My first review, and I think its a suitable title for the part. It may seem like a bit of a rant to start, but its more about the evolution of how Braid captured my mind. Braid is the single most expensive Xbox Live Arcade title to date, the only 1200MSP title. It had received great reviews, so I downloaded a trial version a month or so ago.
Upon booting the trial, there was an impressive title screen - an impressive flame covered city in a very artistic oil painting style - quickly realising that upon moving the analogue stick a small shadowy figure at the bottom of the screen began to move. So, I excitedly ran away from the flames, and a little stumpy red haired man emerged from the shadows. He didn’t give me much of an impression, but I moved on anyway. A little way along the screen scrolled across to the interior of a house. Seeing the doors made it clear that this was some kind of ‘hub’ for a set of levels. OK, I think. On with the first level.
So, I enter the first door to find myself in a room of clouds with five or six books. As I walk in front of them, text appears on the screen – a well written story, albeit vague, about this guy ‘Tim’ and a princess. Evidently he loves her but theyre not entirely happy. So, I enter the first door – not even noticing that this is infact World 2 (skipping world 1?) - and find myself in a very green world, reminiscent of any platformer’s first level. The art was definitely well made, but I wasnt sure about the gameplay. I make my way across the level, climbing some fences and doing a couple of jumps, and discovering I can rewind time by holding X. Kind of neat, but nothing new – after all, Prince of Persia did this on a much larger scale, in a 3d environment with complicated animations. As I walk along, I find myself facing an entirely unscary little hedgehog thing which dies when I jump on its head. Very Mario – but I never saw the real love for Mario as others did. Shortly after, I quit the game pretty underwhelmed and left it alone, going back to playing Street Fighter IV and whatever else I was playing at the time. I’d seen it before – basic platformers getting overrated by people who liked simple games. Fair enough, but not for me. Sure, it had the ability to rewind time but this seemed to be just a gimmick.
How wrong I was.
Weeks later, I see an announcement that Braid had been reduced in price. I was bored, and for some reason I decided to download Braid ( a game I’d already acknowledged as half-baked) over the expansion for Tomb Raider Underworld (a game I had enjoyed). I don’t know why I did what I did, but thats what happened. So, I load the game up once more, and as I run through the first stage once again, wonder what had come over me to pay for it. But I had paid for it, so I was going to bloody well play it.
Now, each world of Braid is separated in the main hub, and each world has a different ‘time-rule’. The first world is very much a ‘this is how to play, look you can rewind’. As I continue, I find that there are puzzle pieces scattered around, although they don’t seem to be needed to continue. However, being somewhat of a completionist, I try to grab all that I can as I continue. Its all pretty standard, jumping over things, avoiding spikes and using rewind to correct any little jumps I miss-time. In the next room, I find a board that allows me to assemble the puzzle pieces I have found in this world. I connect what I have, wondering what purpose this puzzle serves, and continue. There are a few puzzle pieces that seem to be unreachable (just out of my jumping ability), but I ignore them for now, assuming later on I will be able to get them. At the end of the level, you find a very Mario-esque ending with a flagpole and a little stuffed dinosaur who tells you the old words: ”I’m sorry but the princess is in another castle.” Upon leaving the level, the next room of the house lights up and the next world is available.
After another room of vague (yet well written) story books, the next world introduces enemies and objects that cant be rewound. For instance you can rewind everything by holding X, but as you do so the ‘hedgehog’ enemies that have a green aura continue to walk, ignoring your unexplained manipulation of time. The same is applied to doors and keys, meaning you can unlock a green-aura door, rewind the whole way and the door is still open. My brains a little more interested, but I still cant decide if I’m actually having fun. I manage to finish the puzzle for this world as well, yet I didnt really find any result from this, other than an achievement. I love my points but a game needs more, I think. The platforming/time manipulating puzzles need to be solved to collect the pieces, but the actual stages can be exited easily, so the challenge is collecting them all.
The third world is where I decided the game was a fairly fun puzzle game. Same storybooks at the start (which now don’t seem to be in any particular chronology, but I take it all with a pinch of salt, thinking maybe it’s just some text they decided to add to make the game seem a little more fleshed out). The next world offers an interesting concept – your horizontal position on the level also dictates where in the level’s timeline you are – move left and time reverses, forward and time moves forward, and stop and the world grinds to a halt. This was pretty interesting, the idea of time moving in such a manner made me think, and caused a fair few head scratching moments before solving some of the puzzles.
The next world offers a sort of doppelganger - if you do something and then rewind, your shadow will perform you’re last action you did before rewinding as you are free to do something else. This allows you to almost co-op with yourself, allowing you to flick switches at the same time as standing on the platform it activates. The puzzles continue to bewilder and befuddle, always offering satisfaction when you finally succeed. The last world offers a ring that you can drop, slowing down time in a small radius around it, allowing you to manipulate small pockets of time.
So, at the end of all of these worlds, I felt that the puzzles had been quite fun, and I was determined to collect these last pieces. I had realised by this point that the ladder on the right side of the main building went up to another level, and missing links were being added as the puzzles were finished, so I finally knew what they were for. After hours of confusion, frustration and satisfaction I collect my last puzzle piece. Interested to see what kind of ending the game would have, I climbed the ladder to my fate.
This is it. This is what I had paid for. Suddenly, I find myself in another area with another time rule. I can’t tell you exactly what happens here without spoiling it, but suddenly things begin to fall into place, and as I reach the end I realise what’s happened. The ending confused me a little, but I feel this game is about making you think. There are more cryptic story bits, more strange than ever. When the game finishes, I feel like something special has happened, but I cant quite put my finger on it. Then, after some net research on Braid, and various interpretations, everything fell into place. Every vague bit of story now made perfect sense, I realise things that I never saw before, and I’m almost overwhelmed at the realisation of exactly what Braid is.
Its a game that needs to be played to understand, even then leaving you with questions. Its very much up to the player to interpret. To me, Braid was an experience I won’t forget. It wasn’t so much a game as a tale of morals, perspective, time and causality. To the casual gamer, they could easily miss the hidden meaning of the game altogether, but then they’d probably be quite content with the face value of the game. It’s a game thats much deeper than it appears, and left me with a foreboding shiver after I was done with it.
Score:
Gameplay: 9/10
Length/Replay Value – 7/10
Music - 9/10
Story - 10/10
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Overall - 9/10
Note: Although the game is short (5-6 hours), I’ve given it a 7/10 in replay value since it has hidden stars that can be collected for an alternate ending, something I have still to do, and new things keep being discovered 
-Leon
