once you start playing. Braid is a game best experienced completely unprepared for what it is about to offer you. The audio in the game is very good and after a few hours of play, I even caught myself humming a few of the tunes. The tracks are all licensed (and not in an “Electronic Arts” kind of way) and suit the game to a t. The levels where time flows forward and backward along with Tim’s movement can end up sounding like a cacophony if you are not careful however. Sound effects are crisp and clear, and you can even hear the snapping noises that the pipe plants make. I am not to fond of the bizarre cat-like sounds that the flower bunnies make, as this just sounds disturbing. Then again, that was probably the intention. Each world starts with a level just filled with a few books on pedestals. Walking past these reveals a snipped of the storyline, but these are vague and written in very post-modern fashion. The plot has been the subject of many arguments and debates, but I will leave it up to you to decipher for yourself. You can pay as much or as little attention as you want. Braid is a hard game to describe to someone that hasn’t seen it in action. Even screenshots make it look like just another run and jump game, albeit a colorful and highly detailed one. Play it, however and you will experience a slice of independent game design at its best.
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System Requirements
TAGS: Braid, Tim, Princess, Time, Stars, Puzzle
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