Braid Demo

Platformers are usually designed to be as brutal as possible and punish your every mistake with a 'game over' screen, ever since Super Mario and Contra were a thing. Difficult puzzles can sometimes be much more discouraging than death, on the other hand, which is why adventure titles can cause much more anguish than a regular platformer, if the developers play their cards right.

Braid avoids falling into either one of these categories, even if it looks and talks like a platformer to an outsider. The game is actually a combination of the two genres, in the sense that you must use platformer tricks in order to solve mind-bending puzzles, which allow you to make sense of the story and get to the end. However, you are not actually forced to solve them either, since you can just keep on going and ignore them, although you won’t experience anything of what the game has to offer like that.

Story-wise, it all seems simple and innocent in the beginning, since your purpose is to find the clumsy princess that got kidnapped. Along the way, things get way more complicated and philosophical, although it is up to you to read about it when you are given the chance. The main character also happens to possess certain incredible powers, such as turning back time, speeding it up, or slowing it down.

The gameplay mechanics are the reason why Braid is probably one of the most revered indie productions of all time, because they work so incredibly well and they make the experience that much more interesting. By making proper use of your powers, you can achieve great things, although it usually takes a while until you figure out how to do it. The controls are very simple and it only takes you a few seconds to get acquainted with them, but there are numerous ways you can make use of them.

The game excels when it comes to graphics as well, because the artwork is very inspired and it can leave you breathless from time to time. Thankfully, the beautiful art was used to improve the level design, rather than just dazzle you with stunning visuals every now and then. Each world is memorable and full of detail, which is much more than you could ask from many triple-A titles released every month.

To put it bluntly, Braid is good. Braid is simple and easy to pick up, yet incredibly complex after the first few levels, enough so to make a lot of players give up on it. However, with a little bit of patience and ingenuity on your part, the puzzles can be solved using logic and a moderate amount of thinking. After doing so, you will be blessed with a fantastic tale and a lesson to remember, as well as quite the interesting experience.