It’s not the first time i read comments like this, Watchmen was better in the past context of the 80s, and if you were part of the comic culture it deconstructed…
But i read it for the first time around 1.5-2 years ago. And i don’t like superhero comics. And i thought it was great. The characters, the drama, the intriguing plot of an alternative cold war crysis, the polished narrative structure, the symbolism here and there, the gritty realism in every detail, etc.
About Braid, oh yeah, i still haven’t played it. Not on pc :P
On the contrary, my “solution” to that ended up being haphazardly leaping into the pit trying to intercept the monster until the key accidentally ended up attached to my corpse and was pulled up with me when I reversed time. I have not seen an instance of pixel-perfect platforming requirements in Braid, although as mentioned above, definitions of that may vary (even though the word “pixel” would seem to indicate a very quantifiable measurement).
On the point of the unsolicited Watchmen hate (Tom didn’t hate on it, he just didn’t like it), there are people who think Citizen Kane is a shitty movie, too. Doesn’t make the people who see it for what it is wrong.
I liked this review, and I think it’s sometimes appropriate to have reviews written by people who are not fans of a genre a game is in (especially for games that are getting widely reviewed; it might be different if few other sources were reviewing this game). I am also not a fan of platformers, so I would in general not consider buying a platformer, but I was tempted by Braid because I’ve heard it is so brilliant. So, for me it is very helpful to see what someone else who didn’t like platformers thought of it and be able to make up my mind based on that.
Jonathan - perhaps the game needs an Easy mode where you can fly.
Tom, normally I agree with your criticisms, but this sounds like you honestly do not like platformers OR puzzle games that don’t do hand-holding. I’m not sure why you reviewed a puzzle-platform game in the first place.
Also, the time mechanic makes what would be frustrating platforming in a normal platform game a rewarding experience. Miss a jump? Immediately try it again and adjust for what you did wrong the last time. There is ONE puzzle in the game (It’s in Impenetrable Foliage in World 6) that breaks this mechanic because the guys you have to jump off of don’t rewind. I don’t consider the jump you have to make here to be difficult though, and certainly not “pixel-perfect”.
It seems similar to having the the top Football, Baseball, and Basketball sportswriter provide his take on the world championship curling competition. “Graceful, but boring, and what the hell is up with this sport anyways?”
I think if Tom actually finished Braid, he’d like it a bit more. IMO, there’s nothing wrong with hitting youtube for hints. I appreciate what Jonathan is trying to do with his official walkthrough, but for some people, the relief of finally getting past a difficult puzzle isn’t actually rewarding. If you aren’t that type, then youtube at will.
I’m not a huge platformer fan, but the time mechanics in Braid make it so interesting and challenging that I love it anyway. The platforming isn’t the point or the draw, at least for me. It’s just the method by which the puzzles are solved.
My guess is because Braid is being hailed as the newest Best Thing Evar and being compared to the very accessible Portal, and thus reviews from people who would normally not play a game of this type are appropriate. Clearly a game so praised is going to be recommended to and potentially played by a wide variety of people, and I think that warrants reviews from a wide variety of people.
This is exactly the point I wanted to make, but better stated.
That sort of thing is also helpful to hear. If anything, a game like this probably needs reviews from a number of people like you and Tom who are not big platformer fans, to get a range of opinions and see if there is anything like a consensus.
I don’t think this would be inappropriate. If I had to pay $16 to watch the curling championship, and I generally liked Football, Baseball, and Basketball, it would be helpful to have someone who had similar interests to me give me some advice on whether or not my $16 would be well spent. That would probably be more helpful than having someone who was a huge curling fan, but not a fan of the sports I liked, recommend it to me.
The thing about nano-seconds when you can travel back in time is that you get as many of them as you need. There isn’t a puzzle in Braid (with the possible exception of the one in World 1-1, which lucky for you was made much easier since my first playthrough) where you actually have to be good at platforming or timing, they can all be done like one handed if you wanted to, as long as you use the tools you’ve been given.
Though in semi-defense of Tom’s review, I did find myself kind of reverting to a Super Mario Brothers mindset various times during my first Braid playthrough, totally forgetting to use the time travel mechanism at certain points even though I had just used it a couple of seconds previously. (And for whatever reason, I never realized I could set time to 0x until my 4th motherfucking playthrough of the game, which made some puzzles a lot harder than they would have been otherwise). Old habits are hard to break and in some areas Braid doesn’t really hit you over the head hard enough to get the new ways to really sink in.
When I first started playing the game I thought the various homages to Super Mario Brothers (and, to a lesser degree, other platformers) were awesome, but in retrospect I think they might have been a (minor) mistake because they may do a little bit to obscure the fundamental differences in gameplay.
I only hit youtube once, because I knew what I had to do, I just couldn’t seem to do it. Found out I was trying to do something very slightly in the wrong place. Frustrating, but I was glad to move past it.
Alternate solutions or no, the game does give the impression that some pixel perfect, split second timing is required… because even if other (easy) solutions exist, it’s not obvious that they do. You discover one solution, you see it can work, and if it requires pixel-perfect split second timing, then you conclude the game requires split-second pixel-perfect timing. If only easy solutions existed (with regards to timing) then it would be impossible to conclude that, and people would only complain the puzzles/solutions are too hard or easy to think up… but that’s forgivable when the expectation is puzzle gameplay.
I personally set the game down after a particularly timing oriented solution I came up with got retried one too many times, and I haven’t felt like coming back to it. I think my experience is case in point that Tom’s review is appropriate… the game has attraction to people like myself (I bought it after all), and I ended up with basically the same impression that Tom did… the gameplay implies it is frustratingly timing-oriented, even if some walk-through could show that it is not.
I think you (or I) are confused. The level “Leap of Faith” in world 2 does not have any keys. I’m talking about the pit where you need to jump on the guy’s head in midair to reach the puzzle piece.
That jump does require some timing, but it shouldn’t require ~24 attempts or whatever Tom’s review was talking about, at least not if you’re paying attention to the cannon fuses. A couple of trial jumps to see how close you get to the not-a-goomba at different fuse lengths should be sufficient.
It still took me a lot of attempts, not because of the fuse, but simply because when rewinding I’m not perfectly precise, so it can be hard to re-time it, fuse aside.
