3 days of...Brothers - a Tale of Two Sons!

What was so great about Brothers?

Take a game with a halfway decent story, strip out the game-play elements, take out any dialogue, and give some amazing environments to adventure through and you've got Brothers by Starbreeze Studios. There are so many amazing things to see and truly wonderful places to visit. The entire time I played (and I actually got to finish this time) I was amazed by the things I saw. 

That's about where the entertainment ended for me. You can't really call Brothers a game as much as you can call it a split medium between cinematic adventure and puzzle game. It's more an interactive story. There are some minor puzzle elements, though most of them are mindless, or merely there to waste time. There aren't really many rewarding sequences, unless you count story progression as a reward. And there aren't any other game play elements besides running around and wordlessly interacting with the gorgeous environments.

Teamwork is key

I wanted to like the story, I really did. While I played I started to form a bond with the characters, but somehow I feel like that bond was never complete. I felt like these were puppets that had no right to speak, and so they didn't. There wasn't anything they could do without me. I turned out to be the big older brother holding their hands. 

The music was amazing, really it fit every moment of every scene. There wasn't anything I didn't like about the music as a matter of fact. I think I'll end up buying the soundtrack to listen to it in my car. It's soothing when there are great overlooks, and it's tense when you're being hunted. It served the game very, very well, which is what every good soundtrack should do.

Gorgeous

The greatest part though was the environments in which all this took place in. The environments were so refreshing that I am willing to forgive everything else. I can't even talk about them without giving them away, but the world you explore is really the treat. The story you witness is nothing next to the wonders that the brothers so blindly walk through. I couldn't blame them, they've got a mission and they wouldn't give up for anything. Really though, what they just so wildly prance through is astounding. 

If a game designer could learn something from Brothers, I sincerely hope it would be how to progress a world around the player. To truly give the player a sense of wonderment at what might be behind the next hole in the wall. Honestly, if all games did what Brothers did in environment I would be ecstatic. 

Breathtaking.

You'll like this game if: You love gorgeous environments;regardless of what genre you enjoy you'll love being led through some of the most interesting and fun settings in modern gaming, Brothers is truly a treat in this way.

 Work, School, Kid, and more work.

I want to write more, but I've been busy this week with work, school, and trying to raise a 2 year old that just said no to me, again. Literally while I'm writing this. So even though I finished Brothers I don't think I was truly able to appreciate it. That's the name of the game though. Through rain, sleet, hail, snow and I suppose head cold, I'm playing these games no matter what it takes.

So I'll be choosing a game that won't take so much time because I'm traveling all this week as well. Hopefully the quality of my reviews doesn't suffer. It seems as though my opinion has suffered because looking up the rest of the reviews on this game tells me that I'm definitely in the minority. Oh well. 

(If you had a different opinion or a new video game to suggest, leave a comment below! If you want to recieve regular updates, follow me on Twitter @SimonGolden.)