Braid, the time travelling puzzle platformer

[kingcomrade]

This game is going to give me nightmares, I just know it. Right now I'm on the levels where if you move to the right time goes forward and if you go left time goes backwards, and you also have your normal time travel ability which affects what you did. It's a pretzel of a problem and no mistake.

Extremely cool game though. If you don't know what it is you can play the demo on Steam, but it's a platformer where you have the prince of persia ability to go backward in time and you use this to solve problems. The levels are all puzzles to collect yoshi coins. I'm not particularly great at puzzles but there was one where, once I broke down and looked the solution up, I went "What? How the heck was I supposed to know to do that?" The rest of the times it was "oh, duh" or "durr hurr this game's too smart for me." I've only had to resort to gamefags four times so far though.

The art and the music in the game are really really nice, all artzy'n'shit but also pleasant to look at and listen to. The art and the music, I mean, not the other way around. Though after playing for a while you'll start feeling a bit trippy yourself and what was once inconceivable...

 

[Unkillable Cat]

So you haven't reached World 6, I take it?

The gimmick there is bizarre, but leads to some very clever puzzle solutions.

 

[luckyb0y]

Don't use the walkthroughs. At first many puzzles seem ridiculous but you can just carry on with the game and revisit them later. After a while you get a hang of where too look for a solution. The game is far to short to ruin the experience with a walkthrough.

Anyway, brilliant game. Everyone should at least give it a go.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

story is shit though.

 

[Silellak]

Don't use the walkthroughs. At first many puzzles seem ridiculous but you can just carry on with the game and revisit them later. After a while you get a hang of where too look for a solution. The game is far to short to ruin the experience with a walkthrough.

 

[kingcomrade]

Alright, I just beat it.
I recognized one of the quotes from the epiloque and realized what the game was about. It was a sure thing that at the end "it was all a metaphor!" though kind of cryptic. It's obvious that everything in the game is a metaphor, but you're kind of in the dark as to what in most cases, unless you are a jeopardy champion who knows a shit ton of trivia. If I hadn't run into that quote before I would still have no idea what the game was really about, besides a kind of crazy person.

I did have to use a walkthrough a couple times, but much less than I thought I did. Seems like every time I was stumped I would notice something or have an idea, which was pretty satisfying.

Overall a very great game, reminded me of Portal a lot. Especially since that last level was such a clever mind blower sort of thing. That really was really cool. One of the most well done final cutscene sort of things I've ever seen, especially since you participated in it

I do still hold that that puzzle where you had to arrange the painting right on the first world and do it out of order was a bit ridiculous. I don't think anywhere else in the game you do them out of order, or ever use that trick again.

 

[Dark Matter]

Now go collect the 8 stars and good luck finding them.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Tried the PC demo, but I'm not interested in buying it for PC, and it costs far too many Microsoft Funbucks on the 360 to be worth a consideration. Seems ok, but nothing spectacular. I prefer more action-oriented platformers though, like I Wanna Be The Guy, Ninja Ryuken/NES Ninja Gaiden, Revenge of Shinobi, or playing some Mario-like games speed-run style.

 

[kingcomrade]

"Intellectual content in video games is a fantastic thing. Bioshock is a perfect example of a game successfully weaving intellectual concepts into an entertaining story. Braid, however, is not. Braid haphazardly throws vague concepts at the player and specifically hides the necessary context at the expense of angering the consumer. It’s a rude form of intellectual elitism that disappoints, confuses and insults the majority of players expecting closure at the end of what started as a promising, melancholy fairy tale."

From a review I found, and this is pretty much how I felt about the story presentation.

 

[Major_Boobage]

It wasnt enough HURR DURR DURR DERP DERP for you?

 

[Silellak]

"Intellectual content in video games is a fantastic thing. Bioshock is a perfect example of a game successfully weaving intellectual concepts into an entertaining story. Braid, however, is not. Braid haphazardly throws vague concepts at the player and specifically hides the necessary context at the expense of angering the consumer. It’s a rude form of intellectual elitism that disappoints, confuses and insults the majority of players expecting closure at the end of what started as a promising, melancholy fairy tale."

From a review I found, and this is pretty much how I felt about the story presentation.

Yeah, I agree, the pseudo-intellectual crap in Braid is far more annoying than clever or original. But at least the gameplay more than makes up for it.

I prefer more action-oriented platformers though, like I Wanna Be The Guy, Ninja Ryuken/NES Ninja Gaiden, Revenge of Shinobi, or playing some Mario-like games speed-run style.

Braid is a platformer as much as Portal is a shooter.

 

[Lumpy]

I think it's pretty fucking clear from the start that you shouldn't expect much from the story. Especially given that it's a fucking platformer.
If they make an entertaining platformer and want to use the story for sketching the acid trip one of the designers had, that's fine with me.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

I think its the designer's attitude which is most annoying.

Blow has stated that there is more than just one interpretation of the story.[15] He has also said that he "would not be capable" of explaining the whole story of the game, and stated that the central idea is "something big and subtle and resists being looked at directly."

Yeah, no.

 

[Silellak]

I think its the designer's attitude which is most annoying.

Blow has stated that there is more than just one interpretation of the story.[15] He has also said that he "would not be capable" of explaining the whole story of the game, and stated that the central idea is "something big and subtle and resists being looked at directly."

Yeah, no.

Exactly. It's the pseudo-intellectual bullshit in the game + the developer's attitude that really makes it intolerable.

Really, I think the "twist" at the end would've been enough to make it an interesting story - especially for a platformer. Trying to add layer upon layer of pointless metaphor only served to dilute and weaken that aspect of the game.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

Blow explaining the story:

I thought it would have been a lot better if it had turned out the main character was a creepy stalker.

 

[DefJam101]

Honestly I prefer Braid's postmodern monocles (postmonocle, I will use this term from now on) to Bioshock's insulting lack of subtlety.

 

[kingcomrade]

That's not saying much.

 

[kingcomrade]

Wait, how come on that last level's cutscene thing he isn't running backwards?

 

[baronjohn]

Bioshock is a perfect example of a game successfully weaving intellectual concepts into an entertaining story.

l.o.l.

 

[Major_Boobage]

Yes that was quite the statement now wasnt it.

 

[luckyb0y]

Now go collect the 8 stars and good luck finding them.

What stars? I finished the level where you chase the princess and figured that was it. There's an epilogue level where I've read all the books. Felt kind of strange not to get the "The End" screen but hey the whole game's kinda different.

As for the story I can't really be sure as I don't know if I even finished the game, but it seems that there isn't any definite story here. Just a bunch of suggestive texts and pictures. I like the way it was so vague, not trying to emulate the narrative of a book or film. You can probably think of a few cohesive stories.

@kc
The painting puzzle was awesome. I've came up with solution pretty quickly so probably I just weren't that used to the puzzles and didn't know what to expect. After a while you just start to think about them in certain way that might hinder you if something breaks the pattern. You can notice that the table on the picture looks exactly the same as the platforms in the level.

 

[Gragt]

Well the whole hidden message of Braid, because it has such a deep narrative that you must look for it as in any good post-modern piece of art, is that the princess is a metaphor for the nuclear bomb. But of course as the creator said there are an infinite numbers of meanings one can see; the problem is that if something can mean anything, it just means nothing at all in the end.

 

[luckyb0y]

Well the whole hidden message of Braid, because it has such a deep narrative that you must look for it as in any good post-modern piece of art, is that the princess is a metaphor for the nuclear bomb.

??? I'm must be fucking stupid then. I don't get it. Can someone please explain what 8 stars you need to find (possibly no spoilers).

 

[Gragt]

You're not stupid, it's hidden. You need to get all the stars to see this and they are very hard to collect; one at least requires you to not collect all the puzzle pieces of the world it is located in, so if you already completed the game you'll need to start a new game.

There are also secrets in the epilogue portion of the game so you can get extended texts. Thing is they are still badly written and purposefully vague, it feels like the guy finished the game and its puzzles and then thought it'd be cool to add vague texts that will add some intellectual flair to the whole thing. Too bad it will only impress kiddies who have never read a good book or seen a good movie and enjoyed it.

 

[luckyb0y]

I've read the extended texts that you get when only red book is open. No reference to nuclear bomb there. Never seen any stars though. Did you find them yourself? Did you know they exist beforehand?

I assumed the story is about a relationship. It can be differently interpreted but the theme is consistent.

I agree the "story" is nothing revolutionary or great. But still it's way better than what video games usually offer.