Braid

Review - A timely reminder of indie innovation

The days of the lone bedroom programmer have well and truly returned. The aesthetically beautiful and philosophically challenging time-travelling 2D platform puzzle adventure Braid proves it to be so without doubt. Designer Jonathan Blow will no doubt be an inspiration to aspiring independent solo game artists with aspirations of creating great masterpieces such as this very game. That's right, masterpiece.

So carefully crafted is Braid that at times it feels almost an honour to be playing it. It's like someone has offered you a glass of vintage red wine which has been in their family for 300 years. You love every minute, but almost feel humbled by the perfection reaching your senses. And yet, Braid is so simplistically charming that its appeal will reach all aspects of the gaming community, connoisseur and layman alike.

It's a 2D platform game. You play as a guy called Tim with red hair. You control time. Adhering references are made profusely to Mario. And it tells a beautifully written text-based story filled with philosophical turmoil and horrifying twists. Things start off simple in the first world - enigmatically called World 2 - you can rewind time. The first few levels feel a little like getting used to the "rewind" function on a Super Nintendo Emulator. The levels require such a perfect use of timing that the time control is necessary. World 2 is a haze in my mind, I was still in disbelief at how artistically beautiful and charming the game was turning out to be.

Each level contains jigsaw pieces. All these pieces must be collected and assembled for the final world to become available. Finishing up in the erroneously named World 2, after a puzzle so clever you almost feel like kissing yourself for solving it and Jonathan for thinking it up, you reach a castle and a brown dinosaur who innocently declares that "the princess is in another castle."

Each segment of the game is designed with obvious care. The timings of the cannons, moving ledges, and placement of monsters has all been carefully crafted just so that when you think you've solved the puzzle you realise you've actually fell into one of the designer's many traps and only by rewinding fully to the start can you have another go.

Every new world puts a new twist on the qualities of Tim's time controlling ability. You come across objects which are invulnerable to your ability to rewind time. You experience a world where rewinding time creates a new shadow universe which will then re-play once again what you have just rewound. In one world you gain a magic ring which can be dropped and this acts like a time 'Well', slowing down greatly those objects close to its centre but then affecting less and less objects as they get further away. Every one of these new twists is catered for carefully and with masterful thought put into the brilliant puzzles, which make excellent use of this fourth dimensional control.

In one world, Tim's time control is limited, as the world itself is frozen in time unless he moves. As he moves left the world rewinds, and as he moves forward it too moves forward. The overall effect of this twist is far more complex that you're probably now imagining and makes for some astonishingly clever gameplay.

The graphical beauty of Braid is outstanding, and it is matched perfectly by the awesome quality of the music and the sound effects. The thuds, groans, and croaks which make up the sound effects are aurally pleasing. The music is classical in nature, and feels appropriate, responding well to the twists of time in each world - rewinding where required and shifting in pitch as time is slowed.

It is almost saddening as you being to reach the end of the game. Braid is such a fulfilling experience you want to demand more. The end level of the game is phenomenally special in its own way and the story twist is gob smacking - a story twist in a platform game! In fact the end of the game highlights the game's one flaw - it is too short. For a game that's so compelling and so well crafted, that's unsurprising - but it is still a problem. When you reach the end, you will want more.

Luckily the gaming experience doesn't necessarily end there. After completion of the game the challenge speed runs are unlocked and now you can attempt to solve levels in a specified time limit; also carefully crafted to create a masterful challenge. Additionally there are eight hidden stars about the game which are barely even hinted at and require almost a MENSA levels of ingenuity to discover and collect.

Braid is the most gorgeous slice of chocolate cake you can possible imagine wrapped in a silk cloth and tied with a pink ribbon. It's a paradoxical experience of simplistic charm and over-bearing sensory and logical complexity. No one in the gaming world should miss out on playing this game, to do so would be a tragedy.

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