The Future of Gaming is Comming to Terms With The Past
Braid defies time, learning from the best titles of out past, and bringing a fresh exciting taste of the future of gaming.
Everything about Braid, from it's title screen to the last level, will leap from your television and enchant you. It's gorgeous dream like visuals and beautiful music massage your eyes and ears and almost immediately you are aware that this isn't like anything you've played before.
The art of storytelling and videogames, is often debated and argued and, let's face it, we are still in the infancy of our medium. A medium that's heavily influenced by movies and television. They try to pry a story into games in a traditional way using cutscenes or scripted animations. In this way, Braid is the beacon of light emerging from a long dark tunnel. The concept of implementing game mechanics to progress the story is extremely well executed and a heaping breath of fresh air.
In Braid you control Tim along his journey to several worlds which might actually be memories. Tim is trying to save the princess, a common videogame task that takes on an unexpected twist. To speak more of the story would be a disservice to you, as figuring out what this game is all about is as interesting as the puzzles you solve in each world. The gameplay and your abilities are designed in such a way that discovering what they are and how to use them is part of the story as well. You can't die in Braid, and are never punished for taking risks. Braid is about learning from your mistakes, and every aspect of the game reflects this. That's as much as I'm willing to say about that.
It's entirely fitting that this gem has appeared as a downloadable game on the Xbox Live Marketplace, a service of which is probably the future of content delivery. The $15 may seem steep, but it's a one of a kind ticket for an experience ahead of it's time. Game designers take note. This tiny indie developer just blew your collective minds.
Everything about Braid, from it's title screen to the last level, will leap from your television and enchant you. It's gorgeous dream like visuals and beautiful music massage your eyes and ears and almost immediately you are aware that this isn't like anything you've played before.
The art of storytelling and videogames, is often debated and argued and, let's face it, we are still in the infancy of our medium. A medium that's heavily influenced by movies and television. They try to pry a story into games in a traditional way using cutscenes or scripted animations. In this way, Braid is the beacon of light emerging from a long dark tunnel. The concept of implementing game mechanics to progress the story is extremely well executed and a heaping breath of fresh air.
In Braid you control Tim along his journey to several worlds which might actually be memories. Tim is trying to save the princess, a common videogame task that takes on an unexpected twist. To speak more of the story would be a disservice to you, as figuring out what this game is all about is as interesting as the puzzles you solve in each world. The gameplay and your abilities are designed in such a way that discovering what they are and how to use them is part of the story as well. You can't die in Braid, and are never punished for taking risks. Braid is about learning from your mistakes, and every aspect of the game reflects this. That's as much as I'm willing to say about that.
It's entirely fitting that this gem has appeared as a downloadable game on the Xbox Live Marketplace, a service of which is probably the future of content delivery. The $15 may seem steep, but it's a one of a kind ticket for an experience ahead of it's time. Game designers take note. This tiny indie developer just blew your collective minds.
