Game Review: Brothers, A Tale of Two Sons
Review: Brothers, A Tale of Two Sons
Brothers launched
in August 7, 2013, but I only really got around to playing it recently; no thanks
to my enormous Steam backlog. However, my decision to dust off the game from
its proverbial shelf lies not in serendipity – even though it very well might
be – but because I was regretfully intrigued. At E3 2017, during EA’s press
conference, I witnessed the unveiling of a refreshing new IP titled ‘A Way Out’,
a game which was hyped as being from the creators of Brothers: A Tale of Two
Sons. Now, I hadn’t played Brothers then, but had I already, I would have been
objectively less intrigued by the concept and subjectively more excited for
what the story might be and how this can lead to a more immersive puzzle
solving adventure. Because, having already played Brothers, I can say without a
doubt that Josef Fares and his team can tell a wicked good story, and that they
have the flair to take simple, mistakenly clumsy, cooperative mechanics and make
impressive, endearing set pieces out of them.
Before A Way Out, there were two brothers
If A Way Out is a
leap forward, Brothers was the proof of concept. Following the misadventures of
two brothers, players are needfully acquainted with a rather haphazard control
scheme that resembled (to me at least) a tidier, far
less vexing version of QWOP. Of course, with time, the control scheme would grow
on you, but almost as quickly as you’ve become a master of simultaneous WASD
and arrow key mashing does the game end. This, unfortunately, is my only gripe
in what is a spectacularly well-paced and holistically well devised game.
The brothers, as
you would control them, will move between one scene and the next so organically
and effortlessly, you will be hard-pressed not to say this isn’t an achievement
in visual storytelling. Each set piece beautifully drawn out and distinct from
the other – from warm, carefree towns, to magical mountainsides, to ominous,
haunting woods, and expansive, frigid ice shelves. You will remember the
journey for the sheer impressiveness of these scenes, but at the same time not
quite how many times or at which point you turned the page/chapter. It is this
very strength that exacerbates perhaps what is the game’s only shortcoming, and
that is its length.
For a game that
rides hard on affective narration and particularly, the poignancy of it, the
amount of time spent with its cast is key. Obviously, I am not encouraging
drawing out the game for the sake of more minutes, but for what the game has
already achieved, in creating this endearing world and equally loveable protagonists,
it just seems like (in the spirit of extrapolation) a missed opportunity to
make what I deem is a very good game, great.
A pedestal for A Way Out
If Brothers is an
indication of anything it’s that A Way Out has the design principles and
framework potential to be a great spiritual successor – even if the mechanics
is going to be altered to accommodate a second (couch/online) player. Brothers:
A Tale of Two Sons is a great game that does more than merit a good score on
all your traditional game-reviewing yardsticks: gameplay, art, story, and
sound.
Before playing Brothers,
I was looking forward to A Way Out. After playing Brothers, Hazelight Studios might
have gotten themselves a day-one customer for A Way Out.
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