"Far beyond an acceptable start"

Ironically, I never would have heard of this brilliant game if it weren't for the controversy surrounding its release. At 1200 Xbox Points (roughly 15.00 USD), Braid is the most expensive Xbox Arcade game available. Despite its high price, however, Braid is not only the best game available through the Xbox Live service, but one of the finest pieces of entertainment ever sold. When I played the free trial, I could tell I was playing something really special. The rewind mechanic worked extremely well with the pixel-perfect platforming, so naturally I had to buy the game, which spent the next few hours rocking my socks off.

The most immediately obvious strength of Braid is its art direction. From the second you boot up the game, you're treated to an explosion of stylistic characters, lively backgrounds, and atmospheric lighting. Each world has its own graphical motif, from the mid-summer fields of World 2 to the hollowed-out city of World 6. It gives the game a fresh look nearly every hour, which allows the repetitive nature of the characters to be forgotten. Speaking of characters, the animation style of the hand-drawn protagonist, Tim, is completely amazing. His tie blows in the wind as you run forward, just a small example of the hard work that has gone into the artistic details of the game.

The soundtrack of the game is equally impressive, varying wildly from section to section. For example, in the second world, a lively trio of violins accompany your quest, adding to the joyful atmosphere of the level. To reuse an example, the sixth world is completely barren, which leads to a mournful cello-and-violin track that shows the player Tim's emotions. After all, he's traveled far and wide to find the Princess, who just always seems to be in another castle.

Despite the incredible graphics and sound, the real star of Braid is the story. I can't tell you all that much without ruining it, but the jist of it is that the main character, Tim, is searching for a Princess who he apparently knew a long time ago. Besides that, the plot is completely up to the player to figure out. A quick internet search for "braid ending" brings up about a dozen different theories about what the plot is REALLY about, showing the game's wildly vague, but still interesting, story.

The gameplay of Braid itself is remarkably original. Think Mario, except more puzzle-based. Your character, Tim, is searching for puzzle pieces for a reason that the player is left to decide. These pieces' locations are often obvious, but completely out of reach. Fortunately, Tim has a few tricks up his sleeve when it comes to gathering these pieces. Each of the worlds in the game gives Tim a new power or gimmick, but he can always rewind time at the push of a button. You can control the flow of time all the way to the beginning of the room, speeding up and slowing down the rewind as you wish. You can even fast-forward, provided that you have accidentally rewound too far. When the rewind is in effect, the game's extremely detailed nature is showcased. Enemies fly back onto the screen, completely unaware of their previous death. The music rewinds as well, making dissonant chords and melodies that only progressive composers would dream of. The game was carefully programmed to simulate what would happen in reality if you could rewind time, and I applaud this effort. It gives the game a semi-realistic feel, even though the player character regularly does impossible things.

Thanks to the differences between each world, the game never seems to get old. In World 3, you begin to see time-proof items, further complicating the game's puzzles. Shortly after that, you stumble across a world that is controlled similar to a music box; everything that moves is dependent on the movement of the player character. This leads to interesting situations, as the designers deliberately programmed the most obvious route to the puzzle piece to be impassible due to superb enemy placement. The puzzles differ in style from world to world, but are challenging and thought-provoking. You'll often find yourself solving a puzzle by trying a method you knew wouldn't work, but did anyway. The style of the game makes you feel extremely accomplished after gathering one of the tougher puzzle pieces, as you know they are all possible to obtain.

Despite my overwhelmingly positive outlook on the game, Braid still has flaws, though most of them are of no consequence. First off, the puzzles can be extremely hard, even frustrating, at some points. You'll know what to do, but thanks to some sort of physics quirk, it'll be nearly impossible to follow through with. All of them are possible, but some of the later stages will test your patience, featuring puzzles that will take at least a half-an-hour for the skilled gamer to solve. Some of the game's challenges require luck, as well. Sometimes the spawning patterns of the monsters you need to jump to the next platform will become strangely inconsistent, making the trip nearly twice as hard.

The beginning of the game isn't exactly clear on what is possible and what isn't. At one point in the first stage, you must use two parts of the puzzle to create a platform to jump on. The two parts make a table, which makes sense in theory, but the fact remains that most players won't attempt the puzzle at all before they have all the pieces, making the logical jump to "use the puzzle!" a bit awkward. It also doesn't help that this is the only point in the entire game where you use the puzzle for anything besides assembly, so the quirk in the first stage feels like a half-baked addition to an already stellar level. Though Tim's time-travel powers are extremely well-done, the lack of any speed beyond 8x makes going all the way back to the beginning of the room take more than a minute in large areas. While this may seem like a small oversight, having to wait for your character's powers to work just adds frustration when you're attempting the same puzzle for the thirteenth time.

The story of the game, while possibly the best in video game history, has little development in the middle of the game, leaving the player in the dark as to what exactly is going on. The ending of the game itself is confusing enough as it is, but the addition of hidden sections to the epilogue further complicates it. Still, the prologues to each world are superbly written, letting the gamer know exactly what Tim feels like going into this world. Still, a lot of loose ends are left by the story. Tim's time travel powers are never explained, and the antagonist is never really revealed, outside of one short scene.

However, all these flaws are meaningless once you get down to the game itself. I cannot think of a single major flaw in Braid, outside of a difficulty that curves just a little too steep. The game is brilliant in all categories, and I still can't believe that a two-person team was responsible for it. Its price should not be a factor; you simply have to play this game. In short, while the Princess may be in another castle, the experience that is known as Braid is always right in front of you.

Graphics: 5/5
Sound: 5/5
Music: 5/5
Story: 5/5 (bonus awarded)
Playability (Control): 19/20
Gameplay: 40/40
Fun: 15/15
Tilt: 5/5
Total: 99+1=100/100
Final Score: 10
Absolute

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/18/08

Game Release: Braid (US, 08/06/08)