Brothers - In the Nick of Time

"Brothers - A tale of two sons" is a well renowned game and one of the indie darlings from 2013. I recently played through it and can now give my assessment of this. Normally I do not care about spoiler warnings as I assume everybody does either not care or already knows the game. Second, most spoiler warning can actually already be a spoiler. Here I might break with my tradition. After a break there will be full spoilers, you are warned.

I should also mention that the game did not quite capture me as many other people. The reasons are many fold. I wanted to finish this highly acclaimed game already and know what people are talking about.

But let us now go into the meat of the game. The interesting mechanic with this is, that you control two characters with the same controller at the same time. The left stick is for the bigger brother and the right stick for the smaller one. Left bumper for the action of one character and right bumper for the action of the other character. Now go venture forth and solve puzzles with these two characters. And venture forth to find a cure for your ill father.

And here the story already begins to falter. While you go through the village it is still fine but the further you get away you just have to think about how you get back. Climbing a mountain with the help of a troll is good and all but how do you get back? Or when you fly and crash your plane to get over an enormous chasm? The illness of the father seems to be more a starting point than anything else and that would be fine if the game wouldn't cut back to him a few times to remind you how sick he is. Oh but don't worry we got a deus ex machina that will solve this at the end of the game.

But it does not stop there. After all the environment also tells a story. A story about how you need to save a troll wife from other supposedly evil trolls. Are they evil? What are they doing? Forget about them, the next environment is already there, a giants house. Oh cool, I am going to see the giant? Run away from him? No. You are now in a viking battlefield already! And so it goes on, throwing fantasy stuff one after each other without doing anything with it except giving a nice backdrop.

But one thing has to be mentioned about the story. The twist. The twist I saw coming a mile away. The older brother dies. Why the older? Because the younger relies on him. Why does anybody die? Because the game trained you to use two characters. But ok even good twists do not make a good story moment necessarily so let us look how it uses the mechanics to tell the story. And here it is actually quite good but short. The first few times you run around without your brother your left thumb feels weirdly out of place. Like you are supposed to do something but there is nothing. A weirdly isolating feeling. Then you have to bury your brother which did not leave a big impression on me but that could be completely my fault. The only scene which left an impression is the water scene after it. The little brother is afraid of water and does not want to swim without his brother caring him (by holding the left bumper). Now without the brother only by holding the left bumper you can swim through it, only if you remember your older brother to give you strength to conquer your fear. That was actually a nice moment. There are some other nice moments in the minute the game let you lose without the older brother.

Sadly I think the game is missing something here. There are only four, maybe five things you have to do without your older brother. Wouldn't it be better if you have to go back at least a part of the journey? Seeing all the things you conquer with him together to remind you and where you now have to find a new, solution just for yourself? Some solutions which might be even easier, reminding you how annoying it could be to get both characters somewhere. And, of course, some which are now even harder which need a creative solution. Instead it seems to stop right before the emotional impact.

And it does not help that the game has quite a chopped up feel to it. Here, solve this one puzzle. Done? Good watch a cutscene. Look at the camera work. And let us slowly go back to the game. And here you are allowed to play some more for a few minutes. Instead of letting the death of the older brother play out you have to play, watch, play, watch, play, watch.

But in the end, the ending has some impact and I was happy to have played this game.