BRAID Posted by Joe Anderson on Aug 25, 2008 09:12 (Aug 25, 2008 09:12) |
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Innovation is not particularly a word I would associate with Xbox Live Arcade most of the time, countless remakes see to that, however occasionally one game will stand out like a sore thumb and make you glad that the service exists, step forward Braid. In Braid you play as Tim, a hero who is suited, booted and on a mission to find his kidnapped princess, not only that but it’s also Tim’s fault that she went missing in the first place, so as you can imagine there is a bit of remedy work to be done here.
In Braid the main aim is to collect puzzle pieces and then at the end of each world piece the puzzle together, not only will this help you solve the mysteries but it will also add a section to the ladder in the main world, allowing you to progress onto the next section.
Getting through each world is fairly simple, however the challenge comes in trying to get the puzzle pieces, although this is fairly straight forward at first, once they start to become out of reach this is were your brain starts ticking, and ticking and ticking. The developers have really pulled one out of the bag in this respect, getting puzzle pieces is no easy task and really requires a mixture of innovation, good timing and luck. To help Tim in his task of gathering the puzzles he has the ability to rewind time, so if for example you are trying to bounce on an enemy to reach higher heights and miss, you can simply press x, rewind time and repeat until you get this right. Of course this is an example of simple use of the ability, it does get more complicated, for example in one level you have to reach a puzzle piece by opening three doors, however you only have two keys, so opening the door requires a mixture of brain power and Tim’s time reversing ability. There are a few exceptions to Tim’s time manipulation throughout each level, for example, items which glow green are not effected so should you use a key which is glowing green and then reverse time, the key will be reusable, whereas one which isn’t glowing wouldn’t be, also throughout the different worlds Tim’s powers will vary, meaning that other than time reversing you will have the ability to slow time or create a clone of Tim to aid you in certain tasks, these abilities come in handy when you need to reach moving platform or avoid the cannons which are firing at you.
One of the main things that stands out in this game is that Tim cannot die, hit a enemy and you will simply be prompted to rewind time and try again, it’s a unique approach but it is one that works fairly well, keeping the game flowing and taking away some of the frustration you will inevitably feel when trying to reach the puzzle pieces.
Graphically the game takes the guise of a platformer, the levels are fairly basic in appearance but for some reason they just seem to work, they shouldn’t really, I mean who ever imagined a game where someone is running along in a suit trying to rescue a princess? Not me, but it all fits together nicely.
If there is one problem with Braid it is that once you have completed it you may not want to go back for more, however just to experience a game like this is worth the Microsoft Points alone.
You have to ask yourself why are there not more games like Braid on Xbox Live Marketplace. Braid is an innovative and unique game, it’s not a clone of Pacman, Tetris or Space Invaders and for that reason alone it stands out from the crowd.
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