Braid, or "the ingenuous platformer wrapped in a strange and brooding relationship narrative"

Tis "the season"! While some of your friends here at NAC! will be dishing out festive holiday-themed writeups, I have more of my typical fare in store for you. I was lucky enough to have been gifted the Humble Indie Bundle 2 this year by Spooky's better half. Amongst the awesome independently developed games jammed into this pay-what-you-want-jam-pack, one title really stuck out to me: Braid.

Braid isn't a particularly new title. In fact, the game first appeared on X-Box Live Arcade in 2008, and has intermittently emerged on various platforms along the course of two years. Its inclusion in this year's Humble Indie Bundle, however, marks its official debut on Linux -- the flavor of the game on which I'm writing this review.


Now, every curious gamer has played one: a hobbling bastard of a game that does little more than emulate legendary classics. Few of these games can fill the shoes of time-tested gems like Super Mario Brothers, and I figured Braid to be no different. Walk across a 2D landscape. Jump over a pit. Stomp on an enemy. It was all too familiar but slower than those games who constitute an enjoyable platformer. It wasn't until I fell onto my first bed of spikes that I began to catch on to Braid's genius.

The first world is littered with tutorial prompts: press the arrow keys to move; press spacebar to jump; land on a badguy's head to take him out. The first time I "died", however, the game instructed me to hold the shift key to rewind time. Objects on the screen rippled and the rich oil painting environments became desaturated and compressed as I cued the game all the way back to the beginning of the stage.

Huh.

Spectacular art.

This is the player's first taste of Braid's unorthodox nonlinear gameplay, and its not just to correct your mistakes. Reversing time is not a crutch, but an integral part of solving the game's puzzles. Later on, the player finds that some on-screen objects and enemies are not effected by the protagonist Tim's ability to step backward in time. As the player gains access to new worlds they are also presented with abilities and game mechanics unique to their respective stage, each neatly packaged with their own boons and curses. All of Tim's abilities break the traditional linearity of the platformer genre, making Braid one of the most involving 2D platformers that I'd ever played.

Got it. Tim is lame. On to the level!

Stages are grouped in worlds, each represented by a room in Tim's house. The stages are preceded by a lobby made of clouds where the player can read about the game's narrative. Apparently Tim royally screwed up his relationship with 'The Princess,' and is trying to get her back. The chunks of narrative are riddled with assessments of Tim's choices, thoughts and self esteem, which are consistently heavy and contrived. The stages, I take it, are supposed to be manifestations of Tim's psyche. That being the case, the game has a very fitting aesthetic of dreamy impressionist oil paintings accompanied by Celtic strings and ominous tones. There also seem to be very overt allusions to Super Mario Brothers scattered throughout Tim's subconscious, which would explain Tim's shit luck with women.

A timeless tale of bullshit.

Each world contains a puzzle whose pieces can be found scattered through the stages in often hard-to-reach places. The only way to obtain the pieces is to, of course, solve a series of platforming puzzles by bending your way through time. The completed puzzles depict snapshots of Tim's memories with The Princess, which are beautifully rendered in the game's signature art style. According to Braid's Wikipedia article, each of these puzzles must be completed in order to unlock the final stage.

I've gotta say, collecting most of the puzzle pieces is frustrating. Too often have I ended up rewinding time past my intended stopping point, requiring me to start from square one. Acquiring new abilities throughout the game can also be a little tough due to the learning curve. However, like any good puzzle, this frustration only sweetens the reward. There's something about toiling over a problem, having that 'eureka!' moment, and reaping your yield that instills the player with a feeling of accomplishment. I also find myself walking away from a challenging stage, sputtering relieved expletives at the sheer quirk and intricacy of Braid's puzzle design.

Boss battles are not exempt from the rules of Braid's zany puzzle solving world.

Braid gives off an esoteric vibe that might cause some high-browed critics to assert its transcendence beyond video games. As far as I'm concerned, pleasant visuals and music aside, Braid is just a game, albeit a very good one. Thankfully the sappy story is not mandatory reading nor is it essential to actually completing the game; otherwise gamers with lesser tolerance for bore might quit before they get a chance to see just how sweet the game really is.

Look, it's the holidays. Head over to the humblebundle.com, donate to some fine charities and enjoy Braid along with some other cool titles. Worst case scenario, you help out folks in need. Give it a play and let us know what you think!