Braid, the time travelling puzzle platformer

[Gragt]

Dunno, I replayed Quake recently and it had a much better story than Braid.

No, I did not find the stars on my own, I noticed the constellation in the opening sequence of the game though.

 

[Lumpy]

From what I gathered, Braid contains elements belonging to these stories:
- Tim broke up with her, the Princess, and now is trying to find her again.
- Tim broke up with "her" and left to search for the Princess, who represents an ideal.
- Tim is looking for some escape from time, to a better world.
- Tim wants to make the atomic bomb (lolwut?)

Each of these stories connects ambiguously with the one above and the one below (if there is the case):
Many stories about Tim and "her" don't make it clear whether "her" is the Princess or not, though some do.
The search for the Princess ideal is often amalgamated with the search for the ideal place.
And the search for the ideal place is sometimes suggested to mean wanting to bomb the fuck out of the world.

But otherwise, there is no overall coherence. It's impossible to claim that the game is about the atomic bomb, because a large amount of text wouldn't make sense. Similarily, claiming it's about love will make the obvious bomb test bit seems out of place. The only logical conclusion is that the game has no story whatsoever, it's just a melange of whatever the author was thinking of, and just play the goddamn puzzles.

 

[vrok]

Played an hour or so and then uninstalled out of sheer boredom.

 

[Kaiserin]

This game is absolute shit. I don't think that the puzzles or the story are all that clever honestly. Even as somebody that milks allegedly pseduo-intellectual titles for all they are worth, there were only a few times that I thought to myself that the design or writing was clever at all.

I'll stick by Bioshock being a fun poke at Ayn Rand though.

 

[Imbecile]

.. there were only a few times that I thought to myself that the design or writing was clever at all.

Well I wasnt blown away by the writing, but I thought the design was fucking good. It also seemed fairly original to me, which isnt something you get every day.

 

[luckyb0y]

This game is absolute shit. I don't think that the puzzles or the story are all that clever honestly. Even as somebody that milks allegedly pseduo-intellectual titles for all they are worth, there were only a few times that I thought to myself that the design or writing was clever at all.

I'll stick by Bioshock being a fun poke at Ayn Rand though.

Why do you think it's shit? You may not like the "story", but honestly I don't understand why you didn't like the gameplay part. It's more of a puzzle game than a platformer. Only the last level requires some twitch skills. Puzzles are clever without being frustratingly difficult. The decision to let you play despite failing to solve some was really wise. I can't quit pin it down but I found it very enjoyable and refreshing. I have short attention span and get bored of even good games pretty quickly. It wasn't the case with Braid. Sure it's short but it kept me occupied for a couple of evenings.

With the way the story is presented it's pretty obvious that the designer wanted to do something different than linear/branching narrative we usually get. It's a genuine stab at exploring the possibilities of the medium. It didn't turn out that great but it's interesting. Maybe there's a cure for that movie/game disease that was contracted back when FMV was all the rage and games never really recovered.
Designwise we're stuck in the early 90's. Sure Crysis/HL2/CoD looks prettier than Doom but it's essentially the same game. How many games you can think of that haven't had their counterpart ten years ago? I guess there are a couple but not many. All we get is better audiovisuals and gimmicks like cover system/ragdoll/"physics". This applies to every genre out there. Where are the RPGs that really move the genre forward? Strategy games? Please list ten games from the last ten years that were genuinely innovative. I'm not talking minor improvement but something really new. Not that Braid is such a game. Like I said it's a brilliant puzzle game and a failed experiment in narrative. Even failed experiments can give insights, though.

 

[Dark Matter]

The puzzles are incredibly inventive and well done. When you consider the fact that there is so little going in the game at any time, it's brilliant that the puzzles still manage to be reasonably challenging. All you have is one or two of those goombas (or w/e they're called), maybe a moving platform, and maybe a switch. That and your time-manipulation abilities.

In most games, when there's a challenging puzzle, it's often challenging because there are so many things to consider within the gameworld. But the fact that Braid can challenge you and make you think despite its minimalist approach to gameplay is truly an indication of how well-designed the puzzes are.

It still confounds me how anyone can dislike the gameplay. I really would like to hear some proper criticism from the people who claimed it was boring, shit etc.

 

[vrok]

Let's see... You can't die, removing all challenge as a platformer. The story/world/etc is completely meh and uninteresting and as such didn't motivate me to continue solving the "puzzles". The only thing that motivates me in, say, adventure games is finding out what happens next, not the puzzles themselves. That doesn't mean that I don't prefer good/hard puzzles over bad/easy ones though but by themselves, they're a waste of my time.

Also, even though I'm a sci-fi nut, time travel is fucking gay.

 

[Dark Matter]

It's a puzzle game, not a platformer. The challenge comes from figuring out the puzzles, not from overcoming difficult bossfights or making your way through a tough platforming section. Dying and having to restart would simply get in the way of what makes the game fun.

Also bad story? You mean unlike all those other 2D puzzle/platform games with great stories? Even if the story is pretty pretentious, I like the fact that it's completely unlike anything seen in games before.

 

[Balor]

And why I keep adding 'Dementia Summoner' to the game title?
Too much MTG, I presume.

 

[vrok]

It's a puzzle game, not a platformer. The challenge comes from figuring out the puzzles, not from overcoming difficult bossfights or making your way through a tough platforming section. Dying and having to restart would simply get in the way of what makes the game fun.

Also bad story? You mean unlike all those other 2D puzzle/platform games with great stories? Even if the story is pretty pretentious, I like the fact that it's completely unlike anything seen in games before.

DUH!!! The point was that it sucks from both a platformer and adventure game perspective and that I'm not interested in the Puzzle Bobble perspective.

Platformers keep me playing (or at least used to) because of the challenge in staying alive and actually completing the game. Adventure games keep me playing to find out more about the story/world. Puzzle Bobble gets nuked after a few minutes. Therefore, Braid got nuked after wasting an hour of my time.

 

[luckyb0y]

It's not a platform game, mate. What you're saying amounts to: I don't like puzzle games. It's like saying fallout is shit cause there isn't enough twitch combat. It's fair enough you don't like that kind of games, but it's not a genuine criticism.

 

[vrok]

Learn to fucking read. I'm saying the story and world was so meh that I wasn't motivated to continue solving the puzzles. Hence, everything that Braid did to try and separate it from free flash puzzle games sucked and wasn't worth the effort nor the $$ (IMO).

*waiting for the next moron to tell me it's not a platformer*

If you like Braid, you like Puzzle Bobble and probably crosswords too! So there!

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

It still confounds me how anyone can dislike the gameplay. I really would like to hear some proper criticism from the people who claimed it was boring, shit etc.

Well, I guess I'm too stuck in my ways, but I think if you're going to make a game with platforming elements, than make platforming skills matter. If you don't, the platforming elements are worthless, and only drag your game down. I only played the demo a bit, but the puzzles weren't really gripping me either. It's the same deal as any hybrid-genre, you can't use it as crutch for gameplay elements that would be lackluster in a game of only one genre.

 

[luckyb0y]

I love puzzle bobble.

Anyway I don't get it. I didn't like how the story turned out but I kept playing for the puzzles. Aren't the games suposed to be about gameplay not story? Maybe that's the true meaning of the story: games are not about the narrative.

 

[Kaiserin]

Okay, yeah, the puzzles are 'clever,' but all of the challenge arises from simply gaining knowledge of what to do. There is pretty much zero replay value as a result, you merely look at the situation, good around, and then notice a pattern. The times it was challenging, it wasn't as if though it was challenging for any kind of a good reason. It was more like 'oh, I didn't see that object, but now that I do, puzzle solved.'

Imagine if you needed five pieces to complete something you were working on, and the background was black. Four of the pieces were white, one of them was black. You didn't know that you needed five pieces until you realized that four just isn't working out any way you slice it. So you look around top to bottom and notice, by golly, there be a black piece I done missed! With that in mind, there is no more puzzle, merely something that you overlooked.

Maybe I'm goal oriented, but in the package it's presented, it's very hard for me to take the puzzles as an ends within a means. I do like puzzle games, so don't start that shit. I can play bust-a-move, tetris, and the like all day. However, this seems to be a boring series of 'oh well gee, if I had only known' moments. Hell, that seems to be the guys fucking point with this thing, how things change with experience. The issue is that this is a very boring 'lesson' after the first five times it happens.

 

[Imbecile]

Well, I guess I'm too stuck in my ways, but I think if you're going to make a game with platforming elements, than make platforming skills matter.

I guess they do matter, in that you have to make your jumps quickly and accurately both to platforms and critters heads, but ultimately its just an environment for the puzzles.

A reasonable parallel is Portal. There are first person shooter elements, but it is by no means a first person shooter, its basically about the puzzles.

The demo only shows the first level, which isnt that great. Each level has a different take on the time reversing elements, and I could probably still recommend it if you like puzzlers. (Just dont expect a platformer )

Edit: As for lack of replayability? Well, thats puzzle games, for the most part. Cant ever say I've gone back and done a crossword that I've completed.

 

[Silellak]

The only logical conclusion is that the game has no story whatsoever, it's just a melange of whatever the author was thinking of, and just play the goddamn puzzles.

 

[Kaiserin]

Edit: As for lack of replayability? Well, thats puzzle games, for the most part. Cant ever say I've gone back and done a crossword that I've completed.

Then why have I been playing Tetris since I was five?

 

[Silellak]

It still confounds me how anyone can dislike the gameplay. I really would like to hear some proper criticism from the people who claimed it was boring, shit etc.

Well, I guess I'm too stuck in my ways, but I think if you're going to make a game with platforming elements, than make platforming skills matter. If you don't, the platforming elements are worthless, and only drag your game down. I only played the demo a bit, but the puzzles weren't really gripping me either. It's the same deal as any hybrid-genre, you can't use it as crutch for gameplay elements that would be lackluster in a game of only one genre.

I simply can't agree. FPS skills don't really matter in Portal, beyond having to aim the portal gun and jump. But would there have been a better way to present Portal than a FPS? Braid is presented as a platformer because the basic concepts of the platformer are what the puzzles are based around. The game just doesn't work as any other genre. Personally, I'm loving this "hybridization" of other genres with puzzle games, since the basic Tetris-style puzzler got pretty old for me awhile back.

As someone else said, the first world's puzzles are pretty 'meh' anyway, with a couple of exceptions. It doesn't get truly interesting until a bit later. Though, I know, OMG EVERYONE ALWAYS SAYS THAT.

Edit: As for lack of replayability? Well, thats puzzle games, for the most part. Cant ever say I've gone back and done a crossword that I've completed.

Then why have I been playing Tetris since I was five?

Well, I'm not sure Tetris is a fair comparison. Braid's puzzles don't change every time you play; the most you can hope for is to get a faster time. Maybe you could wait a few years and forget to solve a few of the trickier puzzles.

Tetris, on the other hand, never ends, and the increase in speed makes the game more and more challenging as time passes. Braid is simply not the same type of game.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Because Tetris is not puzzle, but a genre on its own?

You're not seriously comparing Tetris with The Incredible Machine, for example, are you?

 

[kingcomrade]

No reference to nuclear bomb there.

"Now we're all bastards" famous saying after the Trinity test

Okay, yeah, the puzzles are 'clever,' but all of the challenge arises from simply gaining knowledge of what to do.

Wow really?

 

[luckyb0y]

No reference to nuclear bomb there.

"Now we're all bastards" famous saying after the Trinity test.

Didn't know that. Shame on me.

Okay, yeah, the puzzles are 'clever,' but all of the challenge arises from simply gaining knowledge of what to do.

Wow really?

My thoughts exactly. How can you compare Braid to Tetris? It's more like Lemmings or Incredible Machine. What do these games have in common? Once you solve the puzzle there's no reason to do it again. No replay value is a fair criticism but applies to whole genre.

 

[Kaiserin]

You're not seriously comparing Tetris with The Incredible Machine, for example, are you?

No, I'm comparing it to Bust-A-Move, Klax, Columns, and the hundred other games like it which are called puzzle games.

No replay value is a fair criticism but applies to whole genre.

The difference being that games like Lemmings reward you in the later levels by carefully building on knowledge and tricks that you gained in the earlier levels. You don't simply have to look at it and wonder how it works, you are given increasingly complicated series of puzzles which are all solved in more or less the same manner. Braid definitely spins what you learn into the mix a bit, but not in a way that your previous experience is going to help you solve the puzzles ahead in a truly meaningful way. You will, until you discover the final part which is a totally novel piece you wouldn't have thought existed prior to seeing it.

With Lemmings, you are developing a skill set, with Braid, you are simply hunting for all of the hidden pixels...if you'll pardon my patented shitty metaphor on that one.

 

[Dark Matter]

The times it was challenging, it wasn't as if though it was challenging for any kind of a good reason. It was more like 'oh, I didn't see that object, but now that I do, puzzle solved.'

What the hell? There are very objects in the game world that are actually relevant and they're all in plain sight. Can you give an example? It's not like objects in the game are placed in some obscure and hard-to-find spot (except for the stars). Everything is right there.