Are video games considered an art form? Right now I don’t care, I just need to show some love for the game Braid that just hit XBLA.
Braid is a 2d action puzzle game that takes the notion of controlling time and runs with it. Each world of the game introduces and uses a different alteration of time and works the puzzles into it. The player has access to time rewind or fast forward from the start.This allows players to avoid a nasty fate or quickly repeat a puzzle. Soon however you’ll learn that just being able to rewind the level is child’s play to what comes next.
With a new effect on time for each world, the puzzles will require you to learn and understand the new rule in order to solve them. One example is the same puzzle in two different worlds to show how the new rule has a dramatic effect on game play. The basic path through the game is to reach the castle at the end of the world but to really see what Braid has to offer you’ll need to pick up puzzle pieces placed through out each world. What I love about the puzzles in Braid is that they are self contained within the rules of the game world, yet are never stale or repeated as the game world itself changes with each world. In most adventure titles the puzzles themselves are so abstract and esoteric that the solution is more about figuring out a complex order of items, here everything is presented to you and it’s up to you to figure out how to put it all together.
The story is one for the record books as well. The basic plot that you’ll learn is that Tim (the main character) is looking for the princess who has been taken away by an evil monster, but trust me it is a lot deeper then that. The story is told through text at the beginning of each world and looks at the character and his life. I’ve heard people complain about this being a bit too pretentious but I found the text fitting for the almost somber like atmosphere of the title. I would love to talk about the story but this is one of those games that you need to experience ,and going into detail about it would ruin a lot of the charm of this title(also I have no idea what happened either).
There are a few nitpicks with Braid, the first(and most publicized) being it’s price. At 1200 points ($15) makes it an expensive XBLA title considering both Rez and Geometry Wars were 800 each. This puts Braid out of the impulse buyer’s market , which hurts even more with the next problem, the game’s length. Braid is short with most moderate to expert players clocking in at 5 hours on their first play through, combined that with a $15 price tag are two strikes against it for most players. I’m a quality gamer myself, give me 5 hours of greatness over 20 hours of mediocrity any day. One reason is that replay value is different for me, I replay classic or niche games which have little replay value a lot after time has passed that I can’t remember the experience any more. We as a community complain about not seeing more original titles yet we keep on buying whatever sequel is out. Braid is up there with The World Ends With You as two of the most unique titles released this year.
The other problem is that while the majority of the puzzles are well designed, it makes the ones that aren’t stand out more. Some puzzles I solved by having to re correct jumps by a millisecond which was a bit too much twitch game play for a game of this type , others I solved by accident and I still don’t know how I did it.
This next one isn’t a complaint about the game itself but to some of the critics. I keep hearing people complain that the game is basically a Super Mario Bros rip off. What they see is a game that is 2d , has the player running to the right, and jumping off enemies. Yet they are ignoring the fact that this game is in fact an action puzzle title. The platforming elements are there as the base of the game play, but the heart of the game is using the rules of each world to get the puzzle pieces. Playing Braid like a 2d platformer is not the right way, you need to look at this title as a puzzle game with platforming thrown in. I would compare this game to Portal, another amazing short game that was released last year. Playing the game like a first person shooter isn’t the way to go, but instead the FPS mechanics are the base for the puzzle aspects of the portal gun. To put it another way this is a puzzle title built on top of a 2d platformer engine.
Finishing the game just now I have to say that overall I found most of the puzzles easy, then again perhaps my own twisted mind works differently then most people which is why I understood the puzzles. The story however I have no clue and now I feel really stupid that I was able to solve all the puzzles but did not understand a lot of the story . So if Corvus is reading this and has any insight about the story feel free to chime in.
Awhile ago I posted about if game play can be considered an art form here ; I think I finally found an example of what Corvus was talking about. The game play and act of time control fits into the character’s personality from what we learn about him in the story. The puzzle design is fresh and challenging for the right reasons, not about having the player enter in random numbers or use a bunch of objects to open a door. As I mentioned at the start of this entry, I don’t care if this game is considered art or not, I just want to see more games like it. I would give Braid a philosophical poetic sentence on life but that isn’t my forte ( I was never good at poetry, not even limericks).
Josh
