4/5 ★ – RawMetal's review of Braid.

System: Xbox 360 Started: January 1, 2014 Ended: February 8, 2014 Flashback Review The beginning of 2014 was considered as one of the darkest points of my life and it was reasonable enough that I played a puzzle game to take my mind off it. Braid is one of the games that were featured in the Indie Game: The Movie documentary and I was curious enough to play it. Braid stands out as a blend of the puzzle genre with elements of a platformer. In the early 2010s, it got so popular that college students majoring in game development often discussed it. In Braid, you take on the role of Tim, a normal-looking protagonist in a shabby business suit who is on a quest to save a princess. As you gather puzzle pieces, you'll learn more about Tim's background through his journal entries after you collect most of the jigsaw puzzles from every world and piece them together. For every level, you collect jigsaw pieces while having the power to reverse time. Overall, Braid is a fusion of Super Mario Bros. and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. At first, I assumed it would be a straightforward, no-brainer puzzle game, but I was wrong; most of these levels have me scratching my head for quite a while until I eventually give up and look into a guide for that particular level. Each puzzle incorporates time manipulation, platforming, leveraging enemies to advance by jumping or utilizing their projectiles, and even employing your shadow self to progress. If you actually want a surprising challenge in brain-solving, this might be the game for you. Braid also has a good-looking art style like water-coloring from the background levels and the music soundtrack is noteworthy. Aside from the puzzle-solving, art style, and ambient music, Braid contains an ambiguous storytelling that I don’t even know what is going on. It's one of those moments that you have to look it up as a discussion topic from the internet to understand the story narrative for this game. you must piece together the story on your own to grasp its full meaning, particularly when aiming for 100% completion. Before the start of a level, you are given a massive amount of text to understand the plot of the story, but it's just too much reading to the point that I just want to skip it and get to the gameplay. Braid is similar to one of those local modern art galleries that one might visit on an elementary school field trip, turning out to be a surprisingly pleasant experience. Braid has an appealing art style that is similar to an art portrait and tranquil music, but it does have challenging puzzles that it will take you a good while to solve. It's definitely a must-play for puzzle gaming enthusiasts. There is a recent version of Braid, dubbed the Anniversary Edition, that includes updated graphics, changes in art style, and even a developer commentary that earned its status as the definitive version, so it's recommended to play the Anniversary Edition. Depending on your pretentious taste in Indie video games or you are curious to try something new or artsy, then Braid could be the perfect fit for you.