A perfect little gem of a game, small in scope and better for it.
Brothers' scope is decidedly small. A young man and an even younger man trying to save their father's life by adventuring the world may not exactly be small stakes, but that's relative. Compared to most world or universe in peril plots or games that take on armies or aliens, Brothers can seem quaint. It's also short and cheap and light on plot, characters and even controls. Even the central mechanic - its unique control scheme - is a simple one, but therein lies the rub: Brothers has so many one off, unexpected variations on its theme that it constantly delights and never lets the player sit still long enough to bore.
The narrative twists and directional hooks in Brothers are mostly pretty small scale too, but again, they keep them coming. More importantly, they also nearly all emphasize a thematic conceit, and when they keep coming and keep coming through the course of the game you suddenly realize, just in time, that they've added up to something pretty substantial. Brothers is both a short game and also one that sneaks up on you. It's a big story but small in scale. It moves quickly so that by the time its done, it ends up lingering.