Braid is a stunningly pretty platform game with a serious twist.
Scratch that—Braid looks like a platform game, but it’s not. Sure, the references to Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong are immediately apparent, but Braid is a whole different genre. Describing it as a puzzle game would be much more appropriate.
Tim, the protagonist in Braid, has the power to rewind time. Therefore, if Tim falls into a pit filled with spikes and dies, he can simply rewind time and avoid permanent death. Nothing too special… until he stumbles on items and enemies that are immune to rewinding time. And that’s just the beginning…
Every puzzle in Braid is unique. Sometimes it’ll take hours to find the solution—but the game never gets frustratingly hard. All puzzles, no matter how clever, still make sense and in the end you always get this warm feeling of accomplishment. Even if you can’t solve a puzzle, you can always skip it and come back later.
Braid is not just good for its puzzles, though. The artwork is amazingly pretty—I don’t know of any games with such high-quality 2D graphics. This, along with its haunting soundtrack, makes Braid into one of the highest-quality indie games out there.
The storyline doesn’t disappoint either. A casual gamer likely won’t pay much attention and see it as a simple “boy rescues princess”-story, but there’s more to it. Throughout the game, Tim finds various books which each give fragments of a story that is much deeper than it would appear at first sight.
In short, Braid is a game that excels in every aspect. While not everyone will enjoy it as much as I did, anyone who enjoys puzzle games should definitely grab a copy and play.
Rating: ★★★★★