Now We Are All Sons of Bitches

Review

There are some that will call Braid pretentious. The latest Xbox Live Arcade offering certainly wears its artsy-fartsy nature proudly. The graphics evoke a watercolor painting, a classical score sets the mood, and a multi-layered plot hints at a metaphor for something more sinister than anyone would have guessed. This is a game that will get you thinking in some degree. Braid is a simple, Mario-esque, 2D platformer that mixes time-related gimmicks with a hunt for puzzle pieces. Braid is a quest to save the princess. Braid is the story of a man trapped in a marriage, regretful of his mistakes, endlessly searching for the girl of his dreams. Braid is all of these things, and yet it may ultimately be a metaphor for the Manhattan Project and the creation of the nuclear bomb. Pretentious? Sure, if pretension is the label we put on anything that attempts to set a mood, be more than the sum of its parts, push you to think a bit, and not treat its audience like idiots.

The ominous and very classy opening screen of Braid

Braid is a game that wants to win everyone over, without ever compromising itself. Yes, it presents its plot in large text bubbles, a storytelling technique incongruous with the video game medium. This plot is, though, entirely optional. In fact, most of the game is entirely optional. One could skip the plot, blow through any levels that stump them, and still find something to love. Those that dig deeper will be rewarded justly. The heart of the game is trying to find the way to each puzzle piece. Players can rewind time at any moment, with further time manipulation abilities offered later on. Each ability is worked into the puzzles in brilliant ways, playing with your expectations, and while even at their most mind-boggling, are entirely workable, and all the more rewarding. Finding every puzzle piece in the game opens the final level, and just when you think a simple plot of love (with elements that anyone can relate to) will come to a close, this braid unravels further. Where the game asks you to think through its various brainteasers, in the end it gives you bits and pieces as a reward. This deeper plot is itself a puzzle, with the pieces all there before you, and it is, again, entirely optional.

Braid references several classic platformers, including Mario, Donkey Kong, and Elevator Action.

We need more games like Braid. As the industry expands, I can only hope there is a place for something like this. In movies, this would be the equivalent of a David Lynch film – a simplistic concept surrounded by a mess of seemingly disconnected elements, and yet they all come together to be something more. This is powerful, smart stuff, on an entirely unpretentious level, allowing anyone to get something out of it. Funny how the last time I felt the power of storytelling in gaming was in Call of Duty 4, watching my character die of radiation poisoning in the aftermath of a nuclear detonation.