Braid is great. Period.

Braid is great. Period.

Some games just deserve respect. They get mine when they became a work of art.

A few days ago I downloaded a demo of Braid, just to try it out since all game reviewers around the world have been rambling about how superb it is. I decided to try it out myself before puncturing more holes in my pocket to get the full version of the game. (I'm big on purchasing original games, in case you're starting to wonder if I've never heard of Bittorrent and Rapidshare before.)

My God, those game reviewers were right! I officially join their ranks to preach the world about how fantastic this game really is. You better get ready for the sermon.

Braid is a rarity in the gaming world. A diamond in the rough. You'll probably see this kind of game once every ten years, literally. It lies in the genre of platform/puzzle games, with its skillful art direction, delightfully complex soundtracks, amazing gameplay, and deeply mature plot as the main reasons for Braid winning (my) five gold stars. Uh-uh, the "mature plot" is not what you think, you dirty monster.

The story revolves around Tim, the protagonist, who journeyed to find and rescue his Princess after making a grievous mistake (perhaps more than one). The summary of the story I just gave you sounds very superficial and boooo-ring, wasn't it? That's because I simply cannot summarise the plot without actually telling you all the details, in which case you're better off playing the game instead of me giving you all the juicy spoilers.

Braid takes the typical plot of games back in 80's and early 90's (think Mario), and explores it further when no one would. It discussed the motivation (i.e. why on earth would the protagonist always risk his life jumping over chasms and evading ambigiously shaped 'monsters' to rescue some strange 'Princess' - oh now it makes perfect sense), the intricacies of human relationships, and how would the world be like if we can manipulate time to undo the mistakes we made, or how the world would be like if people could just easily forgive you for those mistakes instead. There are numerous other themes involved and you could not help but think about them as you play the game. In fact, these themes are the pillars to which the level designs are constructed upon. I shall elaborate later on.

The game plays like any generic platforming games you've (or haven't, taking into account the diversity of my readers) played before, except for the fact that you have unlimited time-rewinding ability at your disposal. But then you must be thinking, "Ah, this just makes things easier since I can just rewind whenever I stupidly plummet myself into a lava pit!" If you are indeed thinking like that, you are only 10% correct. Yes, you can rewind every time you make idiotic mistakes like that, but that's not the main purpose of the time-rewinding ability. The ability serves to solve the clever puzzles which may leave you staring at the monitor for 10 minutes before gasping in excitement, realising that the puzzles are much simpler than you think. But they are still clever. And definitely not easy. It's like using parts of your brain you've never used before. You should get this game before that part of your brain turns black and necrose.

In keeping with the theme of the game, Braid's creator, Jonathan Blow deliberately made the rewinding to have consequences. You have to deal with these consequences and use them as tools to solve the puzzles.

Each level or world has its own time-based mechanic that is based on specific themes. For example, in the world "Time and Mystery", there are certain objects that are unaffected by rewinding (mirroring the question "Would some aspects of life remain unchanged and can never be changed were we to rewind time back?"), while in the world "Time and Place", the player's position is linked to the time, where moving forward on the terrain causes time to flow forward as they should, while moving backward causes time to flow in reverse (projecting the real-life experience of how certain places transports you back in time while others made you think of the future).

I'm pretty sure you're shaking your head in awe right about now. Either that or you just dropped your jaw. Told you this game is something. And I'm not even finished yet.

Braid's visual is presented in a hand-painted style. Well, actually they really are hand-painted, by David Hellman. The visual is fresh and never tires you - you can stare at it for hours and it still feels like there are some parts of the painting you haven't seen, yet to be discovered. It has that serene yet mysterious appeal to it. Difficult to explain and you'll understand if you manage to appreciate it.

If you've read my previous entry, then you should know by now that music has a great effect on me. The soundtrack in Braid in my opinion is perfect to set up the mood the game is trying to create, and it gives the themes greater impact. The game features licensed music instead of music composed specifically for the game so the tracks must have been selected very carefully. Almost all fall within the genre of early folk/Celtic music, having very soothing qualities of varying effect and the innate ability to teleport you to a different place. Again, only listening to the music is best than my inadequate description. I've placed one of the music from the soundtrack below so that you can have a taste.

A glimpse of Braid

I think I've spoken enough about Braid. It is a game that will leave a deep impression even long after you've played it. I've finished the demo and I'll get the full game the second I can get the ridiculously huge hole in my pocket stitched. Just get the demo here and try the game for yourselves, see if there's any truth to my preaching. Aww, come on, it's only 120MB.

(I didn't just wrote a game review, did I?)