Braid - review

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Brilliant indie 2D puzzle platformer based on the manipulation of time, and certainly one more proof that games are art.

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Braid is basically a 2D arcade platformer. After you have read this sentence forget everything what is connected whit this type of games because we talk about one of the best games of the year 2008. Surprise is even greater when you take into account that it's word about a real indie project where only a hand full of amateur worked, and on which is spent only slightly more than $ 100,000. At first look it's hard to sense why Braid is so special. The charm lies in the fact that the arcade platformer performance is actually only a sweet package in which is hidden the main element of the game - solving the puzzles based on manipulation of time. Blinx tried something similar already, but Braid use that mechanism on a fantastic way. You'll go through a series of worlds, through which you will need to go more time to pass and to unlock all their secrets and solve problems by manipulating the time.

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Gouache - Selected is quite simple but wonderfully made visual style based on gouache paintings.

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"This is not the first game that uses manipulation of time as the main element of gameplay, but it is one of the few which use it splendidly."

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A touching story - You may will have hard time to believe, but this game is holding one of the best stories of all games of 2008.

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This also explains why you can't die in the game, because when this happens, just press X to rewind time to a key moment to avoid danger, but the enemies are just as "wierd" as the world of the game. In fact, it is difficult to explain how exactly the time puzzles works, because the puzzles are quite "mind bending". The idea is that you will with manipulating the time and using the basic arcade platformer mechanics have to beat different bosses, come to the seemingly inaccessible area and so on. But the best part of the game is, and you won't believe, is a very human story embroidered by Braid (at the beginning of the game the main character Tim in "searching" for his lost love, the princess), which will, in the last moments, make you to think and question yourself about some of life's issues and this is the reason, which you may have a difficult to accept, that this arcade platformer carries one of the best story of all the games in 2008. Selected is quite simple but wonderfully made visual style based on gouache paintings. Feeling that Braid leaves after playing is hard to describe. This is one of the games in the class of Half-Life, Portal, and similar unique experience that most certainly confirm that games can be art. Briefly and clearly, this is a game which should be played by everyone.

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My score: 9.5/10

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Anel Zukic
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...only time will show...