Braid is different
Braid is a video game puree, it’s nothing different. It’s Super Mario Bros.; so warm and inviting. Time manipulation is nothing groundbreaking. Puzzles are cool. The Mario mechanics could be tighter. It’s 2D. A technical achievement? blah..Blah blah bla. None of these descriptions will suffice. So what is Braid?
Within a minute or two, the painted visuals and music put me at ease. Soon I’ve forgotten about the the controller. So far this experience is not alien, plenty of good games have sucked me in. But it doesn’t stop there. I’m drawn into the storyteller, not the story mind you, but the man behind the curtain. Finally, I lose myself in the game and the rules of the world slip into the back of my mind. I start solving puzzles intuitively, not fully understanding how.
The patience-marinade takes a while to get used to but I find it’s the only way to make progress. And the next day, I find myself at work trying to solve the puzzle of the storyteller. What is he saying with his laws in each world? What do his paintings mean? Who is she?
Braid is something greater than the sum of it’s parts. And to think I dismissed it when I first played it, my standards have sunk so low.
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In which I compare Space Giraffe to Ulysses. [Understanding a game is not universal]