Puzzleology

Braid

August 17, 2009 at 12:03 am | Posted in General | 1 Comment
Tags: art, video games

Quite possibly the most innovative game I have ever played, puzzle-platformer Braid is a must play for fans of Mario and Zelda. It’s a relatively short game, only ten hours or so on the first run through, but it’s a very well thought out ten hours of gameplay

The gameplay is simple. You are Tim, a protagonist in search of a princess. You hop around worlds and ledges like Mario does, but the gimmick is that you can reverse time at any point, all the way to the beginning of the level, and change what you do on your second chance. You travel across six different worlds, each with an additional time-travel element — you get introduced to time-immune objects, a ring that slows down time, and in one world your movement forwards or backwards controls the flow of time. Still, in all worlds, the ability to reverse time serves as the primary mechanism for solving the puzzles, which, fittingly, are to collect puzzle pieces in the world. This game mechanic even solves a common gripe of platformers. When you die you don’t have to do everything over–you can just reverse time to the point you messed up.

This game had the best level design I have ever seen in a game. I knew it halfway through the first world, when the puzzles I had already gathered could be arranged to make a ledge to get two other puzzle pieces. And the remaining five worlds did not disappoint. You know a game has great level design when a level from World 2 reappears in World 4 and is still solvable in a completely different manner despite introducing new game mechanics.

But where the game really shines is from an artistic stand point. This game should break down the walls of viewing video games as an art form. And I don’t mean just visually. Yes, the art is gorgeous, but the music is also very soothing to listen to (except when time is reversed, which is my one complaint about the game), and the story, though at first confusing and very abstract, should be considered a literary masterpiece. To understand what I’m talking about, play through the game, marvel at the ending, then marvel again at the special ending, then read the plot analysis at GameFAQs. You’ll realize how many things, though seemingly in the game for one reason, have a deeper meaning. And isn’t that the telltale sign of a brilliant novel?

I’m thoroughly impressed with the game, and even more impressed that it was created by just two people (really, just one, and an artist). I look forward to the future of games and hope that we’ll see many more that follow in Braid’s footsteps.