Review - Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons

Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons

Starbreeze Studios

Windows (Reviewed), XBLA, PSN

Adventure

XBLA - August 7, 2013
Steam/PSN - September 3, 2013

The Preamble

In my final stand of gaming before I start my new job next week, I impulse purchased this game as I've been hearing great things from the day it came out, and the Steam Halloween Sale made it a no-brainer.

Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons does some really neat things, namely the cramming of two control schemes, for two different players, onto a single controller. This effectively allows a single person to take part in a combined single player and co-op experience simultaneously.

It was the first time I had ever heard of such an experiment, and with that my curiosity wouldn't allow me to wait any longer to pick this one up.

The Overview

Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons brings us a unique story of two brothers embarking on a journey to save their father from a sickness that is slowly toiling away at his livelihood. The game is unique in that you control both brothers simultaneously, with a single controller. Each joystick controls the movement of each brother, while each trigger acts as the action button for its corresponding brother. It's a little disorienting at first, but after a while you become more and more accustomed to it, and it starts to feel right.

Outside of the unique control scheme, the gameplay is fairly straight forward. You make your way across the land, solving puzzles, avoiding dangers, and interacting with people and creatures in the world. The game has a very atmospheric feel to it. It reminds me a bit of Shadow of the Colossus in that there is no dialogue, just mumblings, which results in a much more subtle storytelling experience. You pay much more attention to the body language and facial expressions of the characters, coming up with your own version of what exactly is going on, and how the characters really feel. Marry this with the control scheme, which instills a new sort of dependency, or bond, between your hands, much like the bond between two brothers, and you've got yourself one unique gaming experience.

The Good

• First and foremost, the dual-entity control scheme is a truly innovative approach to the gaming scene in general. I've never encountered anything like it before, and for that alone, I have to give props to Starbreeze for stepping out on a limb and trying something new. Not only that, it works!

• I mentioned this in the overview, but the storytelling techniques are subtle, but effective. The pacing, the music, the character expression, and lack of dialogue all come together in a way that makes for a neat, touching experience.

• Gameplay wise, Brothers manages to do a surprsing amount with very few mechanics. Of course, the controls make for an engaging experience when you're just trying to get from A to B, since even that can be challenging. But outside of that, the developers showed some real creativity when it comes to puzzle design and the way in which they drive you to make the brothers work together to achieve what's necessary.

• Aside from the ultimate goal of reaching your destination so you can help your father, there are other things to encounter along the way, and these end up being some of the coolest parts of the game. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say that when you play this game, take some time to explore around before you beeline to the next area, you won't regret it.

The Bad

• While I dug the challenging nature of the control scheme, nothing else in the game really challenged me. I think in adding some difficulty to the gameplay, a lot could be gained with a game like this. That being said, I'm sure this game was somewhat of an experiment for Starbreeze, I just hope in their next iteration, they can ramp things up a bit, difficulty-wise.

• It's short! There was a reason I waited until this went on sale to buy it, and that's because paying $15 bucks for an experience that's roughly 2-3 hours long, without much replay value, is too much. If they could have tacked on some stuff, it would have been great.

The Conclusion

All in all, I feel like Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons is a spectacular prototype of something that has real potential. I really dug the experience, but it's just such a small bite. I hope that Starbreeze recognizes that this was a successful step, and that they'll ramp this up to the next level in a future iteration. That being said, if you can get your hands on this for less than $10, I would absolutely recommend picking it up if the idea sounds intriguing to you. I am confident you won't regret it.

Some Gameplay