Last Update: 12/14/2008

Relayed by: Ramunas Jakimavicius

+ +   Beautiful environments: Nearly every level set piece (with the possible exception of "World 6") is visually stunning. Additional elements like animated and mobile particle effects give life to the scene and keep your eyes interested.

+ +   Fiendishly clever puzzles: Every conundrum regarding puzzles pieces has a strikingly simple solution. If you solve all of the puzzles of your own accord, you should feel mentally satisfied.

+ +   Variety of puzzles: Although a few puzzles are essentially rehashes with different time manipulation mechanics, the majority of them have entirely unique solutions.

+ +   Excellent ending: Although the "Epilogue" is the true final point of the game, "World 1" is the last portion focusing heavily on gameplay. The ensuing challenge and resulting story twist provided by a familiar time mechanic are simply sublime. I wish all games had such cohesive and wondrous ending gameplay portions.

+   Good usage of gameplay mechanics: Some mechanics (like "World 6's" time dilation effect) are comparatively weaker than others, but overall they are implemented very well.

+   Good level design: A good portion of Braid's development involved refining of current ideas, and it shows. Nearly every scenario facilitates fluid movement and level progression.

+   Some replay value: Time trial runs of selected levels (and even the entire game!) are available to extend playtime somewhat if you enjoy that sort of thing. Additionally, the presence of Secret Stars can provide an extra helping of content.

±   Short content length: The game is incredibly short (though the replay value can tack on a few hours) and it's well evidenced by the fact that the par time for the full game speed run is only forty five minutes. However, the content available is worth your time. It's your decision on whether or not you're willing to pay the admission price.

±   The Secret Stars: I feel that the Secret Stars of Braid are a mixed bag. On one hand, they can generously extend playtime and satiate those looking for a challenge. On the other hand, a player can easily miss the single subtle clue that they even exist in the game. I imagine many people (including me) did not know these challenges even existed until they were either told or were curious enough to look into such a thing.

-   Puzzles can be frustrating: If one is not used to thinking in certain ways, they can easily become frustrated over Braid's puzzles. Despite the fact that I was eagerly anticipating Braid and was following its development for quite some time, I was utterly flummoxed and frustrated for most of my original outing. I was deeming the game extremely difficult until I noticed the general pattern of all puzzles having convoluted, but ultimately simple, solutions. In hindsight, I realized that the game was not so bad and that it just required a higher level of mental input than most other games. If you like brainteasers and have the patience for them, you'll like Braid. If you don't like them and just use guides, you'll probably hate it and consider the game boring. Braid is a game where your enjoyment received is directly proportional to how much effort you put into the playing the game and solving its puzzles without assistance.

-   Weak Achievements: Although Achievements are essentially worthless and pointless, good ones can add an extra dimension of polish to an already good game. The designer(s) of Braid did not even try to put effort into the game's available Achievements.

- -   Muddled story: The story is full of metaphors and allegory. If you are into that kind of thing, then you'll enjoy the story. However, many others probably won't. There are some well done theories and interpretations of the story out there on the internet, but it is unlikely that many could come to such a conclusion themselves. Even if all of the preceding gripes were excluded, it doesn't help that the main game text is wildly different from the "Epilogue" text or that the story barely attempts to integrate itself with the gameplay. Fortunately, if one truly despises the story, all of the written portions can be easily skipped.

- -   Speed Run / Time Trial mode seems tacked on: Braid could have been brilliantly clever if it actually allowed its time mechanics to influence the way the clock timer runs. (For instance: Rewinding would proportionally rewind the clock and standing still in the world where time progresses with horizontal movement would pause the timer.) If the game did this, it would have been a fantastic twist on time trials (which I usually abhor). Unfortunately, this was not the case. The clock only progresses forward in this bare bones toss-in. Fortunately, the timer does pause while one is assembling the jigsaw puzzles.

- -   Some gameplay portions undermine other gameplay portions: I was ecstatic when I first enjoyed the simplicity and elegance of Braid's introduction to the rewind mechanic in "World 2". I felt inclined to say that it was a wonderful progression in removing fake difficulty caused by saving restrictions. Make a mistake? Rewind to the exact point of the problem (or move to any point in the existing time line) to do things differently. It was brilliant. Difficulty came from the puzzles, not from retrying the same portion countless times. Then, I played "World 3", and green-glowing objects that negated the effects of the rewind ability were added. My elation quickly dropped. Fortunately, many, but not all, situations involving green-glowing objects can be manipulated to recover from mistakes.

Another egregious example came from the Secret Stars. One of my favorite parts of the game is that it avoided monotony and repetition by constantly mixing things up and providing genuinely interesting challenges. Then, I went for the the item infamously and colloquially known as the "Two Hour Star". (In reality, it took me approximately one hour and forty five minutes to complete the required task.) There is no single thing worse in Braid than having to wait nearly two real time hours following (and eventually mounting) a slow-moving cloud in order to get a mostly useless item. Even if one excluded the terrible tedium, two hours is a ridiculously long time (why not something like thirty minutes?) and is a pure waste of electricity.