Brothers is a classical Grimm brothers' fairytale, and it's that grim vision that makes it shine
There are sights to be seen, many self-contained stories to take part in, and how that all works together with the larger narrative is what makes it such a special experience. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a brief, but stirring adventure across a magical world.
The entire story is told without dialogue, and instead uses gestures and mumbling tones to express emotion and provide a broad stroke idea of what’s happening and how the characters feel about it. Two brothers must journey to find a cure to save their father from his illness. Each brother has a different personality and interacts with objects and people differently. The older brother is more matured and on point, while the younger brother is more of a joker type.
Coming with their personalities are also characteristics that make one or the other more useful in certain situations. The older brother being more levelheaded means he isn’t afraid to swim and can carry his brother across deep water. In turn the younger brother’s small figure allows him to squeeze through bars to open up areas the older brother couldn’t otherwise get to.
If you’ve ever wondered how it might go if you somehow got to navigate both ends of a couch through tight corners and doorways, Brothers might control something like that. You control the two brothers simultaneously, using the left stick and trigger to control one brother and the right stick and trigger to control the other. The controls are an awkward ambidextrous tangle that might have you losing track of which brother is tied to which side of the controller if onscreen they’re reversed, so it seems less a control issue and more that the brain and hands get crossed from time to time. It becomes almost more amusing to laugh it off, because the game is well checkpointed and control slip-ups don’t provide too big of a setback. There are also some some truly exciting and clever sequences that make full use of the scheme, to the point that the controls themselves become not just central to the gameplay, but also the narrative.
Boiled down, Brothers is a puzzle game, but none of the puzzles are stumpers screeching the game to a sudden halt. The intuitive puzzles keep the adventure moving along, which is beneficial to an experience that is at its best when played in one sitting of around two to four hours.
While it is a mostly linear affair, there are little puzzles on the side that underline the themes of the core fairytale venture. There are also benches scattered throughout the world, where the brothers can stop to drink in the gorgeous vistas. The artistic direction nails the folklore aesthetic across a multitude of base environments. It’s difficult not to marvel at the mystical creatures and get lost in the imagination of it all. The wonderful world and happenings of Brothers are also well accented by its enchanting score, so every piece of Brothers comes together to form something special.
Brothers plays to the medium’s strengths and weaknesses in ways few games do. Because every interaction matters, it's constantly building up to create something that only works as well as it does because of its medium, and it passes with dim flying colors. It’s a fairytale in the classic sense of the word, and the grimmer moments are complimented by moments of wonder, excitement and power. That juxtaposition makes the storybook world of Brothers worth exploring.
