[b]My Playtime:[/b] 8.8h (100% achievement, finished the game 4x)
[b]My First Playthrough:[/b] 3.6h
[b]Grindy Achievement(s):[/b] No.
[b]Optional Achievement(s):[/b] Yes (6 achievements).
[b]Difficult Achievement(s):[/b] Yes (1 speedrun achievement).
[h1]Intro[/h1]
[i]Braid[/i] is a puzzle platformer with a unique mechanic: you can rewind your action, turning back time a few seconds from where you were. The gameplay will revolve around this mechanic with a different focus on each world. It has 38 levels total, separated into 6 worlds.
[b]Pros:[/b]
- Unique mechanic; most mistakes can be recovered with the rewind feature
[b]Cons:[/b]
- Confusing mechanic that can be hard to master, which is required to finish the game
[b]Specs[/b]
Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
[h1]Should you buy this game?[/h1]
[i]To be honest, I can't seem to get myself to think of a solution for the puzzles. I know how the mechanic works, but it never clicks with me.[/i]
[hr][/hr]
[h1]In-Depth Review[/h1]
[h3]Visuals[/h3]
Most of the visuals use dark colors, with platforms that have a lot of patterns. The sky was made brighter, although the color scheme was made to match the foreground. It reminds me of a painting at times.
[h3]Story[/h3]
To be honest, I didn't understand the story. First of all, the presentation isn't made interesting—you need to walk towards a book and a wall of text will show up for you to read. Second, these texts are usually poetic in nature, and given the vagueness and the lack of context, it can be hard to deduce what it means. You might get some context once you finish the game, but by the time I reached that point, there were just too many walls of text for me to read, and I'm not interested in rereading them all. The twist at the end was great, though, and you can understand it without even understanding anything. That being said, you still need to dedude the story yourselves based on the wall of texts and the context given at the ending.
[h3]The Game[/h3]
[b]Gameplay[/b]
[i]Braid[/i] is a puzzle platformer at its core, with a mechanic that revolves around its rewind function. The game suffers from a lack of tutorial; it tells you the basic controls, but I don't remember the game telling you about the rewind button or even how the unique mechanic exclusive to each world works. You need to understand everything by yourself, which is not enough since you need to master it to proceed to the next level.
The game might look easy at a glance. Going from the entrance to the exit mostly just requires you to move to the right. The issue lies in collecting the puzzle pieces, which are needed to unlock the ending. It's mostly not obvious enough; you need to change your perspective, thinking about how the rewind works to achieve it. In [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/400/Portal/][i]Portal[/i][/url], it'll be something like the "you're thinking with portals" kind of thing.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=468708242
The game only gives the tutorial of how the unique mechanic in the first level of each world. It never goes through the extra length to introduce you to what it's capable of. This poses a problem, especially since you'll be given a puzzle in the next level which isn't solvable unless you master the mechanic.
Despite being a puzzle game, you also need to do the platformer section well. A lot of my mistakes also cover in me getting killed by an enemy or making the wrong jump. Most of these can be recovered with the rewind button, but on some levels, doing this will waste a lot of time, mainly because the rewind button is also attached to a mechanic that is needed to solve the puzzle. Sometimes, it's even better to just redo the whole level instead of continuing because of it.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=251965214
The game doesn't seem to encourage you to collect everything. There is this star collectible that is scattered throughout the levels, but getting one of them requires you to wait for like half an hour in the game, and one can't even be obtained if you already do a certain action. I know the game is short, but this seems like a poor attempt to increase the game's playtime.
Some levels are too similar. I know that there are some that serve as a tutorial, but having the same layout with a different twist seems like a lazy design to me.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=826656590
[b]Length and Difficulty[/b]
I finished the game in 8.8h. I had to play the game four times because I had to get the speedrun achievement. In case you are wondering, yes, I failed twice. If you play the game blind, the game will be difficult, but if you don't, there are a lot of guides that can help you figure out how to solve the puzzles in the game. It should make the game easier if you follow them, although you still need to be good at platforming to some extent to finish some of the areas.
Honestly, it was frustrating to finish the game. I never got the relation on how to solve the level with the rewind mechanic, and not knowing the full extent of the unique mechanic in the world I was in also didn't help. And despite the rewind function being helpful to some extent, sometimes it can be really annoying. You need to redo an action just because you rewind it too much, or maybe your run was ruined because you pressed that button. Moreover, the enemies are really annoying; you can be forced to rewind because they can kill you easily, and it can be hard to jump on top of them properly to get rid of them most of the time. Moreover, you'll lose a lot of time if you fail the jump. It's a never-ending cycle of annoyance.
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
I wanted to enjoy the game, but the game didn't seem to click with me. Not only did I not fully understand how the unique mechanics work in each world when I played it, but the platforming sections also can be punishing if you fail something. The game might be forgiving enough not to let you die, but sometimes it's even better to die and restart the level because of it. That being said, I'm afraid I can't recommend the game.
