Everyone should not buy Braid

[Onyxmeth]

twesterm said:

Onyxmeth said:

twesterm said:

I just picked a random game people love to shit on.  If that one doesn't work, go buy The Sims 2.  If you already like that, go Carnival Games.  If not that, go buy Resistance.  I can keep naming games and I could eventually find one you just don't like.

Easier way would be to just say that not all games, no matter how good they are, appeal to everybody.  It was Jonathon Blow's own choice to make the game as difficult and different as it is and that is one of the risks of making a game like that.  He knows his target audience.

This can be said about any game. No game is liked by 100% of all people. Why did you choose this game and this game only out of the thousands released to make a thread entirely about the audience this doesn't cater to as a warning? Why not Madden 09? Or Sims 2? Or Carnival Games? Or Resistance? Each has warranted it's own twesterm warning thread of who should not buy it, right?

 

Because I think Braid is different.  I can read a faq for something like Uncharted, Gears of War, or Super Mario Galaxy and it doesn't ruin the game.  So those people that buy those games purely on hype are still fine because if they get stuck or whatever it's no catastrophic thing to read a faq.

With something like Braid it's a very hard game and everyone is telling everyone else to buy it.  Those people who don't like puzzle games for whatever reason are going to get stuck and refer to a faq and completely ruin the game.  What's the point of a puzzle game when you don't actually do the puzzles.

Even if someone wants to branch out and try new genres Braid isn't something you want to start with in the puzzle genre.  You'll get frustrated and never play the genre again.  If they started with something like Zack & Wiki that has a good learning curve or Portal which is something you can brute force your way through that also has familiar elements that would be better.  Braid would just frustrate those people.

I also make this thread because I know people that bought this game purely on hype and they hate puzzle games.  They come back telling everyone how terrible the game was because it's boring, no action, too hard, ect.

 

But reading an FAQ won't stop a non shooter fan from hating their purchase of Gears of War or Uncharted though. I just feel like you're stating something a bit too obvious. First of all, it's well documented through reviews, forum posts and the demo that this game is:

1. A Platformer
2. A Puzzle Game
3. Difficult as shit

There are no real surprises in Braid past those three, and all are out there on the forums(where you are writing this) and in reviews all across the board. Plus Braid is difficult even past the puzzles. It's quite a challenging platformer also, which no FAQ is ever going to help you with.

Also why can't people branch out into Braid as their first puzzler? I haven't played Zack and Wiki or Portal, but thoroughly enjoyed Braid just fine. No learning curve required. If I weren't intelligent enough to figure out every puzzle for myself and had to make use of a walkthrough for certain puzzles, I still have the satisfaction of the wonderful art direction, amazing soundtrack and bonkers as shit vague story.

If people don't like puzzle games then they shouldn't have bought the game. Their time with it should have ended at the demo when they realized this was not for them. No one with any remote amount of intelligence would buy this game off hype alone, when a demo sits one column up from the purchase of the game.

I think the reason I'm really giving you a hard time in this thread though is because you're true point in this is how difficult the game is and that rubs me the wrong way. As someone who didn't start gaming in the 3D era, i've come accustomed to my 2D games beating me over the skull repeatedly with their difficulty and realize that Braid isn't really hard at all. Sure anyone growing up on Pokemon and Brain Age are going to find Braid hard, but who cares? Those people want their games to flow from beginning to end because they grew up with their hands held by developers too scared to offer challenge. Braid is a 2D games loosely paying homage to Super Mario Bros. It is not for the easygoing crowd in the first place, thus doesn't need to be considered. In other news, neither will Mega Man 9 be for them, or Bionic Commando Rearmed, so no need for the inevitable follow-up threads. I would say a good 70% of games on Xbox Live are difficult enough for most people that they aren't capable of finishing them, so Braid is a shoe in for the Xbox Live audience. In fact, it happens to be one of the easiest games on the whole service.

When people recommend Braid to forumgoers, they are doing it in a general sense, but expect each person to do their own research into whether this game is truly for them. Telling someone they won't like Braid if they don't like puzzle games is telling someone they won't like Braid if they don't like Tetris, and that goes for recommenders also. Neither game has anything in common and yet are bunched into your explanation of who should not get Braid. I have also personally not seen one person on these forums yet say Braid was too difficult or that they didn't like it. In fact it's probably the most universally loved modern game we have on these forums right now. If anything, Braid is the one game we SHOULD be recommending(other than Castle Crashers). Maybe we need warning threads for every other game(other than Castle Crashers).