I finally got to spend some time with Braid last night, after having downloaded it shortly after its release. I suppose its become mandatory at this point for those who have played the game and consider themselves gamers with an appreciation of the medium beyond the latest craze to mention it on their blog. Speaking of which, I wonder what the tally would be like at this point?
At any rate, my experiences with the game have been minimal so far. I didn’t jump on the game immediately for a few reasons, and you may feel free to shake your head disapprovingly as I list them here. The first, and biggest reason: I thought (and still think) that the game itself is so pretentious as to turn myself off to it immediately. When pretense and hype pair up I find myself not enjoying media as much as I normally would. The fact that the art-game literati were trumpeting this thing as a life-changing, mind-expanding experience was an immediate red flag for me (even if the game itself might be these things- more on that in a bit). To explain, there are two instances of this sort of thing that immediately jump to mind, and which will perhaps shed some light on why I think the way I do.
1) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Everyone who I knew that had seen the film couldn’t say enough about it. Amazing! Fantastic! Moving! Oh the hidden meanings! The clever shots! Everyone spent so much time telling me why it was great and why I should think it was great, that when I finally watched it, it was a bit of a let down to be perfectly honest.
2) House of Leaves: I really enjoyed this book. I would have enjoyed it more if I had just picked it up and read it on my own. All of the metaphor is great. The stories within stories were very clever. And the history of the setting, glimpsed throughout the stories, was something I found very compelling. But in the end, I found that between the book taking itself so seriously, and the legions of mindless zombiesfilm majors I really coulnd’t enjoy it at face value. And to be perfectly honest, why should something have to be obtuse to be worthwhile? Really the best media should not only be interesting, nay, riveting at face value, as well have those layers of meaning behidn the facade, to ensure longevity and relevance long after its time is gone.
Okay, tangent: ended. To recap: The first reason I wasn’t keen on Braid: the pretense. The second reason: the art. Now don’t get in a huff. I’ve changed my tune (for the most part) on this, but in seeing screenshots of the game I never looked at it and thought ‘beautiful’. Not even lush. And both Tim and the monsters you encounter just seemed ugly to me, in a way. Not to say that the artistic vision isn’t cohesive, because it is, no question.
Anyhow, those were my two major caveats. I had no clue about the music, and only knew a very little bit about the gameplay. As a rule, unless I am on the fence with a product, I tend to stay away from videos and look at screenshots as little as possible. Maybe thats foolish, but I like to have my experiences for games, movies, and the like be fresh and open minded.
With this in mind, know that on Saturday morning, I sat down in front of my 360 with a pot of tea, some breakfast, and started up braid. The title screen, paired with the music chosen by Blow, was a good start. And seeing Tim in action was heartening. My initial minutes with the game were spent mostly enjoying the soundscapes and reading the story segments. The exploration was fun initially, though in my characteristic fashion I started picking up less and less puzzle pieces in an effort to see more of the artwork that I had quite wrongly dismissed (though I still don’t particularly care for the catrabbits or hairy dwarf things). The backgrounds were lovely, and the music really set a mood that seemed quite appropriate for the cool late summer morning.
I only had a little while to play Saturday unfortunately, so last night I came back to the game, and after I finished blazing through the game I returned to World 2 to start assembling the puzzle pieces and to really try and wrap my head around the different world mechanics. There may be puzzle spoilers ahead, so you have been warned.
My first epiphany, and possibly many other people’s, would have been using the incomplete picture in world two to create a bridge to not only move a hairy dwarf to a more advantageous position, but also to reach an otherwise unreachable puzzle piece. Through the next few areas I continued to puzzle out what needed to be done, completing World 3 after a bit more trial and error than I would like to admit. Before calling it a night last night, I did take a substantial chunk out of world 4, and I must say at this point I’ve enjoyed it the most in terms of feeling the rush after solving a puzzle. Eventually my exhaustion won out and I had to stop for the evening, but I knew the game had something special when i sat down to my computer to poke around at a few sites before lights out and I found myself quite randomly thinking that somehow the logic of world 4 applied to my web browser and instant messaging. Crazy? Maybe. But I was thinking about the puzzle solving method of a fraction of a game without realizing it. That pushes a game into the ranks of my personal AAA titles, for what thats worth, especially seeing as its gameplay, and not story or characters that I find myself thinking about when I’m not playing it.
At any rate, my tune has mostly changed about this game. I plan on completing it over time during the next week or so, depending on how busy I am. You may call me convinced though that perhaps pretense, while not something I’m willing to be okay with just yet, can be just the thing the industry needs from time to time. I don’t know if Braid will end up being a life-changing game for me. But it definitely is something that everyone shouls take a look at, especially small developers, or people who always had an idea but were to concerned it woulod be washed away in a deluge of big releases.
If the idea is a good one, and the implementation is skillful, you could change an industry, or at least shake it up a bit.
For another view on Braid close to my own: crouton days
For the game’s music (which I insist you check out): Braid Blog, Buckman’s Magnatune blog
