Be kind, rewind.
Last night, I went to bed at 3 AM. I had just spent two hours playing Braid, but the solutions to a few of the puzzles still eluded me. This morning, I woke up at 11 o'clock, and starting playing Braid again. One hour later, I sat in front of my television, staring at the last screen of the game. I didn't want it to end. Braid is that kind of game.
Braid is the kind of game that just doesn't let you go. It's the kind of game you wish you could experience for the first time all over again. Much like finding the weak spot on a colossus and bringing it down for the first time in Shadow of the Colossus, figuring out the solutions to Braid's many puzzles is a unique satisfying experience that, sadly, you can only really experience once. Unless you're very forgetful.
But let's rewind for a bit and start at the beginning. Braid is a 2d platform game wherein you play as Tim, on a quest to find his princess, his soulmate. Along the way, you learn of the mistake Tim has made in his life, his experiences, by collecting puzzle piece that create a scene from his life. The challenge of the game is not to stay alive or reach the end of each level, rather it is to obtain said puzzle pieces. Every puzzle piece is locked away by a fiendish puzzle, which get progressively harder as the game progresses. The catch is that as Tim, you can rewind time to undo your mistakes, so dying is merely an inconvenience. But just when you think you get a handle on the game's mechanics, it throws a curve ball at you. The first is that there are certain objects and enemies that are immune to your time shenanigans, going on as if nothing happened even as you are rewinding time. Later on time will only move forward as Tim moves forward, and move back as he does. In another world, rewinding time causes a shadow version of Tim to execute the actions you performed before the rewinding. Needless to say, this leads to some incredibly mind-bending puzzles. Right up to the very end (or is it the beginning?) of the game, the game will keep changing the rules, but never so much so that you will feel betrayed. The basic concepts of rewinding will never change.
It's not just the gameplay that makes Braid so brilliant. In terms of sheer artistic vision, Braid is the most impressive game I have ever played. The art style, with its hand-painted look, is incredibly striking. It feels like you are playing a moving painting. The music fits the melancholy mood of the game perfectly, as each level is really Tim learning from his life's mistakes. His princess being in another castle is more than a simple homage to Mario, it is a metaphor for Tim's predicament. By the time you have finished World 1, the last level (even the levels aren't safe from Braid's time tricks), it is hard not to be moved, as the revelation of what really happened to Tim's 'princess' hits. I realize I'm probably ill-equipped to fully convey the game's artistic intent and message, but believe me when I say that no game has ever attempted anything like this. This could only have come from an indie developer.
Even if you don't care for Braid's more amibitious, artistic aspects, the gameplay alone makes this game stand above the pack. But combined with its incredible artistic vision it makes this game simply the best game I have played this year so far. Do not let the slightly above average XBLA price deter you, Braid is worth twice that. If you have any love for video games as an art form, you simple owe it to yourself to play Braid.
