A Game You Should Play: Braid

by Nathan Meunier

Wouldn’t it be great to have the power to rewind time for a few brief moments? You could take back things you’ve said and foolish mistakes you’ve made, save someone’s life, or change the course of future events for the better. Conversely, you could also use this ability for more devious aims. However you choose to do so, manipulating time is an integral element in Braid -- one of the best indie puzzle games of 2008.

Braid’s rather stereotypical opening belies the sheer amount of depth and originality poured into the game. The puzzle adventure begins with the hero searching for a princess who has ostensibly been kidnapped by a treacherous villain. Players uncover small tidbits of narrative by reading books that preface each world. While successfully making your way through each level is satisfying enough in its own right, you’ll have to collect all the precariously placed puzzle pieces scattered throughout the game in order to reveal hidden undertones in the tale and reach the bizarre ending. The story unfolds with a poetic, melancholy tone, and the unconventional content is open to interpretation. Let’s just say all is not what it appears.

At a glance, the gameplay is about what you’d expect from a side-scrolling platformer that requires you to run, jump, climb, stomp on enemies, and collect keys -- at least until you begin messing around with the flow of time. It’s possible to die, but Braid erases the consequences of death by allowing you to simply rewind time when you get into a sticky situation. Rewinding and fast-forwarding time as needed, you’ll be able to overcome the increasingly tricky puzzles the game throws at you. However, this cool mechanic doesn’t make the challenges you’ll encounter any less formidable.

Each world introduces a completely different time flow mechanic. In some levels, certain creatures and elements are immune to your time-bending abilities. In others, you can drop a ring that creates a time-slowing field that affects objects and creatures with greater intensely as they approach it. It’s the introduction of these strange new layers at just the right moments in your quest that keeps the game interesting. Every single level is constructed to provide a clever challenge or introduce a new gameplay mechanic. As such, there’s very little fluff.

Braid throws fuel on the fire of the “games as art” argument. All of the environments look hand-painted directly on the screen, as if it were a canvas. The peculiar style and tone of the game are uniquely distinct. Not only are the visuals simply beautiful and the music moodily serene, the gameplay and story also push boundaries. As an independently developed effort produced by a bare-bones team, Braid manages to outshine many of the more elaborate, big-budget offerings produced by major publishers. Xbox 360 owners who haven’t given it a spin are doing themselves a major disservice.

Where to get it: Braid is typically available as a downloadable title on Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 MS points, or $15, but for this week only you can get it for $10. Make sure you snatch that price up while you can get it if you think you might want to give Braid a try. A PC version is in the works and is expected to launch sometime early this year.