Braid was the third biggest highlight of the Indie Game Movie behind Fez and SMB(+), and given that I reviewed the former not too long ago, I thought it only befitting to tackle Braid during my sabbatical from shooters.

However, unlike Fez, I had actually beaten Braid many moons ago, my memories recalling mixed feelings on the matter in spite of its gorgeous palette. Well, with fresher eyes and more veteran years under the belt, were those recollections mistaken or does Braid fail to live-up to the hype? In my opinion it’s the latter, though in a strange twist of faith, I couldn’t tell you why.

See, Braid doesn’t do anything wrong per say: au contraire, it actually does what any great platformer should do -- set-up a unique mechanic, throw-in bite-size levels, and gradually introduce new variations on said power in a World 1-1 manner. It’s pleasing to look at, has terrific music, and is easily replayable in a pick-up-and-play kind of way.

So why didn’t I like it? Well, I think part of it has to do with the game largely relying on timed moments and specific routes, meaning you’re always under some kind of pressure regardless of the task at hand. Braid’s gimmick, of course, is time reversal, allowing you to rewind the clock as far back as you want; however, as a result this, 90% of the puzzles end-up being overlain with some degree of urgency. Short of pressing the pause button, there’s no breathing room - you’re always on the move, trying to hit the right beats for the right solution, and that type of temporal gameplay is inherently antithetical to my nature. One of the reasons I’ve failed to get into products like Majora’s Mask and Pikmin 1 is their reliance on kitchen timer mechanics, and while Braid’s obviously not in the same category as those games, it bears enough DNA to make it spiritually-similar.

Now you may ask “if you can reverse every decision at will, what’s the qualm?” Well yes, you’re able to do that Prince of Persia-style, but the problem is it doesn’t change the fact that you still need to find that precise order of killing enemies or pulling switches or causing slow-downs etc….etc… -- barring exploits, Braid just doesn’t leave much room for experimentation: if you miss the solution, you gotta restart, all while contending with an invisible countdown.

And again, I want to stress that none of this is objectively bad - the game got critical acclaim for a reason and is definitely worth checking out. For me personally, I unfortunately wasn’t able to get absorbed like I typically do with most platformers.

That said, there were three issues I felt went beyond the parameters of subjectivity into genuine irks. One, there’s a small, yet noticeable, delay whenever you start your rewinding that basically forces you to hold down the key for a couple extra seconds. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, and within the grand scheme of things probably isn’t, but when you hit a snag and want to instantly get back in the groove, it does get annoying having to die again ~alley~ just because you forgot to push the button longer than necessary.

Two, your protagonist’s jump is a tad bit floaty. No, I wouldn’t put in the same category as Super Mario Bros. (of which Braid is a clear love letter to), however, you’ll definitely be redoing sections courtesy of improperly-executed jumps you thought you’d make.

The final problem revolves around the story font. To elucidate, Braid conveys its narrative via blobs of text dispersed amongst a set of books leading into each world’s entry, and it’s okay as far as quality, detailing a toxic relationship that sprung up between main character Tim and his ex(++). Unfortunately, the devs made the bizarre decision to have said blurbs dissolve between each other, creating this blurry transition wherein you have to wait for the scrawl to clear-up before you can read the next one. Yes, it’s small potatoes and you can dart-on past them, but to those of you interested in the game’s tale, you’ll have to contend with this design choice.

Speaking of design choices, it’s high-time we talked about the graphics, and oh boy is there a lot to say as this is a beautiful-looking game. Jonathan Blow and David Hellman were clearly interested in recreating European storybooks, and they’ve accomplished that here via taking the Donkey Kong Country-template of interposing 3D models against stylized backdrops. Whereas DKC was more-photorealistic though, Braid opts for a flair reminiscent of German Romanticism, with bleary tones and nature-backdrops rendered under bright pigments. Subtle animation work has been incorporated into nearly every facet of the game, bulking it with a vibrant liveliness that never ceased to amaze me across vistas: whether it was the fluttering of Tim’s hair during runs & falls, the spinning of the sun in the background, the blopping of Avatar-esque raindrops, or the movement of clouds, everything added up to a thoroughly-invigorating treat for the eyes. If I had to complain about anything, it’d be that enemy designs were aesthetically-uninspiring.

The sound effects are, tragically, hindered by poor mixing - if you really want to hear the rainfall or thumping of critters, you’re going to have to manually lower the music into near-silence, and that to me indicates Blow was more interested in using the OST as a proxy stand-in for authentic SFX. What you hear is fine, but outside of major foreground obstacles like cannons and sliding pillars, you’re generally going to be oblivious to most of the aural minutiae.

Thankfully, the music is excellent, its contents interestingly consisting of licensed tracks over originally-conceived tunes. The trio of artists behind them (Cheryl Ann Fulton, Shira Kammen, Jami Sieber) have indulged in a selection of Middle Age baroque songs ripe with violins, chords, and the occasional piano, all of which contribute to that aforementioned fairy tale-vibe the game is clearly going for. The one downside to the score is Blow didn’t account for how the harmony would sound in reverse, meaning you’re often privy to some chiptune-esque grate whenever you rewind time.

There’s really not much else to say about Braid. The goal here is to acquire all the puzzle pieces within each stage, though if a level is giving you trouble, you are provided the option to just move onto the next place. And because progress is instantly saved, you don’t have to redo the entire world when you return to replay things. Unfortunately, I found myself not inclined to do that and ended-up bailing on the prospect when I realized I was relying on a guide too much. That said, I have beaten Braid once before, so this review stands as authentic regardless of how my new playthrough went. Look up some gameplay and give it a try if it seems up your alley.


NOTES
+Super Meat Boy, not Super Mario Bros.

++The books are filled with haphazard swaps between tenses, making me wonder if this was intentional or an oversight.

-Clothes pulsate with light like the armor from the Clash of the Titans remake.

-I liked how Tim’s pupils widen and look downwards whenever you descend from a height.

-Because of The Witness (and its fanboys), Blow has acquired a reputation for coming across as pretentious. Having seen Indie Game: The Movie, I can’t make that supposition about him (he seemed relatively-normal there), but I will say a line of his from regarding the choice of music rubbed me the wrong way:

“My not-so-charitable opinion of game-music people is that most of them are not at that level of skill. Most of them don't really understand gameplay that well unless it's very simple, traditional gameplay. If they give you a song, it's usually not very high-quality, like what a real musician makes. By real musician, I mean people who made the song because they cared absolutely about that song. They weren't making it for anything. They just made what they most wanted to make at that time, so that's what I was looking for.”

Yeah, if you don’t know anything about composing or writing scores, I would suggest keeping your smarmy generalizations to yourself, especially when they’ve been blatantly proven wrong by the myriad of “fake” musicians in video game history.