Braid Comments by Dan Whitehead

@Dan Whitehead: "I'm going to guess these are the last two pieces, near the giant jigsaw frame? If so, working out how you can reach these was the first moment I really fell in love with the game. "

LOL! Yeah me too!

Cleverest thing in a game ever!

this sounds absolutely fantastic - just my type of game. will be grabbing this first chance i get (better make a bit of a window in the games-playing schedule for this one)...

also: brilliant review, dan.

... a window that should not conflict with mix making duties...

The guy that designed this game really DOES look like Brucie from GTA4

Braid is what happens when you take too much bullshark testosterone.

Edit: 10/10 - Better than MGS/PS3 - I think not.

Idiot.

In other news, trousers are better than ladders.

Might have to play this again, it didn't make me weep tears of joy over how beautiful it was or anything

lol

Someone wrote:

And I'm only on the second world so far (bought without a demo, starting to regret that decision already) but I've already seen one jigsaw piece that requires a degree of fiddly enough skill that I'll never bloody bother getting it even though I know how to because so far all the puzzles have been alarming obvious in terms of what needs to be done while frustratingly hard (for me at least) to actually accomplish which is the exact reverse of what I'd have hoped for.

There are several puzzles that I believed were like this, and I spent a lot of time trying to execute split-second moves to solve them. Eventually I realized that the solution was something completely different. I'm not saying that's true in your case, but it's a mistake I made several times while Braid was rewiring my brain.

"Guess games never should have gone 3D... "

Too right - ironic that this picks up a 10/10 in the week when we've been spammed with ID shit all week (y'know, the guys who arrived Four-Horsemen-of-the-Apocalypse-stylee to kill gaming as we knew it back in 92' ...)

Honestly, anyone with gaming love in their hearts needs to go out and buy this game to support the guys who made it and show that there's support for, and money in, games that don't revolve around killing everything in sight ...

I played this game's trial for a few minutes, and loved how that already played with time, had a melancholy mood to it, and didn't bother explaining everything to you. I pondered getting it, and after now seeing that someone at Eurogamer liked it, I'm going to. :)

@the_dudefather - "Might have to play this again, it didn't make me weep tears of joy over how beautiful it was or anything."

I'm the same... I tried the demo but fail to see what all the fuss is about. It comes across as a bastard child of a SNES platformer crossed with Blinx the TimeSweeper to me. Looks pretty enough (although the lead character looks oddly out of place and lacks charm) and the music is nice. I'm glad I didn't buy it outright like I did Soulcalibur because I've heard it can be completed in a few hours and there's no replayability whatsoever since the game doesn't get harder (according to IGN). I'm not saying it's rubbish or anything as outrageous as that but if a game fails to grab me in the first place then I can't lie about it and says it's great.

3rd XBLA game I've ever bought (have 25 or so retail titles) and loving it so far.

Ironically, the 1200 price point may have subliminally helped to make my decision, as I'm probably simple enough to believe cost=quality ;)

@Darren - I thought the same until....

@Dan Whitehead: "I'm going to guess these are the last two pieces, near the giant jigsaw frame? If so, working out how you can reach these was the first moment I really fell in love with the game. "

.... I worked out this bit.

"Our princess is always in another castle."

*sobs loudly*

The game definitely gets harder. I bought it off the back of this review and have just spent around four hours playing it. I'm in World Six but as I've traversed each world I've left more and more jigsaw pieces behind "to come back and get later" because a puzzle had me stumped.
The first world / jigsaw is complete, the second has one gap, the third two gaps... yes, it definitely gets harder.

Wonderful game this, love it. Really very original. Brillaint.

Holy shit.

Very well-written. Congratulations to Dan for honestly and intelligently reviewing the game whilst managing not to sound pretentious (which would be all too easy with a game like this).

I didn't understand what Dan was on about at first but after downloading the game I heartily agree with everything said. Great review.

Just been playing this and it is a beautiful little game and the music really adds to the experience. Although i have to say my brain is completely fried by some of the puzzles. And that is just the 1st 2 levels. . . . .

The opening is awesome. It reminds me of "Knights Story" with the whole 2D/atmosphere with a bit of "Cloud" style water colour artwork to boot. It looks lovely though and I like the music. Its very much Super Mario Brothers meets "Sounds of the ocean" relaxation cds or something. Puzzles are good, but sometimes its too challenging, but always rewarding.

180 odd posts, and no-one's mentioned the "I" word yet? Surprising.

To me, it looks like the Xbox finally got it's Ico. This looks stunning. As it's an indi game, any chance of a PS3 release after the PC?
(yeah, I know... /cries). I hope they do, because, lets face it, .like Ico, Okami and the like, it's guaranteed to be raved about by critics, be roundly ignored by the great unwashed, die a horrible financial death, and put off publishers from trying anything left field for another couple of years. Any widening of the market (and the PS crowd has a decent record of supporting off the wall ideas, like Echochrome) might make the money this richly deserves.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Video Game.

The two jigsaws on world 2 Dan is refering to was fantastic to figure out how to get. That puzzle is in the same leage as the best bits of Portal imo.

Not worth a 10. 8 definitely, maybe even 9, but not a 10.

Pretentious review.

Really REALLY loving this game so far after my initial skepticism at the price.

I'm determined not to use a guide for the harder puzzle pieces but there's one on World 3 that has really got me stumped. I thought it would have something to do with the wine glass in the picture but after 15 minutes of playing around I'm still none the wiser. Any clues?

This sounds great, I think it'll be the first game I play as soon as my 360 gets back from its two week holiday in Frankfurt.

Really enjoying this game ... as itsfuzzy says the music really adds to the slightly melancholic air of the thing - and the slightly Sendak inspired sprites add to this. As mentioned above; the comparison to ICO in the way the overall design adds to the atmosphere is a joy in itself. Even if you don't get the game - grab the demo.

I'm finding a few puzzles require split second/pixel timing - which may mean I'm doing it wrong. I need to find a walkthrough of the bits I've completed to check.

And yes, it probably is the bastard child of a snes platformer. There are a lot of references to platform gaming history in there.

fwiw I bought this almost on the strength of Dan's review - which, after playing I found a little over the top - but then I don't have to sit playing and having to write about derivative turgid shite for a living. Something like this must have been a breath of fresh air.

The discussions; "it's not worth 10 - maybe a 9.6 - it's really a 9.432" or "maybe if it was 1107 points rather than 1200 I would be interested" makes me weep and laugh. Then weep again. I can't imagine any other medium where these discussions occur.


I now have images of the collective brains on the Late Review having these arguments.
"Germaine, there is no fucking way Dom DeLillo's Underworld is worth a 7 when you gave the exhibition of modern spanish art at the Tate Modern a 9"
"Tom - fuck off. Underworld was £6.99 - cost me nowt to get into the Tate"
"better than MGS4 then Germaine ?" /fight breaks out.

@muscleblade -

Oh, as far as puzzle design goes, Braid can stand up to and probably beat Portal any day. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Portal and it has some great puzzles (the part where you encounter the rocket launcher for the first time springs to mind, and the one where you are in that room with the pistons and you need to find a way to get from the bottom of a thick piece of concrete to the top) but the main thing for me that elevated Portal to one of my favourite games ever was GlaDOS and the whole way the narrative was treated - that it had some brilliant 'I am so cool' moments was just icing.. For me, Braid (so far - I've a short way to go) has more moments that make you feel really clever, and also more moments that make you feel really stupid until the solution finally clicks into place.

Everyone else:

Incidentally, I don't think 3 hours is an accurate playtime for this game. People have bandied that figure around maybe because it's about the length of first play through for Portal. I have 8 pieces left to get across worlds 5 and 6, have the final world yet to play and I'm pretty sure that I already spent around 4 hours on it. At the very least 3.5. I breezed through Portal, and I'm usually one to finish games quickly, so I think most people can expect a longer experience.

@knocker

Awesome, from now on whenever I see anyone critiquing anything at all on TV I'm going to imagine it reduced to internet discussion levels. You've just made TV enjoyable for me again. :D

Jeremy Clarkson talking to Richard Hammond will be "911LOL" repeated again and again.

I was playing the demo of this last night and all seemed rather dreamily good until I picked up one of those green keys that are on their own time line, took it to a door...

It did not fit, but rather than return to my hand it fell to the floor where I could no longer pick it up. Of course I could not rewind time to get it again because it was a green key...

I don't get it, how is this "ingenious" or even "logical" game design? Or have I rather foolishly missed something entirely?

@BuckoA51

I think you've rather foolishly missed something entirely.

First of all, all keys fit all doors, you may just need to use them in a certain order to solve the puzzle. Secondly, yes - if something is green, then you might make an irreversable mistake and have to exit the level and re-enter. Obviously. This is bad why?

The only reason I can think of that a key wouldn't open a door is that you were playing the stage where time flows according to your left or right movements. In those stages you can't open a door by walking right to left, as that would be going back in time, see? So maybe that's the thing you missed. It's a puzzle, see?

arggghhhh HOW do you get those 2 at in world 2? the one above the door and the other above it, near a solitary cloud?

i've tried making a bridge out of jigsaw pieces, bending time everywhich way, arggdgfhsdafhsdfhshd

oo i moved the cloud. i don't know how! i think

Oo it's hand drawn and has classical music. This is art. 10/10!

Meh.

oh my god i did it.

and i fell in love

i actually went OOOOOOOHHHH when i worked it out, sheesh

Two doors, one green key, one hero, one ghost.
How the fuck.

Mudo: momentum.

There are several puzzles that I believed were like this, and I spent a lot of time trying to execute split-second moves to solve them. Eventually I realized that the solution was something completely different. I'm not saying that's true in your case, but it's a mistake I made several times while Braid was rewiring my brain.

That's happened to me elsewhere but since contrary to my earlier statement I did go and get that piece in the end I know that getting was exactly how I thought it would be. Only if anything more annoying because I kept misjudging the rewind point as well as the jump.

Great review.
Greater game. This and GW2 in the space of a week, MS you are really spoiling us.

This game is so very clever. I love how I can go back and crack a puzzle in minutes after it earlier stumped me for aaages.
Slight problem though: The jigsaw of World Six has completely buggered up with 6 or 7 of the pieces 'locking' into place despite being a jumbled mess, some not even touching the others.
I hope just collecting the twelve pieces is enough to unlock World One. If I have to build the jigsaw properly then I'm screwed and will have to start the game over. :(

Wow just freaking wow they did it again 1200MS points for this piece of crap. WHY?
Just like the penny's arcade game. I prefer Castle crashers instead or bionic commando arcade priced for 800MS points.

Don't buy it then.

It's not crap, either. But nevermind.

The furore over an extra 400MS points for what is an excellent title, when other games cost £40+ and are quite simply, not as good, is funny.

This review is the epitome of what's worng woth game reviewers.

>Wow just freaking wow they did it again 1200MS points for this piece of crap

You decided that just by looking at a screenshot didn't you?


>This review is the epitome of what's worng woth game reviewers.

And that comment is the epitome of what's wrong with fuckwits who cant event spell, but yet seem to think the world shines out of their own ass when it comes to games. Let me guess, it's "crap" because it doesnt have guns and isnt first person?

"This review is the epitome of what's worng woth game reviewers."

This, but spelled correctly. I didn't come here for a philosophy lesson, but that's undoubtedly what I got. It's obvious the reviewer, (for whatever reason) is in love with the game, and being unable to covey his feelings through genuinely useful gameplay information, felt the need to write a review which can only be described as borderline supernatural.

Anyone can write a ridiculously vague review then slap a 10 on the end just because they enjoy the game, how about telling us what we want to know? I still don't even know how long this game is! It may be good, but if it's only going to take me an hour I'm not buying it. Also, despite the review telling me I'm wrong when I say time manipulation has been done, I'm actually not. Yes, games like TimeShift and Prince of Persia use it merely as an anti-death mechanic, but there are plenty of non-retail indie games out there that have used the exact same time manipulation system as Braid. Is Braid still worth buying when there are games out there doing the same thing for free? I wouldn't know, because the information in this review would be better suited to a Matrix script than information on a gaming website.

I haven't played it but you got my interest. So I checked the Braid site. Can't beleive he said this:

"UK print magazine Edge has published the first review of Braid, giving the game a score of 9/10. Normally I would not be happy about a 9, but Edge has a reputation for being very tough with scores." (http://braid-game.com/news/?p=245)

It's all starting to sound a tad pretentious, what with the twenty year old 2D platform game design with a new puzzle mechanic added on. I suppose I'll need to try it though.

That was one horrible, horrible review.

1.)What it doesn't have: any of the logical information you would expect a review to present. Replayability, game modes, length of game, etc. I don't even know how the narrative is presented! Gameplay, cut-scenes, something else? I am constantly told "what the game is", but not told how it accomplishes it. Don't tell me something is "X", in a review, tell me why it is "X." For something Mr. Whitehead apparently spent a long time writing, he failed at his most basic task: conveying information about the subject he's reviewing.

2.)What it does have in spades: hyperbolic blather the likes of which (as an early comment pointed out) belongs in the Matrix. I have no idea why I should buy the game, though I completely understand that Mr. Whitehead wants to father its children. Though, again, I'm not sure why. It's a 2d platformer with a unique and apparently well implemented time dynamic. And ... exactly why is it the equivalent to the seminal graphic story of the 20th century? What the hell do the two have in common? Don't just throw that out there, explain yourself!

Also, if the reviewer is this affected by a 2d platformer with philosophical snippets woven into the theory of gameplay, he has some serious issues. It's interesting, but not life-changing or affirming. I actually went and obtained the demo, I was so frustrated by this review, and unless there's something in the full version I'm missing out on this is basically a very well executed, beautiful looking and sounding 2d platformer. Interesting, creative puzzles, but a commentary on life style and a critical dissection of the gaming medium? Please.

One of the worst reviews I've ever seen, and an excellent example of how people often fail when analyzing/expressing things they love, versus things they hate.