Short Game Review: Braid
I’m pleased to see that the newest game to spark the whole “games as art” discussion again is Jonathan Blow’s Braid, a game about a man with the power to manipulate time searching for a princess. I’ll let other fawning reviewers (or Doombot compatriots) explain in greater detail why it deserves its 10/10 and A+ scores. Suffice to say, the puzzles are challenging but doable, the art and the music are beautiful, and the gameplay and the story complement one another in thoughtful ways. Also, it’s very approachable, taking no prior experience with gaming for granted.
I have two great hopes following this game: first, that it encourages indie game designers to collaborate with good visual artists and musicians rather than relying on “programmer art”; and second, that Jonathan Blow has another good game in him somewhere. The game kind of feels like the realization of his usual manifestos about the state of gaming today, adding to growing number of games that similarly raise questions about the point of the heroic quest (e.g., Shadow of the Colussus, Bioshock). Now that that’s presumably out of his system, I’ll be curious to see what else he produces.
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[...] Braid: My first real Xbox Live Arcade purchase, this was an extremely impressive game. What this game does to the old slide scrolling genre is amazing and poked the whole “games as art” discussion back into people’s minds and blogs. Check out Jason’s review. [...]
By doombot » Games of 2008 in Review on 01.10.09 9:11 pm
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