Braid [Online Game Code]

by Hothead Games

Product Features

• Full Game

Product Details

• Online Game Code: Currently, this item is available only to customers located in the United States and who have a U.S. billing address.
• Note: Gifting is available after purchase via e-mail.
• ASIN: B002YGS98S
• Release Date: November 11, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

Product Description

Platform: PLAYSTATION 3 PSN code

Braid is a puzzle-platformer, drawn in a painterly style, where the player manipulates the flow of time in strange and unusual ways. From a house in the city, journey to a series of worlds and solve puzzles to rescue an abducted princess. In each world, you have a different power to affect the way time behaves, and it is time's strangeness that creates the puzzles. The time behaviors include: the ability to rewind, objects that are immune to being rewound, time that is tied to space, parallel realities, time dilation, and perhaps more. Braid treats your time and attention as precious; there is no filler in this game. Every puzzle shows you something new and interesting about the game world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolutely unique game, November 29, 2009

By 

Nona (CA United States) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Braid [Online Game Code] (Software Download)

Braid has been out on other platforms for about a year already, but has just recently been released for the PS3. Nothing significant has changed between the PS3 version and the original Xbox 360 version of the game, but if you haven't played this game yet you should seriously think about getting it.

Braid is a puzzle game set in the guise of a 2D platformer. If you are even vaguely familiar with classic Super Mario, then you will recognize all sorts of references to monsters, levels, and themes from those games. However, Braid's central mechanic is the ability to "rewind time", which lets you, among other things, undo mistakes that you might make, whether that be accidentally walking into an enemy or jumping into a pit full of spikes. As such, you can't really "die", and you can easily experiment without fear of failure. As you progress through the game, new mechanics (which all are based on manipulating time) are gradually introduced.

The main objective of this game is to collect various "puzzle pieces", and these form the core of the puzzle aspect of the game. To obtain these pieces, you will have to think about how you use the time-based mechanics to reach those pieces. By the end of the game, some of the puzzles are quite challenging, but because of the time-rewind mechanic, you can easily experiment with many different ideas without any downtime.

The art and music in the game are both wonderful. They compliment each other very nicely, and the music also interacts well with the time-rewind mechanic. The story of the game is actually quite mysterious, but I really shouldn't say anything more about that. If you are even remotely thinking about playing this game in the future, make sure you don't consult any Internet sources which could spoil the story for you - this not only includes game guides but also websites like Wikipedia.

I only have a few minor complaints about this game. I'm not sure if the Xbox 360 version has these minor problems, but I kept getting random errors after obtaining puzzle pieces, which thankfully don't crash the system and can be ignored with a click of a button. Also, the online ranking for speed runs seems to be somewhat buggy. Finally, the game is quite short. The length of the game obviously depends on your puzzle solving abilities; I was able to finish the game in about four hours without any outside assistance. However, the quality of the gameplay experience is so high that $15 is not an unreasonable price for the game. After all, going to the movies costs around $10 for a few hours of entertainment, and Braid is better than most movies out there. If there's one substantial negative about the game, it's the fact that it ends!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, December 3, 2009

By 

Keith - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Braid [Online Game Code] (Software Download)

This is an awesome game. Definitely, try to make your way through without using any walkthroughs. The puzzles are all solvable if you take some time to think about them (and there is not much to the game other than the puzzles, so if you don't take the time to solve them you won't get anything out of the game)

My one complaint is that, despite being expensive for a PSN title (most games are in the $5 to $10 range; this is $15) is it really, really short. If you're good at puzzles, it should not take you more than a day or two to finish the game. Having said that, there is a little replay value -- the full-game speed run is not easy, and collecting all the stars is quite challenging if you don't use a walkthrough for them (and not that easy, even if you do)

It's an excellent game though, and if the extra $5 that you will spend (over other PSN titles) doesn't matter to you, it's worth it. It is definitely not "just another game".

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars game unfair, October 7, 2011

By 

Caraculiambro (La Mancha and environs) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Braid [Online Game Code] (Software Download)

FULL CONFESSION: I played about halfway through this game without cheating, then used a walkthrough on and off for the second half. Although the official website exhorts you not to use a walkthrough and cautions how regretful you'll feel if you do, I certainly haven't felt sorry that I did so.

I wasted hours with this game trying to solve some of its puzzles before realizing that the game violates its own logic. Its puzzles are not fair or "reasonable," as the maker insists. I love solving puzzles, but I sour quickly when it it's revealed that the puzzle is unfair: i.e, you cannot solve it with the premises given.

I can think of many examples of this in Braid: but here's just one. You're allowed to rewind time, eh? I sat for hours trying to figure out a puzzle, being assured by the gamemakers that you can do so using "reason." The puzzle was such that you had to jump down to this place from which there was no exit and retrieve a key. I boggled my mind for hours how to do it, but then accidentally discovered that you're supposed to "rewind time." The illogical part is that when you do, you HAVE THE KEY WITH YOU! That doesn't make any sense. Are we rewinding time or not? If we are, I didn't have the key when I jumped down here, why do I have it now? How was I supposed to know that when you rewind time, some things rewind and others don't? Oh . . . lemme see: because "anything goes" in this game! Fine. But the philosophy of "anything goes" in a game conflicts with the claim that all the puzzles are "reasonable."

There are many other instances of the game being unfair: with some levels, there's absolutely no way to get a puzzle piece until you finish another, later level -- which I also view as cheating. Any with many levels, you might not be able to solve a puzzle until you restart the level. This is quite frequent. You'll be starting at the screen for hours trying to bend your mind around the puzzle, but there's no way on earth to solve it because something happened at the beginning of the level that you cannot recall or repeat now, hours later.

Crud. And I'm glad that chick dumped the programmer. He deserves much more heartbreak in the future for making games like this.

UPDATE: Months later, and I'm still not sorry I cheated!

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