Braid [Shift] diarB

Good day, all.

So, I heard about this Indie platform game a while ago from my good friend, Cavie, amongst others.
It was designed by a guy named Jonathan Blow.

It's called Braid.

I know this is a few years late, but hey, I played it this month and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I'm not giving a full and detailed review on the game. Just expressing some opinions and thoughts.

Story:
It's an interesting and complex story about a guy named Tim trying to find a princess.
There's a lot of metaphors and hidden truths in the storyline of this game.
"Philosophical" is a nice adjective for certain thoughts and questions in the game.
The fragments of the story that you're able to read/see are very vague and I found this quite interesting. I find that some clues hint at a definite truth where others contradict it.
I've checked around a little and I can find a few common thoughts and opinions about the actual point of the story, but I did also see a lot of views saying how it was open to interpretation. I choose to go with the latter view. Purely because I initially thought the common understanding seemed a little far-fetched until I actually played through the game a couple times and realised how the clues made sense. I still like to think there was more to it than just the commonly understood metaphor. The designer even hints that the game shouldn't be restricted to one interpretation.

Graphics and Music:
It's a 2D game, but one of the first things that stood out to me were the graphics and the music. The words "hauntingly beautiful" come to mind. Everything flows together and the rolling sun is something I'll probably remember best.

Gameplay:
It plays very much like Super Mario Bros.
The big twist?
You're able to reverse or manipulate time with the [Shift] key.
A few different game mechanics are introduced in each world.
Logic is such an important part of the gameplay here. It's so easy to overlook something that you are able to do until you fail a hundred times and realise by accident.
(I'm talking about the PC version here. For XBox etc, you obviously have different controls. Yes, it's an Indie game but it did so well that it was on XBox and everything.)

Objectives:
So the main objective of the game is to collect puzzle pieces to properly complete each level.
Eventually
I'm not embarrassed to say that I required some walkthrough help to finish certain parts of this game.
(Especially the SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER hidden collection SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER that is almost literally impossible to find on your own without trying every possible situation in every level.)

This game made me think a lot, feel a lot and fail a lot. Eventually, I succeeded in most of it and I enjoyed it very much.
Well done to everyone that helped to make it.

Go find it and play it, guys.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braid_(video_game)

braid-game.com/‎

(Late Indie game review 1 of 2)