Braid PC

So I just got done playing Braid for the PC. It's actually a fun little game, though at times the reversal ability seems silly. I can just imagine playing Mario with the same exact world and little Goomba monsters, except this time I don't have to restart the level whenever I got touched by something.

It's a very unique twist on the platform puzzle genre, at least I've never come across an entire game made out of it before. Some of the puzzles are just retarded though. There's a major difference between figuring out a puzzle, and not knowing that a game mechanic exists. Maybe it was all explained in the manual, I never saw any manual. I only had to look up advice for two parts. The very first worlds puzzle map level, and the last worlds 2nd to last, though I should have been able to figure out the last one, the whole killing myself to progress, despite already using the same technique before, just didn't come to me.

The story makes no sense at all. I don't think it's supposed to. The best thing about the game is probably the atmosphere. The music fits beautifully, the background colors look great. The character looks terrible, he looks like a complete idiot, that really retracted from the rest of the visual bliss. Back to the story though, all I can imagine is that the author of the game is QQ'ing about some relationship that he fucked up in the past. The ending makes no sense, perhaps it's supposed to have some deeper meaning, all I got from it was that every story has two sides. At least I can't think of anything else I was supposed to get from it. If you want your game to have some high moral big ending you need to actually make your game have some high moral big ending. Not some random talk about San Fransisco or whatever the city was and gutting rats. Gutting rats... seriously... not needed.

I can't say I felt clever about any of the levels, because each puzzle only had one method of solution. So it's not really a clever issue. The game does make you feel smart when you beat something, but only because you've been told for the past year from X-box players and game reviews about how challenging it is. There's really only 1 or 2 hard parts, and like I said, that's mainly because of poor mechanics explanation then it is the game itself. Thrust into this world playing as one of the worst looking heroes ever, and then expected to somehow Know that only one painting in the game is movable to help you. Just one of them.

I give it a 5/10 for a game, but then I'm not really a fan of the platform/puzzle genre anyway. Probably the only thing that kept me there to complete it was that I never had to start a level over because I had died. The real issue is hey, now that it's over, there's nothing to do.