Braid was the first game I ever bought on XBLA. I did so at the behest of Megan, who played through the trial and loved it. I had also enjoyed the trial version even though I thought some of the puzzles were too hard to execute (of course, she benefits from having the reflexes of a thirteen-year-old).
So we’re playing Braid, right? We’re having a good amount of fun figuring out the puzzles and unlocking new worlds and seeing how time changes in each world. Some of the puzzles are just ridiculously difficult, but the game isn’t that long so if you keep at it you’re sure to finish it eventually. It’s going pretty good.
And then it ends.
I guess it’s just not possible for an indie game to have a satisfying, upbeat ending. While the maudlin text throughout the game alerted me that the ending was probably going to be a downer, it didn’t prepare me for the game becoming a lecture on the evils of the creation of the atomic bomb. No, seriously. I am not making this up. Johnathan Blow even includes the director of the Manhattan Project‘s famous “Now we are all sons of bitches” line in the ending, which came as quite a surprise to me and Megan. Lest you think I’m spoiling it, believe me – it’s pre-spoiled.
If I want to be lectured on the evils of nuclear weapons, I’ll…you know what? I grew up in the 80’s. I’m never going to want to be lectured on the evils of nuclear weapons.
So overall: excellent concept, fairly well executed, with an ending that gives Metal Gear Solid 2 a run for its money. Hopefully Blow will realize that propaganda is the enemy of art and his next game will be more satisfying.
I think you’re putting too much emphasis into that one book in the epilogue.
In my opinion the ending was all about how things look different if you look at them from different perspectives. Just one of the ideas used for that was the Manhattan Project. Another one of those books talk about a little kid who wants candy at a candy store. It has nothing to do with either the Manhattan Project or Tim’s story in Braid.
Did you find the alternate texts?
Yes, we did. But there’s a lot more in the game than just that to suggest what Blow’s true intentions were. Heck, after you see the ending and get back to the starting screen, it’s pretty clear that you’re looking at a city that has been nuked.
What story?
By the time I finished that game, I realized that it didn’t have a story. It had a loose gathering of thematically affiliated snippets that are vague enough to resemble a deep story. But, in the end, they’re really just there to give you insight into the new world and the new time mechanic you’re going to have. There was no real story in that game.
And the atomic bomb quote next to the stuff about dissecting the frog just made it sound like the game hated science. Or, perhaps it was merely one of those warnings about science. I mean, the guy unlocks time to go back and fix things with his girlfriend, completely losing his humanity and becoming completely abstracted from society (if we’re to cobble together a story from the various worlds).
I really don’t think there was a specifically anti-nuke thing going on in the game. It’s not propaganda. And even if that was the underlying theme, about the scientists who were afraid they might unleash a matter-erasing chain reaction and that being a metaphor for the dangers of playing with the basic forces of the universe, I don’t know that we can say it’s anti-nuke propaganda. It’s at worst, a theme that gets hit too hard on the nose at the end.
I got the impression Blow’s true intentions were about Tim’s attitude regarding his princess, not the atomic bomb.
I was thinking that the princess was the atomic bomb. Considering the secret ending when you get all the secret stars.