Braid (XBLA) - Page 2

That the concept is never introduced is why I don't like it. Everytime you touch an enemy other than on the head, you die. To assume that you'd think of hitting an enemy's taint is a bit of a stretch, but that my ghost can do it was just another level of bullshit.

I thought the painting puzzle was pretty cheap too. Not a huge fan of it.

I'm enjoying the gameplay and the puzzles (mostly), but the 'story' is an embarrassment. The books in front of each level read like the liner notes to a Fall Out Boy concept album. Overwritten, overwrought and stupid.

Thought I was the only one who found the book snippets to be less than compelling.

One of the later ones read like a Jewel song...just finished this. Great little game. Wish there was more to do, especially with powers available in the last 3 worlds, or at least let you combine them for some brain melting 7th world action.

$15 bucks decently spent. Now I can get back to padding my mediocre Geometry War scores.

Listen, I need the people who liked/identified with/got emotional over the story of this game to step forward so we can have a database of potential stalkers.

To be perfectly honest, I've been ignoring the story so far.

I assume there are no game play hints hidden amongst the tale?

Nope, not really. Just remember the few rules (shiny shit isn't affected by time) and you'll figure everything out pretty shortly.

It's a good game, not great. Those 10/10 scores are absolutely fucking ridiculous.

I'm enjoying it mainly because it reminds me of the time I spent at friend's homes when I was younger playing SMB on the NES.

Except that this game doesn't rely so much on jumping skills, which is also nice.

Yeah, the story is kinda shit. Well, written shittily. It's fun and anytime I figured out some devilish puzzle, I felt awesome. But every time I read one of the books, it had this weird, translated from Norwegian feel to it, like whoever translated just did a flat translation, didn't bother with cleaning up the language or anything.

I personally think it's another case of an "indie" video game getting the shit hyped out of it and everyone trying to justify their hobby by saying what a deep and emotional story it had and how they cried while reading the books. Those people really need to do something other than just play video games.

The World 2 picture-platform puzzle I don't think was so out of line, I was trying to figure out how to get to the other side, I got enough pieces of the puzzle to see the platform, I made the connection. It was a satisfying victory.

The World 4 puzzle that's pissed everyone off, that one I loved, but I can see being annoyed by it -- if I hadn't already discovered by accident what was needed to solve it, it probably would've pissed me off, too. As it is, I think it was ingenious.

I just finished the game a short while ago, am not quite sure what to make of the ending. Very interesting, but confusing. Easily worth the $15, or whatever I had to pay in Canada. Right now I'm back on that World 2 area with the jigsaw puzzle, trying to figure out what the deal is with that one cloud platform that's off to the right. I've figured out one part of it's secret, but I don't have a clue what to do next.

EDIT: I think I just figured it out. And it's going to take HOURS.

I said it before, but it bears repeating: you can't solve the puzzle right away. You have to make your way through the world, and only after you do that do you have enough pieces to make the platform. This is a problem, but what pisses me off is that the creator has been nothing short of a pretentious bitchfag whining about "PLEASE don't use a strategy guide, guys. It may take hours, I made the puzzles pefectly and if you just stand around and absorb your surroundings, you'll soon figure out the puzzle." Utter bullshit.

I don't consider that a problem at all. Puzzle games that make you move forward to obtain some item/information then come back to use it are nothing new. Braid is guilty of not prompting the player for a handful of the rules and requirements of gameplay that most other games would, but I don't mind a little less hand-holding. I've always enjoyed puzzles (video game and otherwise) where they don't tell you the rules of the game, part of solving it is figuring out the strategy to employ towards solving it. Those ones are always the hardest bitches to crack (I've abandoned my fair share), but they're the most satisfying to finally complete, as well.

Agreed. Who has the time to spend hours trying to solve a couple of puzzles? Of course it is more satisfying to figure things out on your own, but after a certain point and a certain amount of frustration, it's no crime to give up. No game creator wants players to cheat their way through all their little puzzles -- which were certainly much harder to create than they are to solve, so I can understand the feeling -- but they've got to accept that once it's sold, we get to use the product the way we want.

My take- http://chud.com/articles/articles/15...AID/Page1.html

Good review Alex, you've nailed it (pun intended) when it comes the music and story elements of the game.
To be honest, havent finished it, actually...BC:Rearmed has taken over my gaming time.

PS: I also expect "Braid 2" to have crappy metal music and a "fuck that princess bitch" brooding storyline.

I don't know why you would use a strategy guide for this game. The whole point of the game are the puzzles and cheating on them defeats the purpose. You can still move forward and get on to other puzzles even if you can't solve the one you're on so I just don't understand why you would want to ruin the experience.

I just played through it this weekend and I was definitely a much more enjoyable experience than a lot of games I've been playing lately. Mostly because it's not stressful in a 'twitch' type way, it's got some platformer elements but it also has a unique time mechanic in each world.

I'm not going to say it's a perfect game but it's for me it was just the right length and difficulty.

My monitor wept after having been smeared with the entrails of your mildly negative review. Not even the flaming sun could penetrate the darkness of your words and how they challenged my ability to ever truly, madly, deeply respect your opinoin of videogames. I will continue my quest, head hung low, until I can find someone who UNDERSTANDS all the sorrow, and shame, you have put me through. You remind me of my Dad when he used to tell me that I had to clean the pool BEFORE I could swim in it. I hope you drown in the endless abyss that is your heart.


(all the kids sing)

This aint a scene! It's a goddam arms race!!

While I initially agreed with this, after finishing the game it doesn't bother me as much as I'm pretty sure that was the point of the whole thing - especially when considering the ending revelation.

Here's someone discussing the ending. And here's another article, going a little deeper, discussing the whole atom-bomb/manhattan-project thing. Oh, and for those who haven't finished it yet, spoilers, of course.

Seems like you either didn't finish or understand the game.

From the article above:

I thought the music in the first two levels in the game sounded like The Fountain soundtrack, so I dug it.

That said, this is a brilliant little puzzle game. It's not going to change my life, and the story isn't going to make me cry or anything, but it's fun as hell. Definitely the type of game XBox Live Arcade should be focusing on more in the future.

Even though, between Geometry Wars 2 and Bionic Commando Rearmed, I barely have had time to get past World 3 (the second Hunt is currently where I'm at). Why is it that they release so crap for so long, then they release 3 great games within 3 weeks?

Potentially 5 in 5 weeks -- Galaga Legions (from the Pac-Man CE folks) this week and long-awaited Castle Crashers next week. They should have spread these out over the summer.

got it..have played it....not feeling the hype

sure its alright..i guess. meh, i'll play alittle bit at a time when i'm bored of GW2 and BC

Some of you fuckers owe me $15.

I'm finally getting into this after playing the shit out of Bionic Commando: Rearmed, right now I'm halfway through World 4. I like it well enough but the "fiddliness" of the puzzles are annoying me more than the actual solutions. Like, I'll figure out what to do but it still takes pixel-perfect timing and positioning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bJYEk-IXa8

Fuck that

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...tion/203-Braid

Fuck that as well!

Wow, he sure took the long road towards making a simple and obvious point, didn't he?

It's a fun road, so I don't mind.

Just beat this.

Seriously, I want my $15 back.

Expand please, Matt. Dissenting opinions on highly hyped games are always welcome.

Aside from the laughably bad writing, I just don't think the gameplay mechanic is good enough. There are some clever puzzles, but way too many of them rely on split-second timing and precise placement of your character once you've figured out what you need to do. This isn't a deconstruction of the platformer, I don't care how many times there's mention of a "princess". It's a puzzler and one that's not particularly fun.

It's a very pretty game and it has nice music (except when it runs out of nice music and has to use, I shit you not, "Rock-a-bye Baby"), but it's not worth the $15 price tag. There are Live Arcade games that are worth 1200 MSP. This ain't one of them.

I think a large part of this game's acclaim is basically what Yahtzee said: because the market is so saturated with unimaginative crap, a game like this stands out, but that doesn't necessarily make it good.

The ability to rewind makes the need for precise and split-second timing manageable. It's not like you have to go back and replay the whole level to get back to a jump and hope you make it the 2nd time, you just rewind a few times to fine-tune the maneuver. After figuring out what I needed to do it rarely took me more than a few tries to actually do it - and with the rewind those multiple tries only took up a minute or so, at the most.

The rewind functionality really took away any of the pain of failure, because it was only ever more than a few seconds to back track. The parts of the game that I thought were the least fun were when they introduced the temporal permanency that forced you to exit the room and come back to try over.

I didn't watch the whole video, but is there any point in getting these stars? Other than to prove how much of a life you don't have?

Collect all of them and get a different story ending.

Played the demo and i wasnt really into it. After watching that star video i dont even want to give the game a second chance. That shit just takes a disgusting level of dedication.

So is this officially going to replace Ico as the title everybody is going to dredge up in those annoying "games as art" arguments?

I'm surprised it hasn't already, the hyperbole being thrown around. Ico is better. So much better.

I hope not. I hate hearing people talk about the "deep and moving story". Devin's right, that shit's like a failed Fall Out Boy album.

I thought it was pretty clear that at the end of the game we're supposed to see the main character as a creepy stalker. The whole point of the overwrought story is that it's being told from his disturbed point of view and as such it's supposed to be kind of emo.

Yeah, but the fact that it's supposed to be like a failed Fall Out Boy album doesn't change the fact that it's like a failed Fall Out Boy album. For example, here's a quote I found about it: "What is Braid? One may as well ask what life is. It is art, it is love, it is pain, it is a journey. It is itself." Seriously?

I mean, it's a fun game, but in no way is it going to "change the way you think about reality". Overall, I pretty much agree with Alex and Yahtzee. Fun, but not going to change my life.

And on the opposite end of the pretentious "work of art" hyperbole.

My God, I'm in awe of how much I fucking hate this kid.

Hey, it's hard out there for a walking cliche.