Braid
2008
- platform
- puzzle
- strategy
- adventure
- indie
- fantasy
- single player
The story
Braid is a puzzle-platformer, drawn in a painterly style, where you can manipulate 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.
What it’s like
Soft, hand-painted watercolor worlds glow in warm amber and muted greens, with storybook clouds, tangled gold-leaf trees and sepia-toned ruins that feel like pages from an old illustrated book. The side-scrolling camera stays steady and unfussy, letting you study each frame as the protagonist runs, climbs and leaps through a pale fairy-tale landscape. The score is a gentle, looping piano-and-strings melody that slips into quiet pauses while you rewind and replay moments. Its vibe is wistful, contemplative and warm, with a mood of thoughtful melancholy rather than tension. It suits a rainy Sunday, a slow evening alone, or a late-night session when you want to think without the pressure of a clock. The pacing is deliberate: each stage introduces one new twist on time, so you puzzle, pause and experiment at your own speed. Combat is absent and nothing is gory; the only peril is the odd falling or failed jump, so the intensity is very low, with puzzling as the main challenge. It is for players who love clever, reflective puzzles, nostalgic art and a story that rewards patient curiosity over reflexes.
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