jakncoke
03-24-2008, 07:54 AM
Still, let’s take the wank-hat off for a minute. What’s Braid about?
Put simply, it’s a puzzle-based 2D platformer where you can rewind time, due out on Xbox Live Arcade within the next few months, with a PC release to follow. And yet, while comparisons to Prince of Persia or Blinx: The Time Sweeper will inevitably be made, they are wholly unfair. It’s certainly true that Braid takes a lot of familiar elements from previous games in order to ease the player in and avoiding pissing you off – but there is no denying that you haven’t played anything quite like this before. The main reason for this is that within each of the game’s worlds, time itself behaves differently. While your own time-manipulation abilities barely extend beyond your ‘rewind’ button, the things you can do just by bending each level’s rules to your whim is absolutely incredible.
The puzzles start off simple – early on, the game introduces objects that exist ‘outside’ of time, and aren’t affected by your rewinding – they travel along a set path no matter what you do, or try to undo. Several worlds later, you’re co-ordinating movements with an alternate-reality self whose actions you set up to interact alongside your own by acting those actions out yourself, then rewinding time. You watch your ‘old’ self act out what you just did, whilst also doing stuff in the present in order to solve the current puzzle. If you’re unsure of what I mean, check the video below - although be warned, solving puzzles is the whole point of the game, so give the video a miss if you’re keen to avoid spoilers.
Of course, if you want to just run through all of Braid’s levels without testing yourself, you can. You don’t have to solve the puzzles if you don’t want to. But if you don’t, you’re missing the point, and you won’t get the full reward. Solving each of the game’s puzzles earns you a jigsaw piece for that world – each world contains twelve pieces that make up a picture representing that level’s theme. Solve all the jigsaw puzzles, and you’ll be granted access to the game’s final world.
http://darkzero.co.uk/asset/2008/03/braid4.jpg
http://darkzero.co.uk/asset/2008/03/braid3.jpg
http://darkzero.co.uk/asset/2008/03/braid2.jpg
http://darkzero.co.uk/asset/2008/03/braid1.jpg
Put simply, it’s a puzzle-based 2D platformer where you can rewind time, due out on Xbox Live Arcade within the next few months, with a PC release to follow. And yet, while comparisons to Prince of Persia or Blinx: The Time Sweeper will inevitably be made, they are wholly unfair. It’s certainly true that Braid takes a lot of familiar elements from previous games in order to ease the player in and avoiding pissing you off – but there is no denying that you haven’t played anything quite like this before. The main reason for this is that within each of the game’s worlds, time itself behaves differently. While your own time-manipulation abilities barely extend beyond your ‘rewind’ button, the things you can do just by bending each level’s rules to your whim is absolutely incredible.
The puzzles start off simple – early on, the game introduces objects that exist ‘outside’ of time, and aren’t affected by your rewinding – they travel along a set path no matter what you do, or try to undo. Several worlds later, you’re co-ordinating movements with an alternate-reality self whose actions you set up to interact alongside your own by acting those actions out yourself, then rewinding time. You watch your ‘old’ self act out what you just did, whilst also doing stuff in the present in order to solve the current puzzle. If you’re unsure of what I mean, check the video below - although be warned, solving puzzles is the whole point of the game, so give the video a miss if you’re keen to avoid spoilers.
Of course, if you want to just run through all of Braid’s levels without testing yourself, you can. You don’t have to solve the puzzles if you don’t want to. But if you don’t, you’re missing the point, and you won’t get the full reward. Solving each of the game’s puzzles earns you a jigsaw piece for that world – each world contains twelve pieces that make up a picture representing that level’s theme. Solve all the jigsaw puzzles, and you’ll be granted access to the game’s final world.
http://darkzero.co.uk/asset/2008/03/braid4.jpg
http://darkzero.co.uk/asset/2008/03/braid3.jpg
http://darkzero.co.uk/asset/2008/03/braid2.jpg
http://darkzero.co.uk/asset/2008/03/braid1.jpg