This game has become a legend. A nice platformer. Easy to control,and forgives mistakes with the time travel mechanics. The graphics are quite original. The story is subject to debate since some people see it as full of symbolism.

If you want a good time with a fun and stress free game, this is worth it.

GAMEPLAY:

When Braid was first released, it was advertised as a platformer which allows you to turn back time. I thought: "So you can backtrack if you lose a life, what's the big deal?", and skipped it. Boy was I wrong.

Braid is a brilliantly designed puzzle platformer about the manipulation of time in several different ways. Manipulating time is not only a tool that lets you backtrack from mistakes, it's also an integral part of most puzzles. There are areas in the game where some parts of the environment can be "rewound" in time, while others are resistant to this effect, and you have to rewind time in the right way to solve the puzzle. There are areas where you can put a part of the map, selectivey, into slow motion, and again you have to do this in specific ways in order to solve the puzzles. Another area makes use of a "time echo" of your character that must be used to solve the puzzles. Altogether, the game takes a seemingly simple concept (time manipulation) and turns it into an abundance of original, interesting, and often quite challenging puzzles.

The puzzles are loosely connected by a story that is told upon entering each of the game's worlds. The story does not have a narrative, but rather presents thoughts and memories in a non-linear way. It also centers on a feeling of loss and (possibly) regret. This is very different from usual, generic stories in other video games, and has left some players irritated. Personally, I welcome games that present new story ideas, and unusual ways of telling them. Obviously, the story's main theme (loss) fits well to the game's main mechanic (turning back time, which may help preventing loss), so I felt that it enhanced the experience by providing yet another perspective. In any case, the story functions just as a backdrop, and can easily be ignored by those who don't like it.

Many of Braid's puzzles are extremely well designed. They seem impossible at first, but can be solved with thought and dexterity, which feels tremendously rewarding. The game does become quite difficult towards the end though, and may be too frustrating to finish for many players. Thankfully, the game allows you to skip many puzzles and get back to them later, so it's unlikely to hit a roadblock that halts one's progress completely.

GRAPHICS:

The game's artwork is in a painterly style, with beautiful animations. The graphics look as if they were painted for a book, but are more detailed than comic book art. The game scales well to large displays, I can play it on fullscreen on a 1920x1200 display with no problems.

SOUND:

Braid uses a quite, smooth, soundtrack with instruments that are unusual for platformer games (e.g. violins). The soundtrack reinforces the slow, thoughtful, and slightly melancholic tone of the game.

There is no voice acting.

INTERFACE:

Braid's interface gets the job done. It is a bit inconvenient that some menus don't accept mouse input, but that's a very minor complaint. A bigger problem is that the controls (arrow keys, space bar) cannot be customized.

The menus use the same art style as the game (with "painted" depictions of keyboard keys) and integrate well with the rest of the game.

EASE OF USE:

Braid is very easy to pick up, but quite hard to master. There is no manual, but the in-game tutorial is sufficient to teach the game. Throughout the game, new gameplay elements are explained as they become available. Unintrusive popups remind you of the keys that need to be used for entering doors, adding pieces to a puuzle, etc.

The game tries to guess the language you want to play in, and offers no in-game option to change the language if its guess was wrong. I still wonder why so many developers implement different languages in such an inconvenient way. It obviously does work for those users for which the game guesses right, but others need to do Internet searches and file hacks just to play the game in the language they like. For Braid, I had to create a specific shortcut, and add the option "-language english" (without quotes) to the command line.

Braid can handle different user profiles, but offers only one save slot per profile, which can be inconvenient. However, this rarely poses a problem, since most areas in the game are accessible quickly no matter after you have reached them at least once.

OTHER THINGS OF NOTE:

The game has little replay value once you solved all the puzzles, but doing so requires quite some time. I also heard of "special feats" that can be accomplished and that yield special rewards, but I haven't found them yet, so I can't even say if they exist in the PC version of the game.

The game comes DRM free, which is always nice.

CONCLUSION:

Braid's originality, brilliant puzzle design, and unique atmosphere are worth five stars, even though the game's usability could be improved.

Review Date: 2012/Sep/30

Program version: unknown

Progress: about 60% finished

Original and occasionally thrilling game, cut down by some its author's sense of its grand importance.

Pros: Beautiful game with a great soundtrack, fresh and imaginative mechanics, and many ingenious puzzles whose solutions are genuinely satisfying. It expects you to think, and rewards patience (except when it doesn't - see below).

Cons: There isn't a difficulty curve so much as a series of sharp difficulty mountains and valleys. With some later puzzles, the solution is clear but getting a jump timed to the proper millisecond is near impossible, and the fun turns in to thankless work for no reason. That's not "challenge," that's punishment. And it's been said, but, the writing is overbearing and pretentious, adds nothing to the game, and even makes the author seem a little creepy. But at least it's easily ignored.

If you like puzzle platformers, you shouldn't miss it, but don't be taken in by hype. It's a solid game, but it didn't reinvent the genre or anything.

I must be the only person who doesn't love this game. I played a few levels, and then found the gameplay dry and uninspiring, and haven't felt compelled to continue the game.

Braid is a creative Platformer that uses the very interesting mechanic of manipulating time in many different ways.

If you like Platformers at all Buy this game!

Braid's time-rewind mechanics and intricate puzzles make this game worth buying. Netbook users will be able to run this game.

The story can often be haunting. Tim, a young boy searching for a princess, deals with themes such as loss and regret. The musical score brings a sense of sadness to the game.

The only major drawback is that some may find the game to be a bit short on content.

This game is beautiful to say the least.

If you have not seen this or played it, it is a must have simply because of it's gameplay.

It's Gameplay Mechanics are new and confusing at first but easy to grasp, yet difficult to master.

As I said above, a difficult game to master, but to attempt it is great fun to say the least.

I never really got into these games so I would give it a 4/5 due to my own bias against the genre, but a 5 star rating for what it success to be.

It is a really diverse game for all ages as-well as the brain work it takes to play this game I give a 5/5 for it's creativity and specialty

When beginning to play Braid, it seems to be a Super Mario knockoff, albeit with charming graphics and soundtrack and a beautiful - if somewhat pretentious - story.

Then, you realize the fact that you can rewind time to your liking, which makes the game less about reflexes and more about solving puzzles.

Finally, you begin to appreciate how the game's clever time manipulation mechanic manifests itself in different worlds, forcing you to tackle its puzzles in new ways.

On a philosophical level, the game is open to some interesting interpretations, but even if you choose to ignore this, a very good puzzle platformer remains. Highly recommended to anyone who has no particular aversion to platform games or logical thinking.

Awesome game. It's not as frustrating as other games because you can rewind time anytime you want. The game is original and looks way cool. I freaked when I crossed a flag on one of the levels then a weird creature thing appeared out of a castle and said "I'm sorry, but the princess is in another castle!"

An easy-to-understand puzzle game for almost anyone. A simple, yet challenging, game that lets you twist time to achieve sollutions to otherwise impossible puzzles.

I really like the atmosphere in the game that the graphics and music sets. A calm and fluid experience from start to finish.

5 out of 5!

This is a clever platform game, but perhaps *too* clever. The time-rewinding puzzles are very challenging, when only parts of the dungeon or the monster or maybe just you all rewind, leaving the play area subtly different. Being a platform game though, it also relies on trigger-fast reflexes and endless try-die-repeat repetition.

If you like platform games and puzzles games (and appreciate retro graphics), then you should love this, but maybe not if you don't like all three.

This game references a lot to the original Super Mario, but works a bit differently. Your goal is to find puzzle pieces and find a way to get them, which is done in a puzzling manner. I must say that the combination of puzzles + platformer is amazing, yet the creators have managed to make it very hard.

But, if you manage to finish puzzles without any walkthroughs, you'll feel like you've accomplished something great, as they can get gobsmackingly tough! Many puzzles depend on timing, so that's a bit dissappointing, but well worth your time.

My screen/computer seems to have trouble with this game, as the screen won't adjust accordingly during gameplay, but that is just a minor annoyance. This game is amazing if you play it with an USB controller, the keyboard seemed kind of tricky for me.

Let's get this out of the way: Braid is absurdly pretentious. The story is told through grandiloquent weepy-eyed rambling that sounds suspiciously like the author venting his unresolved personal issues. It's overwritten to the point of being amusing, and when the game looked at the ground and mumbled the reason it was called Braid, I actually laughed out loud. Fortunately, the story is easily ignored, so it won't hold up your gameplay if you don't care to read it. That said, however, the final level of the game is a triumph of contextual narrative.

The game itself is remarkably clever - none of the puzzles are extremely difficult, but it's clear that a great deal of thought went into assembling them, and the time control mechanic is used in a variety of intelligent and interesting ways. If you do get stuck, you can simply move on to the next room and come back later - a welcome concession in a puzzle game.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I found the overall fun factor in Braid to be just slightly out of reach. I enjoyed the game, but it was never as much fun as I thought it should be. Braid is a very well-executed game of the sort that we rarely see nowadays, and thus I recommend it to fans of old-school environmental puzzlers - but I don't really see what the fuss is about, especially with regards to its artistic merits.

A lovely-designed, cleverly-thought, beautifully-rendered platform game. Even if you are not a fan of this kind of game, give a try to Braid. The levels are teasers for the brain, need some reflection. Overall, a nice and very pleasant experience.

I'm not really sure what the overwhelming praise of this game is all about. Braid is a platforming puzzle game, seeing your little Mario-esque character through many challenges and escapades in which he must utilize his unique power to reverse time to navigate obstacles. On the surface, the idea is instantly appealing, and conjures images of Portal's brand of adventure/puzzle-solving.

I recognize this game does what it sets out to do very well, but for me it was often obnoxious and disheartening. In this game, you will die. You will die and you will die, and after that you will die again, but what makes up for this fact is the ability to turn back the clock to before you died in the first place. That should have mitigated the annoyance of death in this game, but in Braid you have to look at the whole picture. Instead of progressing through a puzzle in the conventional sense, each level is an entire puzzle, and one wrong move through the game's temporal and physical realm can cause you to break the puzzle and be forced to begin again, and successfully completing a puzzle does more to relieve frustration than to cause a joyous leap from my chair in celebration. I say this because finishing puzzles only serves to gain pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, which further the story when you piece together the entire picture they comprise, and I didn't feel very rewarded for doing so after all that work; I just knew there would be more demanding puzzles up ahead that I would probably have to restart more than several times.

I don't want to be hard on the game because I know there are people out there who love it. The game mechanics are simple (you only have about two buttons you'll ever use aside from movement keys), and the *depth* of the levels and the puzzles is truly inventive, and their solutions are always creative. But it's the kind of game where there is only one solution for any given situation, which cramps a player's ingenuity and really drags when the last seven deaths don't seem to have brought you closer to success.

Oh and you just got hit by another cannonball while trying to bounce off a falling cute little lion thing onto a ledge above you, meaning you'll have to rewind time at least a dozen more times before you successfully navigate the jump, at which point you realize you jumped the gun and really should have pulled that lever over there before dodging hell and high water and cannonballs to get where you currently are. And the only way to get back is to retrace your steps in this particular problem to rewind time, or just flat find a way out to restart the puzzle so you can do it all over again.

That is an example of how I felt when playing Braid, and since the game is a one-trick pony with no separate gamemodes or diversions or unlockables to "take a break" from the mainline game as it is, I can't rate it higher than 3 stars. The game is very specific in the audience it's trying to appeal to. Some say it's a work of art, and that may be true, but it failed to be truly *fun* at any point during my time playing it.

Lovely game with an outstanding art direction. The Gameplay resembles mario but it goes much deeper than that. The story is full of poetry and dual meanings and the soundtrack really touches your heart. Do yourself a favor and get this game. For this price you cant go wrong.

Very interesting game, with some tricky puzzles. The most fun comes from understanding the changing behaviour of Braid in the worlds. You don't die, so you can always try again and again until you solve the puzzle. Unfortunately, it ends too soon. The authors should think about creating some aditional worlds.

It worth every cent.

Idie games range in quality a lot, but Braid is definitly one of the best.

The graphics and gorgeous, art-based and beautiful.

The gameplay and puzzles are engaging and smart. The time control element is similar to Prince of Persia Sands of Time, but in many ways taken to the next level.

The music is haunting.

But what makes the game for me is the depth and multilevel nature of the storyline, something which can only be understood by playing the game.

Braid is a very beautiful and challenging game. The story starts out as many video games have before; You play as a man who is searching for a Princess. However, the story quickly veers away from the typical and will have you thinking about it long after the game is finished. The gameplay is all about time manipulation, and although challenging the ability to rewind time keeps the experience from getting frustating. Overall it is a very enjoyable game and more than worth the asking price.

Very original and satisfying platformer. You need to adjust to the changing conditions in the game. Even time is not constant in this weird world of Braid.

Graphics are nice, smooth and stylish like oldschool games.

Oldchool are some levels too - you may see lots of relevances to super mario or donkey kong.

The game requiers thinking. Lots of thinking. But the puzzles are very satisfying.

I strongly recommend this game. 5 stars.

Braid is more than simply a very clever platformer (though it is very clever...). It is also an amazing story told subtly through the games levels. I wouldn't call it life-changing, but I would say it is a very memorable game!

The sublime Braid is an award-winning game by indie developer Jonathon Blow. Jonathon Blow had become frustrated with the under utilized time reversal systems in games such as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and took it upon himself to create a game with this as its core mechanic, rather than a tacked on feature with limited use!

Blow wanted to show the consequences of rewinding time. As a result, I can only regard the developer as some sort of evil genius. There are different mechanics for each world, of which I won’t describe in any further detail. This is because the moments you finally understand them are genuine moments of complete satisfaction, something of which I rarely feel with most releases these days...

Read our full review here!

http://alternativemagazineonline.co.uk/2009/11/09/game-review-braid/

Braid is a beautiful game. The art will often put a smile on your face, it is just so well done. Despite the screenshots making it look like a side-scroller, it is practically a puzzle game. The vast majority of your time spent in Braid will be trying to overcome puzzles. The puzzles themselves range from quite ingenious to slightly annoying. I'm not very experienced with puzzle games, so it might be easier and less frustrating for people who are better at them. Nevertheless, no matter how frustrating one of the puzzles are, you will always get a strong sense of achievement after spending a long time completing one.

The length of the game is a little short, but then again it isn't very expensive so you can't expect a whole lot. Another important thing to note is the game's story, which has been branded by some as existential. It is indeed quite original, do not skip over the text. In the end this game does what it is designed to do very very well, but I would advise against buying it if you are not into puzzle games. Because no matter how good the art and story is, it's a puzzle game, and the enjoyment you derive from it will be based on your affection to the genre.

From caile, "Braid is a gem among a sea of indie games that has really redefined how platform games can be played and merged with puzzle games. I really was drawn in by its simplicity and how the game told you to just go play. While it had moments of utter frustration with the most difficult puzzles, the game itself was short, sweet and enjoyable to play through in a few hours. Anyone who enjoys puzzle games with simple controls and a short play time should pick up Braid and enjoy the surprises it delivers."

Pretty much everything positive said about this game is true. It's unashamedly pretentious, but the amazing gameplay more than makes up for it. This is possibly the most perfect game I have ever played. For a puzzle game to have so many puzzles with all of them being totally different is nothing short of a miracle. And for them to all be so perfectly-balanced, and so smart... it's ridiculous, really.

Gorgeous too, and the soundtrack is lovely. This is a game everybody should play. It's guaranteed quality.

braid is a great game it really challenging and not in the annoying way it one of the best puzzle games i ever play if you like puzzle games and doesnt like to die all the time it a must buy for you

A fantastic, challenging indie game with a perfectly engaging story, leaving no player untouched at the end.

The gaming concept itself with the puzzles I found very intuitive and graspable within the first 10 seconds. The ability to manipulate time is what makes this game's gameplay special and utterly challenging. Every world presents a new challenge as it presents a new chapter.

The frusstration some may express over the difficulty is just misdirected. This is brain exercise all along and the excitement or please of having solved a particularly challenging puzzle is the twist of the gameplay and what makes up any initial frustration. This may require patience, but I have to say, at the end, I regret those two times I searched the Internet for help.

As for the story I won't spoil any more than to tell you that I probably couldn't spoil it for you anyway. The ending in particular is simply ingenious, offering lots of oppurtunity for reflection over more philosophical subjects. This is what definietely will make you remember this remarkable game for a long, long time.

At this price at Gamersgate, you will not regret your purchase, trust me.

Play a good part of the game. This is more a puzzle game than anything else. There is no tutorial of any kinds and the game doesn’t help you in any ways to understand its purpose. I had a hard time finding the logic behind it. Some puzzles are very intuitive and some others are excessively obtuse. That kill all the fun in it…Most of the levels are well done, but some others are too touchy and get frustrating very rapidly. When you get to world-3 and 4, the difficulty of this game hits you in the face. Way too soon for my taste. The game is brilliant in its design, but I don’t want to spend days figuring out a puzzle or play a game with a guide…However, this game is a true reflection of the 2D games that existed in the early days of gaming. But I never like that period…the games were too hard and frustrating, repetitive. The story seems great, even a bit romantic. Overall, if you never felt the wrath of the 2D games of the 90” give it a go…I have been there, done that…and it was a waste of my time. Lesson learn for me.

I have played the demo of this game on xboxlive and it seems to be a very fun puzzle mixed with platforming elemental and mario like quality. You play a well Braid and you use the time traveling powers if u mess up or your about to die so it is very interesting and worth the price.