Yesterday I finished playing Braid1 by Jonathan Blow (Blow is the person who inspired me to pursue my current thesis topic). The game is really beautiful. The game play is really interesting, the story is emotional (yet ambiguous), and the graphics are very well done.
For critique, I can only give my personal opinion. On a couple of the puzzles, I still do not understand how I solved them. I could play through the entire game in an hour or two now, except for those couple puzzles. It seemed like I solved them because of a fluke, not with sheer brain power or discovery (and ah ha moments) like the others. But that’s really not much of a critique – in fact that probably reflects more poorly on me than the game. And really, I do not want an easy game – that’s not the point.
Blow also commented at one point that platformer skill came into play a bit more than maybe he wanted. I noticed it a bit, but that was also part of the challenge. I’m not sure the game could have been tuned much better without sacrificing quality.
Overall, the game is brilliant and I am glad to have spent the time playing it. I think Jonathan Blow accomplished much through his game and raised the bar high for people who follow in his stead.
- Yes, with this emphasis I am declaring that I fall squarely in the Games are Art and respect to be known as such – on the same plane as a book or a movie, but different. ↩