Bought and finished this game today (on XBLA). Amazingly beautiful game with some incredible vistas: the fallen giants, the boat ride on the frozen river, etc. Also, no UI (except a couple of button hints at the start), no hints, no breadcrumbs, makes the game feel incredibly pure.
I've just finished a playthrough of the game, and I have to say that the Eurogamer review has it pretty much spot-on. Beautiful scenery, gorgeous, imaginative landscapes, but gameplay that's a little uninspired. One absolute perfect moment of synergy, countless other sequences of Just More Clambering.
As for the storyline...
I was always expecting one of them to pop their clogs towards the end, much like PA's comic on The Last Guardian. On top of that, the game - I feel - never really conveyed that they were particularly close; what with Young One being the only one visibly mourning the mother's death at the start, and whatever you want to read into the hallucination sequence with the giant version of the mother (Young One thinks Old One blames him for her death?). As such, the emotion of the final scene around the giant tree rings false, and once it starts ringing false, the sequence of having to bury Old One's corpse feels somewhat absurd and tedious, rather than the anguished experience they were going for.
I was left with a lingering feeling that I was expecting *some* twist, really. Not least due to the fact that the gryphon-thing seems to have unexpectedly resurrected from the dead for no good reason; I disliked that strongly; it cheapened the earlier moment of mourning and started raising questions about how that occurred (and why couldn't it then apply to Old One?). I think they felt they needed a McGuffin to get Young One back home but didn't think about what implications that McGuffin might have.
Then there's the mother's ghost - a figment of Young One's imagination, I assume. Why does she appear at the end, and not Old One? At the end of a journey, a journey where he's lost so much, a point where he must symbolically draw on his brother's strength of will... he's implicitly instructed in that by a character we really don't care all that much about, and not the one who he's actually drawing that will from. Suddenly all the brother's efforts seem trivialised, as it's the mother who's the guide who leads him to conquer his fear. I *adored* The Moment - it really was inspired - but I can't help but feel it was cheapened by that.
Also, why didn't Young One just land closer?
There's so many aspects bothering me that I do wonder if I missed some significant plot element. I do concede that as I typed all this, I twigged that the reason for Young One's fear of water is probably derived from his mother drowning, but I don't think that quite serves to fill the gaps.
I'm sounding like I disliked it, and that's unfair. The sense of journey is *wonderful*, and a lot of games simply don't do that very well. The achievements added a lot to the game, and it was nice to work with the idea that their journey touched so many people's - and creature's - lives as they went. It's a beautiful fairytale - absolutely in the pure, Grimm sense of the word, though!
I just think it stumbles emotionally in the final stages. And it's frustrating, because I think what they're trying to evoke is *brilliant*, but they fall short of the mark in achieving that in my eyes.
Incoming Ico spoilers:
Much like The Moment in Brothers, there's a Moment I adored in Ico. It's not the perfect marriage of gameplay to story like Brothers' is - it takes place in a cutscene - but it's got a similar "symbolic of maturation of a character by referencing a gameplay element", and I think it manages it better because it's an active reaction to the events of the storyline, rather than a passive one.
By which I mean: The Moment in Brothers, there's no tension there, no drama. The player's blocked off, sure, but while swimming is the only way forward in a gameplay sense, in a real-world sense, he could call the gryphon again, he could clamber up the rocks. It feels like the game is forcing this moment, not the story. Compare and contrast with Ico.
In Ico, Ico has been climbing around the castle extensively, constantly - and symbolically - holding hands with Yorda to guide her around. Occasionally you'll be on a higher platform and reach down to pull Yorda up, and occasionally you'll be on the edge of a large gap and catch Yorda's outstretched arm as she jumps it then pull her up. Yorda is established as a frail character, but with some strong inner magical power. At the end of the penultimate act of the game, the drawbridge to the castle is open, and Ico and Yorda are running out across it, hand-in-hand. Then Yorda stumbles, and Ico moves a little ahead... and the bridge starts opening between them. It opens fast, too fast to jump the gap, but the player should instinctively turn around and make a desperate jump towards Yorda...
...and Yorda catches Ico's hand.
It's powerful, it's symbolic - and it comes at a dramatic peak.
I was left with a lingering feeling that I was expecting *some* twist, really. Not least due to the fact that the gryphon-thing seems to have unexpectedly resurrected from the dead for no good reason; I disliked that strongly; it cheapened the earlier moment of mourning and started raising questions about how that occurred (and why couldn't it then apply to Old One?). I think they felt they needed a McGuffin to get Young One back home but didn't think about what implications that McGuffin might have.
I also had this feeling that there is going to be some kind of twist. I even think that the whole thing might be some kind of fantasy of the younger brother. As the tree where the mother is buried under is just some fantastic version of the tree where you get the "life water" from in the end. You know, you bury the brother under it and a little later his grave is suddenly directly besides that one of the mother under the tree in the family's garden. That made me speculate if the whole adventure was just a dream or fantasy of the younger one to cope with the death of his brother (and to some extend also his mother's).
My favourite part of this game is that when you're burying the older brother, if you press LT, the younger brother will fall to the ground and cry. Was like, the perfect joining of emotion and controls and mechanics for me, even more than the swimming moment.
Also I liked it because I swear "press button to cry" is a Peter Molyduex tweet.
What a nice little game this is. Just bought it today on a whim because I was in the mood for a more lightly interactive experience, and I ended up playing through it in two sessions.
Unexpectedly emotional at times (even if I agree with some of the criticisms that others have made in that regard), and completely memorable. The latter half of the game really ups the creativity compared to the relatively tame first half.
Certainly worth the $15, I'd say. It can't stand up to the greatness of its many inspirations (ICO, Uncharted 2, Journey... etc.), but overall it's successful in immersing you into a convincing fantasy world for a few short hours and sneakily making you care about its characters.
Got this yesterday on PSN, and just finished.
All I can say, is that it's very pretty and the music is great (almost Journey-like in parts) and that there are parts where the gameplay really comes together (in particular the bit where you're connected with the rope) but HUH, did I get a bad ending or something?
Now I'm totally okay with
one of the brother's dying
and if I wrote the game, the same thing would have probably happened, but I just feel
their relationship was a bit underbaked for the crux of the game's emotion to fall on his death.
There were some interesting ideas flying around, such as when the younger brother dreamt
of being strangled by the older brother for not rescuing the mother, but none of it really gets developed. Same thing for when the younger brothers imagines the mother on multiple occasions, I didn't really get much of a sense of what she was trying to tell him at all.
And ultimately, the ending come outs bittersweet, but maybe a tad too much of the 'bitter' in that the payoff wasn't really worth the journey. And I feel like games like this, which are very linear and entirely about the journey, it really does need some sort of cathartic pay off at the end (see Journey for how it's done perfectly) but here it ends on a completely sad note. Also, I have a gripe in that the
griffin creature is suddenly alive again at the ending, as I thought that its death was one of the more poignant parts of the plot, as you release it and you fly with it for its last time before it lands and dies.
Well worth the money, but I think much like rain, the story could have been more developed to balance out the shortcomings in gameplay (which in rain, is all too basic, and here is also rather basic and sometimes a little unyielding, any game where you control two players simultaneously is evil)
I wonder if there's any reason to play through a second time, collectables and the like?
Finally got around to playing this. Much like the above poster, I thought this game was gorgeous and imaginative, but, man, what a stinker of an ending.
As a plot, it completely fell apart and lost its thematic consistency in those final 10-15 minutes. It was as if the team had originally wanted to make a longer game, but suddenly realized they wouldn't be able to, so they had to wrap everything up as abruptly as possible. And those much-hyped final
uses of the dual-control mechanics were silly and meaningless
.
The team did so much so right with the game up to that point that it was really supremely disappointing to see them fumble at the goal line. Too bad.
Game was the most visually gorgeous game I've played all year on PC and while playing it I thought it had a good shot of GOTY potential but man the last portion of the game was a letdown, it just didn't end well.
Picked this up in the Steam sales for £5, what an absolute gem of a game!
I played it through in one sitting in co-op mode with my fiancée (with a little help from Pinnacle Games Profiler, allowing us to use 2 xbox 360 pads: one to control each brother). I know it is not designed to be played in co-op mode, but IMO it works brilliantly, it's almost the perfect co-op game.
I know some reviews have commented on the simplistic game mechanics but I wholeheartedly disagree, I thought the interaction between the 2 main characters was endlessly inventive to be honest.
Game also looked wonderful on our large screen, comfy couch projector setup.
Basically, I highly recommend playing this game, even more so if you can do as we did and play in co-op mode.
Also picked this up on the Steam sales but now I am stuck...inside the dark area cavern like place,after picking up the steel beam and figuring that out, I am now at a part with hooks that slide on some pipes,had to turn a crank to let the other brother grab the hook and slide on another little platform...now the 2 of them cant really move,they just do the nawa thing hehe...I moved a hook that was attached to a contraption but nothing else happens...?...NM,figured it out and it's been twice now that the game saves during the section I am in and when I reload it solved the passage for me hehe...but yeah loving it also,just cleared the rope part,pretty awesome little game so far...
Just finished it...awesome little game but man,that ending...why...? going to read the spoiler stuff now....also I only got 4 out of 12 achievements,might try to redo a few chapters to see which one I missed...
My favourite part of this game is that when you're burying the older brother, if you press LT, the younger brother will fall to the ground and cry. Was like, the perfect joining of emotion and controls and mechanics for me, even more than the swimming moment.
Also I liked it because I swear "press button to cry" is a Peter Molyduex tweet.
Is this actually the first and only game where characters break down and cry, like real heartbroken sobbing and not watery eyes? I somehow felt even more touched by that fact than the story.
Wondering about that spoiler...when he goes down like that,the whole ground shook like somekind of Giant was walking heh...found that strange and wondered if it could change something...for the best,because again,that ending
Sorry for the bump but a little reminder for all those that were saying GOTY candidate. Be sure to vote for it on GAF!!! Whether it is your GOTY or top ten I'd like to see this game make a little noise.
It's in my personal top 2.
Sorry for the bump but a little reminder for all those that were saying GOTY candidate. Be sure to vote for it on GAF!!! Whether it is your GOTY or top ten I'd like to see this game make a little noise.
It's in my personal top 2.
Just played through this little gem. What a beautiful game! Devs, take note, this is how you do a mature game, not by pumping it full of blood and explosions.
I was expecting something more after all the hype I've seen. It doesn't do anything ambitious/surprising (or challenging, in terms of puzzles) with its control scheme, which is admittedly novel, though there is a tiny pay off at the end.
I was expecting some heart-breaking shit, like self-sacrifice (e.g. holding up a brother while drowning) or tough choices made by the player (e.g. being forced to make one brother let go while hanging). No moment compares to, say, MGS3's use of the fire button in its finale. I mean, of course one of the brothers are going to die, but I didn't expect it to happen in a cutscene after all this buzz.
I liked the atmosphere after a certain point, but I was waiting for some real proof of concept stuff the whole time. It's decent execution on a very simplistic, predictable idea. An inoffensive, if not forgettable, cartoon fable turned videogame. Probably a good kids game if they can handle some of the darker elements. If it went on any longer, I probably would have became bored, but it's alright. (Also some of you guys cry too easy.)
Don't quite understand the hype surrounding the interactivity.
My favourite part of this game is that when you're burying the older brother, if you press LT, the younger brother will fall to the ground and cry. Was like, the perfect joining of emotion and controls and mechanics for me, even more than the swimming moment.
Also I liked it because I swear "press button to cry" is a Peter Molyduex tweet.
RT works too I'm 99% sure. I was testing it out. You just can't be close.
EDIT: Don't know if I would call it gorgeous... Pretty, maybe.
EDIT: I consider the pay off weak because...
Well, because, I knew one or two things would happen. The scenario I said above involving both brothers or how the game would play after losing one. The latter happens, but it's really short, really easy, and the remaining brother just become more capable (almost immediately so). A more meaningful execution would be forcing you to truly struggle for a length of time, likely in a dangerous situation rather than your peaceful hometown. Since it goes against one half of the controller dying, I would go as far as having the player push the other button was actually a little lame. Lame like seeing the ghost mom.
Just played through this little gem. What a beautiful game! Devs, take note, this is how you do a mature game, not by pumping it full of blood and explosions.
Sorry, but this post says very little. I don't even want to try and argue with it, but I must disagree with the notion that "ideas" weren't repeated, to whatever extent that is suppose to mean.
Sorry, but this post says very little. I don't even want to try and argue with it, but I must disagree with the notion that "ideas" weren't repeated, to whatever extent that is suppose to mean.
I don't want to argue with you? I mean, even if I did, I can't really argue with "I didn't like it".
"Ambition" -- in the critical context -- doesn't really mean much. It seemed to me like what you were trying to say the control-scheme was "simple", maybe? I don't think you meant "unoriginal", given that you admitted through gritted teeth that you thought it was novel. I don't disagree! You didn't feel challenged by the puzzles? Well, neither did I, I suppose.
You laid out the equation without any operators and then gave me the solution. I have nothing to work with. I could fill in the blanks to make it say what I want it to say. I could extrapolate, based on part of a sentence and the tone of your post, that you approach an obstacle in a game as something that exists to be conquered. "This puzzle should stump me," right? Most of the puzzles in the game were immediately solvable. You only had two buttons. The solution-space was usually trivial. I'm sitting here, trying to articulate what I liked about the puzzles, and I'm actually kind of sad to find myself coming to the conclusion that I found marveling in the cleverness of a scenario immensely rewarding. "I would have never thought of this!" Active participation in the puzzle versus passive appreciation. You're in a sexier position, intellectually. I suppose -- and this really is just a naive thought -- that I just didn't require a puzzle to conquer in this game any more than I need a laugh to be had in a WW2 documentary. Nothing else in the text propped up the expectation of challenge. The ingenuity of any one of the "ideas" in a given puzzle or scenario was enough to let me know that, yes, there could have been a second-level that was a harder version of the bit that came before, and then -- yes -- an even more difficult version following it. That tells me very little about the designer's ability to generate interesting ideas. It must have been a seductive proposition: make the tower twice as high and swing around with the rope for twice as long. Choosing to remove any given element just as we reached the climax of an idea, that moment where we suddenly understand an idea, takes a certain amount of courage. It shows a confidence not only in that idea, but also in every single one that follows it. This quality, this impeccable sense of restraint, is one of the things I love most about the game. Wonderfully, you didn't respond favourably to it.
I didn't quite understand what you were trying to say with the MGS3 comparison. It seems like you're saying that drama only works when it's very loud. If that's how you like your meat cooked, well, that's how you like your meat cooked.
I didn't require it to be difficult, that was just one outlet (though admittedly perhaps the most enduring one in terms of making a longer game, or a game even this long) to do something interesting with the control scheme. My problem is that very little is done with it. It is as if they created a slightly novel control scheme, the premise of controlling two characters where you only need to push one button each for everything in the game, and then said "that's enough". You call that "restraint", but I see that as being creatively limited, if not resting on one's laurels (and this is all you really need to be to get some critical acclaim: be a new thing). I can't help but wonder, as is the case with novelty-seeking, the appeal of this "restraint" is a reactive feeling towards "big" games, leaving one more concerned with what it isn't than what it is.
The reason I'm comparing the pay off with MGS3 is because they pretty much do the same thing: take a button you've been using the whole game, then put it in a different context to give a whole new meaning. The thing is, whereas MGS3's moment is short and sweet (a part of a much larger, complex game), Brothers is essentially built around this moment and it is ultimately pretty lame (both mechanically and thematically,
The left side stays dead for about a minute, you get a power-up, and your ghost bro says something that could very well amount to "BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!"
). The pay off is the only moment where they use the simplified control scheme to do something noteworthy. Otherwise, it is merely an easy way to control two characters without asking the player to think about what button they are pushing (while they go through trivial scenarios).
As far as "ambitious": contextual inputs, though very useful (if not mandatory if many types of games), are not too far away in terms of QTEs in how they streamline the system and create space apart the interactivity and what you are doing. You could make everything a contextual input of a single button and think "Wow, this game let's you do everything!", but at the same time you are making sure the system/range of interactivity intersects with as little as possible with the actual doing of things, eventually coming to the point, if you go far enough, where the player is merely telling the game to advance as the character does everything (and "you do nothing"). In that sense, there is even less interactivity to design (though Brothers at least has two context buttons tied to two characters, which is where the potential lies).
Anyway, the game does repeat stuff fairly often, enough where it would be odd to make it a point (and this is fairly unavoidable when both your control scheme and your puzzle design is dead simple). A lot of the game is spacing the brothers out and grabbing something or having both brothers grab something and push/walk or have them split up where one brother grabs something for the other. Then you have parts like the rope/swinging one, which is neat, but you do it a lot for a length of time despite the complexity of encounter being a flat line. These could be very simple building blocks that work for a more complex design, but you do is usually fairly thin. I guess you could be impressed that this "works", but it is such a small thing to be impressed by when good videogames have a fairly long history of having both good control schemes and good content.
So the hype surrounding the game really based on the neat puzzles that don't attempt to challenge you(at some point you have to stop calling them puzzles, e.g. walking forward in a game isn't a puzzle)? That comes off as more gimmicky than ambitious. I really thought it was about a meshing of narrative and interactivity.
Sorry for the bump but a little reminder for all those that were saying GOTY candidate. Be sure to vote for it on GAF!!! Whether it is your GOTY or top ten I'd like to see this game make a little noise.
It's in my personal top 2.
Interesting, I recognize everything Riposte is saying, yet my experiences are diametrically opposed. Where he sees trivial encounters, I see interesting metaphors. What he calls shallow I consider succinct and to the point. There really doesn't seem to be any common ground here.
One thing I could add though was that for me at least the puzzles really weren't the point, even though some of them felt kind of clever, they were just there to ingrain the muscle memory while you were on an intriguing journey with creative vistas and metaphors. It's the conceit that made them worthwhile. I guess you could consider that less poignant than for instance Braid, where the puzzles were important to the game and conducive to the main epiphany, and I think you'd be right there, the game is not as important as Braid. Still, the fact that it was a kinesthetic rhetoric instead of a procedural one made it perhaps a bit more advanced. (Other games like MGS3 may have experimented with it before but I really don't think it was central to the main message. Though, admittedly, I have not played it, so that may have colored my opinion)
I mostly agree with Riposte on this one. The pay-off felt way too short and not heavy enough. Maybe it would have had a bigger impact on me if there was more of a struggle and crisis involved, but I kinda also felt that the game shouldn't have been any longer either.
Also, I guess the point kind of was to feel lost and helpless as a player until you figure it out? I think I'm a bit too much of a mechanically oriented gamer, as my first instinct was to simply try every relevant button, so I kind of instantly stumbled upon the solution and went "that's neat, I guess..."
I don't know, I'm just not seeing anything particularly moving in this game, though it had some neat ideas. My favorite part was actually
riding on goats
. No way did the game impact me as heavily as Deus Ex or the above mentioned ending to Braid (holy shit that was genius). All in all, I found it to be a decent game but nothing sublime.
I don't think many people would put it on par with those games though. It think it's one of the most interesting and best games of the year, and underappreciated. Not the best of recent years, let alone the gen, let alone multiple gens.
I didn't require it to be difficult, that was just one outlet (though admittedly perhaps the most enduring one in terms of making a longer game, or a game even this long) to do something interesting with the control scheme. My problem is that very little is done with it. It is as if they created a slightly novel control scheme, the premise of controlling two characters where you only need to push one button each for everything in the game, and then said "that's enough".
You call that "restraint", but I see that as being creatively limited, if not resting on one's laurels (and this is all you really need to be to get some critical acclaim: be a new thing). I can't help but wonder, as is the case with novelty-seeking, the appeal of this "restraint" is a reactive feeling towards "big" games, leaving one more concerned with what it isn't than what it is.
The reason I'm comparing the pay off with MGS3 is because they pretty much do the same thing: take a button you've been using the whole game, then put it in a different context to give a whole new meaning. The thing is, whereas MGS3's moment is short and sweet (a part of a much larger, complex game), Brothers is essentially built around this moment and it is ultimately pretty lame (both mechanically and thematically,
The left side stays dead for about a minute, you get a power-up, and your ghost bro says something that could very well amount to "BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!"
). The pay off is the only moment where they use the simplified control scheme to do something noteworthy. Otherwise, it is merely an easy way to control two characters without asking the player to think about what button they are pushing (while they go through trivial scenarios).
As far as "ambitious": contextual inputs, though very useful (if not mandatory if many types of games), are not too far away in terms of QTEs in how they streamline the system and create space apart the interactivity and what you are doing. You could make everything a contextual input of a single button and think "Wow, this game let's you do everything!", but at the same time you are making sure the system/range of interactivity intersects with as little as possible with the actual doing of things, eventually coming to the point, if you go far enough, where the player is merely telling the game to advance as the character does everything (and "you do nothing"). In that sense, there is even less interactivity to design (though Brothers at least has two context buttons tied to two characters, which is where the potential lies).
Anyway, the game does repeat stuff fairly often, enough where it would be odd to make it a point (and this is fairly unavoidable when both your control scheme and your puzzle design is dead simple). A lot of the game is spacing the brothers out and grabbing something or having both brothers grab something and push/walk or have them split up where one brother grabs something for the other. Then you have parts like the rope/swinging one, which is neat, but you do it a lot for a length of time despite the complexity of encounter being a flat line. These could be very simple building blocks that work for a more complex design, but you do is usually fairly thin. I guess you could be impressed that this "works", but it is such a small thing to be impressed by when good videogames have a fairly long history of having both good control schemes and good content.
So the hype surrounding the game really based on the neat puzzles that don't attempt to challenge you(at some point you have to stop calling them puzzles, e.g. walking forward in a game isn't a puzzle)? That comes off as more gimmicky than ambitious. I really thought it was about a meshing of narrative and interactivity.
It was enough insofar as it was enough to forward the metaphor and prove the premise: the bond between siblings can overcome even death. It was enough that we controlled both characters. It was enough that we couldn't progress without using both characters. The story worked because it had to go through us. We were the savior and the victim. Obfuscating this with tropes familiar to people who play video games (more buttons, for example) wouldn't have actually changed what was being said. Restraint, here, is the confidence in a premise to remove that which isn't necessary. It's been a while since I played MGS3, but I remember thinking it was a moving idea and a really bold step in the right direction. I can't argue with your point, all of Brothers was leading up to that moment. Everything we do in Brothers is another way of endearing us to the characters as a unit. You found it "mechanically/thematically lame", whereas I thought it was the climax of a complete game, fictionally and mechanically. MGS3's last-moment, for all it's impact, was the climax of a story that was largely separate from the act of playing the game. I admire MGS3 a great deal, I bring this up only to demonstrate what I find admirable about the approach Brothers took. We are both and then we are one. What was before the physical representation of someone we admired most now represents everything they've taught us. Its elegance boggles my mind. It's more than just a trite, albeit novel idea. It's a cogent thought that can only be expressed with a controller. I think that's rare and worth celebrating.
It's impossible to argue that my response to this game is anything other than a reaction to the games I've been playing all my life. It's jazz to classical music; the 60s to the 50s. It's the one-track in my mind that has been worn into dust: the unfamiliar! The new! It's a wonderful, exciting quality that can be a merit unto itself. It is creativity.
We are both and then we are one. What was before the physical representation of someone we admired most now represents everything they've taught us. Its elegance boggles my mind. It's more than just a trite, albeit novel idea. It's a cogent thought that can only be expressed with a controller. I think that's rare and worth celebrating.
No doubt. But for me, the issue is that the devs couldn't figure out a smart, cogent way to get there. So they
kill off the other brother
in a completely anticlimactic and contrived way in order to get to their "novel idea" about using the controller in a different way.
It was a clever idea, but it wasn't earned in terms of the actual story or characters. They were so determined to get their idea into the game that they committed one of the greatest sins you can commit as a storyteller: sacrificing the truth of your characters for the sake of an idea.
I don't agree. While the moment was certainly sudden and perhaps too much so, it was only logical that
the girl would separate the two brothers definitively. Much like the mother almost did before. And so love for the mother changed over into the other girl which drove a wedge between the brothers
. Cliche perhaps from other media, though not in this form.
Wow just downloaded this on the back off the psn sales and I am pleasantly surprised. I finished this in one sitting and I consider this to be one of the best games this gen. It reminds me of the first time I finished Journey.
Wow, just wow. Didn't have any expectations going into this game but finished it in 2 sittings and have to say what a wonderful game this is. Might sound daft but while I was playing this I kept thinking I'm getting so much more pleasure out of Brothers than I ever did playing a game like GTA 5. Totally different games I know but I felt so much part of this story than I ever did in GTA 5. So many wonderful little moments made this game such a pleasure to play. This is definitely in my top 3 games of 2014.
Even at full price this game was so worth it but for £3.29 it's just unbelievable value.
Just finished it and loved it. Sorta agree with some of the criticism about the story here but I thought the gameplay was totally fine and mechanically sound. I didn't really expect or desire too much of a challenge in this game to be honest. Little tip, I played through this in 3D and it's so fucking amazing, words can't describe it. Small mid-game spoilers
The part with the whales is so vivid in 3D, same with the cave section
but pretty much everything worked. I'm running an HD5870 with Tridef on an ST60 and I was just in awe the whole time. Bought it first on PS3 and the 720P + blocky shadows made me double dip on Steam before finishing the puzzle, so happy I did.
Was really enjoying this game until I ran into a game breaking glitch and can't continue. It's the part in the caves where you have to get both brothers on some handlebars and ride the rails down. I get both brothers on but the thing doesn't move forward.
Was really enjoying this game until I ran into a game breaking glitch and can't continue. It's the part in the caves where you have to get both brothers on some handlebars and ride the rails down. I get both brothers on but the thing doesn't move forward.
Also, just finished. Holy crap that was incredible. PERFECT way to use gameplay to tell a story and differentiates it from other media like films and books. Reminded me a lot of
Played this through today. Anyone who hasn't should pick it up at Steam sales today. Pretty much the only interesting story I've played this year, and there certainly have been other games that tried to pull that off.
Haven't read entire topic,
but anyone else notice the girl making that long jump before it was revealed that she was a spider and go "hmm, something is definitely up with her".
Thought it was a nice touch.
Also, I didn't mind how the older brother's death was handled. The younger brother's struggle didn't need to linger on much longer. I especially liked when the he had to climb a ledge and there were two pegs to climb.
Only thing that bothered me was the griffin. No reason to have it pretend die only to have it do like a lord of the rings eagle in the end.
the spirit of the older brother manifest in a form familiar to them both, which is also why it knew how to take him home. That, or just a big fat continuity error!
Something I was waiting on to happen at the end was
to come across a bench and have the young brother sit alone, but I never did find another one. Did I just miss one? Or did Starbreeze just miss an opportunity? Hey-oooooh
In any event, the game is beautiful, touching, and overall just really well-done from top to bottom. Highly recommended.
Gonna pick this up today because of the Europe PSN sale. A last minute decision was made for it to be put in the front of my backlog since the game is only a few hours.
I didn’t even know the game existed up until I saw it on sale. I literally heard and saw nothing on it....hopefully it lives up to the praise in this thread. Should be interesting!
Also, just finished. Holy crap that was incredible. PERFECT way to use gameplay to tell a story and differentiates it from other media like films and books. Reminded me a lot of
Tried that and still nothing. Is there an official forum where I can post a video of the glitch? I'm not going to start the whole game over again so I guess I'll just watch the ending on YouTube.
Just finished the game and this thing is brilliant, from the very first scene to the end. Everyone should play this. Graphics are incredible, ost is awesome, gameplay and puzzles are very very good. Really I cant finf any flaws, even the "short" duration was ideal, for me.
End game spoiers!
The title screen has a whole new meaning after you've seen the ending, and that part where they change the action buttons for the small one, near the end, was one of the biggest "wow!" moments in a videogame for me.
Tried that and still nothing. Is there an official forum where I can post a video of the glitch? I'm not going to start the whole game over again so I guess I'll just watch the ending on YouTube.
Please start over! You can speed through to that point, it's not that far into the game. The ending is something that must be played to get the full impact, it's the whole point of the experience.
Even though I didn't like my first experience with the demo (didn't even finish it) I bought the game Thanks to good impressions and because I only had $7 in my psn account and wanted to buy something during the January sales
And OMG glad I did, this is one of the best games I've ever played, the graphics, the simple yet clever puzzles, no hud or dialog , the subtle music, the unexpected grim moments, all add up to a one of a kind experience.
I just wish the game was a little bit longer, just to see more of the beautiful environments, and it might have helped make the ending even more powerful.
The ending hit me really hard, because I was thinking to my self I want to see more stuff, this game is amazing, then BAM! :'(
While I didn't tear up I understood and appreciated what the game did in the end. For a swede it was also really nice seeing some of the vistas that was clearly inspired by our folklore. My favorite part was the giant battlefield, I would like another game that focused a lot more on something like that. Overall I think the world was the best part for me, it was exactly what I wanted out of a fantasy world.
And I thought the griffin that took the little brother home was another than the first one. I don't know if I'm imagining because I didn't think much of it when you rescue the first one but I think there was some images of two griffins or something.
Please start over! You can speed through to that point, it's not that far into the game. The ending is something that must be played to get the full impact, it's the whole point of the experience.
Just finished this game and I'm completely blown away. This is an example of the games more developers should aim to make. Everything felt right. I'm glad that it chooses to deal with a subject very few games have tackled if ever.
I was definitely feeling the culture of where this game was created. It was seeping out through every pore. Some moments were magical, truly a cohesive vision. Can't wait to see what the collaboration of Starbreeze and Josef Fares make next.
Although I didn't cry at the end because I had seen the death of one of the characters coming, I still felt it was really well done and made me think of the times I have lost a loved one. In doing that it didn't feel forced or sappy, and I thought it was superbly handled. Also fuck the spider bitch!
Just finished the game. Getting invested in the control scheme really helps with the overall game and end. I thought it was a fantastic game. The fact that they were able to convey the entire story without using a single English word was tremendous.
Spoilers incoming for those who intend to play this:
The giant section was fucking amazing and the lead up to the brother dying was perfect.
I'm so glad I stumbled upon this game. I knew this was going to be great the very moment I pushed the father in the wheelbarrow from the very beginning of the game. I was immediately drawn in. The overall atmosphere and the constant barrage of memorable moments were so consistent. Just one awesome moment after another! Where do I even start?!
The troll helping you, fending off the wolves at night, saving the guy from hanging himself, the section when the brothers were tided together with rope, all the dead giants, the chanting+sacrifice section, the canoe ride in the snow (holy remarkable graphics Batman!), the snow section at night, the spider reveal (when I saw her jump really high earlier I just thought it was poor animation and I thought they expected no one to notice the jump).
It's amazing how much quality they managed to cram into the game. The only slight negative I have is the ending. I was expecting more from the comments in here......I mean it was good but
I didn't even get close to crying like I thought I might.
Its not quite Journey levels of amazing, but the game was still a pleasure to play. Out of the three recent types of game like this that I've played I'd rank them like this: Journey >> Brothers >>>>>>>>>> The Unfinished Swan.
