Games for Lunch: Braid
Developer: Number None
Publisher: Microsoft
Release Date: Aug. 6, 2008
Systems: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PC
ESRB Rating: E10+
0:00 Designer Jonathan Blow himself gave me a personal demo of this game back a few E3s ago. Been looking forward to it ever since, and now that it's here, it seems everyone is sharing in that excitement.
0:01 The title appears rendered in fire over a red and black oil-painting cityscape. A silhouette of a small man is on the left. "Use the left analog stick to move," is my only instruction. Let's-a go.
0:02 As I walk from the dark city into a bright interior room, my character turns from silhouette to a little tow-headed little boy with red hair, a red tie and a blue blazer. Elegiac strings fill the background as we enter "World 2." (I guess this is World 1?)
0:03 "Time and forgiveness" is the name of the world. Tim (our protagonist) made a mistake and now has to find a princess taken by a monster. "Our world, with its rules of causality, has trained us to be miserly with forgiveness." Heady stuff.
0:05 "Three easy pieces," is the first room. The background is blue and sunny now -- reminds me of Yoshi's Island a bit. The background strings have gotten more upbeat, more like a fiddle.
0:06 I can climb ladders and fences, and jump-bounce on enemies like in Mario. I get hit by one and fall over with a sickening "crunch." As I fall, time freezes and an X button appears next to Tim. I hold the button down and time rewinds to a point where Tim has not yet been bitten by the furry brown monster. It seems I can do this rewinding indefinitely at any point. Makes death seem unimportant, which I think is sort of the point.
0:08 After collecting a few floating puzzle pieces, the next room is "the cloud bridge," which has a cannon shooting clouds, appropriately enough. I find a big board with some puzzle pieces on it. I try to arrange them into a coherent whole, but I really, really suck at jigsaw puzzles. Plus, I think a few pieces are still missing.
0:11 I can't seem to jump high enough for two of the puzzles pieces in the cloud bridge room, so I move on the "Hunt!" The gentle piano doesn't really match the theme of the room.
0:13 I eventually realize that I need to jump and bounce off an enemy's head from above to get to a nearby platform. Unfortunately I've already killed the enemy off which I would need to bounce. Not to worry, though -- a quick rewind can get him back. Seems this feature isn't just good for death. I find I can speed up the rewinding by tapping the L trigger.
0:14 "Leap of Faith" is next. Appropriately, I have to jump into a bottomless pit at just the right moment to bounce off an enemy fired from a cannon. I end up rewinding a good five dozen times before I get it. The violin music sounds oddly nice as it alternates going backwards and forwards.
0:17 I've made it to a castle. A reddish dinosaur comes up to me. "I'm sorry, but the Princess is in another castle." Groan. I get 10 Gamerscore points for traversing World 2, even though I know I missed a lot of puzzle pieces. Maybe I'll be able to get them later? Or maybe I'm just an idiot who didn't spend enough time trying to get them this time around. Either way, it's on to...
0:18 ... World 3, "Time and Mystery." The story tells us of Tim abandoning the Princess. "He regrets this, to a degree." He's trying to find her again, to apologize. The writing is so subtle and open to interpretation, makes most other game stories seem like nursery school books.
0:20 "The Pit" has a monster with a key at the bottom of a pit. I kill the monster and get the key but have no way out of the pit. Luckily, I can reverse time to fly back out, still holding the key, which seems curiously unaffected.
0:24 "There and Back Again" barely seems like a puzzle at first. I just have to work past the enemies to get a key. Then I realize that an impassable door has been slowly falling into my intended path since I started the room. I have to get the key, then reverse time to make it through. Kind of simple, but it shows some promise.
0:26 "Phase" has two rows of floating clouds being fired from cannons. The gap between the clouds is too large to jump across, but it seems half the clouds aren't affected by the time reversal power. This means I can shift some of the clouds to fill in the gaps.
0:27 "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" introduces switches that move ground-moving switches. Have to climb where I want, pull the switch, then reverse time quickly to outrun the moving platform.
0:29 There's a key hidden in a small alcove that I can't quite seem to reach. Hmmm.
0:31 I love the golden trees and gentle rain in the background. Combined with the gentle string music, it's absolutely heartbreaking.
0:33 "Tight Channels" introduces a new enemy: fluffy pink bunnies. At first I think they're harmless background elements, but the one lunging bite sets me straight. A few of them have tiny bunny families following them. OH MY GOD, SO CUTE AND DEADLY.
0:35 These bunnies are annoying, jumping to intercept my hops as soon as I get close. Takes some deft timing to take them out.
0:38 I don't want to give too much away, but I just solved a frustrating puzzle that involves keeping an enemy alive long enough so I can bounce off of him. Ingenious!
0:41 "Irreversible" has a puzzle piece hovering above a fire. I can't seem to reach it with a jump, and any enemies that I could bounce off die when they hit the fire.
0:48 I feel like the answer to this fire puzzle involves bunnies, as it so often does in life. It seems like I should be able to get them to jump out over the fire so I can bounce off them. Can't quite get the right angle, though. This is taking way too long, anyway. I'll come back later.
0:50 I went down a hole to find a new puzzle, but a few bunny families swarmed around the top and I couldn't get out. Whoops.
0:53 I'm pretty sure I just screwed up the puzzle I'm working on. Again, without giving too much away, I trapped a time-independent key behind a time-dependent lock. Time to restart the room.
0:55 Damn, somehow I screwed it up again by reopening a door I had unlocked. This is frustratingly mind-bending.
0:57 Third time's the charm!
0:58 "Lair!" starts with a bad guy who picks up a key and immediately throws it in to a bottomless pit. I have to back up time and then leap with perfect timing to steal the key from him in midair. Thrilling!
1:01 Boss time: A fire-breathing spider thing with a fuzzy face. He has five hit points but there are two chandeliers to drop on his noggin. Luckily, I can replenish the chandeliers by reversing time. Going backwards time-wise also seems to protect me from his projectiles.
Would I play this game for more than an hour? Yes.
Why? A beautiful, original and well-designed platform game? It's like someone reached into my dreams.
This column is based on a downloadable copy of the game purchased by the reviewer.
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