Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

[Twig]

Hah, yeah, I figured.

 

I'm hoping that Edited Products become a trend. It's like 90% of what we get in video games is the Director's Cut of the Director's Cut. (Not that DC's can't be worthwhile, but the point stands!)

[melmer]

Don't read until you've played it

 

Really nice write up of the end of the game

http://tay.kotaku.com/dsb-how-about-that-ending-to-brothers-1388162194

[osmosisch]

Just finished this. I am floored. Gorgeous, affecting and funny. My only complaint is that all the excellent segments are connected in a very disjointed manner - there's very little rhyme or reason for what follows what. 

[Apelsin]

While I did not have as an emotional response to the end as many others,

 

reading about how the burial scene is more or less a inspired by an actual event in the game directors life really shocked me.
 

That people actually have to live through things like that... Yeah.

Made that scene a lot more powerful in retrospect.

 

 

[Latrine]

Well I think my problem with the game is just that

 

The game is set in this abstract and kind of generic fantasy world and it's hard to see how that connects to anything in real life. That moment is a lot more powerful if you know about the director's life story, but I don't think the game itself did a good job of emotionally investing me in that moment.

[osmosisch]

I automatically felt a lot of empathy with the characters, mainly due to the many little character-building moments. Setting doesn't really figure into that much for me. Brothers are brothers, fantasy world or no.

[Twig]

I loved everything about this game!

 

Exceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeept

Spider lady felt so forced. The second she pushed aside that rock, I was like, "is she gonna be a spider lady" AND WHAT THE FUCK I CALLED IT. Ugh. I also... felt absolutely nothing when Big Bro died because I was expecting it the whole time from the first five minutes of the game basically. Yuck. But then... you get back home, and Li'l Bro is all "I'm scared of the water" and you're like "what do I do I can't get past this invisible wall" and then you're like "what if..." and THEN it hit me and I was suddenly sad. So that was fucking awesome. And I mean that.

 

but seriously fuck the spider lady

 

Man what a goddamn gorgeous game. And the amount of care they put into making the animations not feel AWKWARD when characters are touching each other. I've become so accustomed to seeing an absolutely absurd amount of clipping when video game characters hug that it was almost surreal NOT seeing it happen everywhere. Still wasn't perfect, but I'm glad they took the time to make it as good as they did. Especially considering what the game is.

[YoThatLimp]

I loved everything about this game!

 

Exceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeept

Spider lady felt so forced. The second she pushed aside that rock, I was like, "is she gonna be a spider lady" AND WHAT THE FUCK I CALLED IT. Ugh. I also... felt absolutely nothing when Big Bro died because I was expecting it the whole time from the first five minutes of the game basically. Yuck. But then... you get back home, and Li'l Bro is all "I'm scared of the water" and you're like "what do I do I can't get past this invisible wall" and then you're like "what if..." and THEN it hit me and I was suddenly sad. So that was fucking awesome. And I mean that.

 

but seriously fuck the spider lady

 

Man what a goddamn gorgeous game. And the amount of care they put into making the animations not feel AWKWARD when characters are touching each other. I've become so accustomed to seeing an absolutely absurd amount of clipping when video game characters hug that it was almost surreal NOT seeing it happen everywhere. Still wasn't perfect, but I'm glad they took the time to make it as good as they did. Especially considering what the game is.

 

Yeah the whole plot point seemed a bit cliched, but I think that was the point since it seems to be drawing from folk tales. I loved the end mechanic and the art style but overall the game didn't click with me for some reason.

[Thrik]

I loved everything about this game!

 

Exceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeept

Spider lady felt so forced. The second she pushed aside that rock, I was like, "is she gonna be a spider lady" AND WHAT THE FUCK I CALLED IT. Ugh. I also... felt absolutely nothing when Big Bro died because I was expecting it the whole time from the first five minutes of the game basically. Yuck. But then... you get back home, and Li'l Bro is all "I'm scared of the water" and you're like "what do I do I can't get past this invisible wall" and then you're like "what if..." and THEN it hit me and I was suddenly sad. So that was fucking awesome. And I mean that.

 

but seriously fuck the spider lady

 

Man what a goddamn gorgeous game. And the amount of care they put into making the animations not feel AWKWARD when characters are touching each other. I've become so accustomed to seeing an absolutely absurd amount of clipping when video game characters hug that it was almost surreal NOT seeing it happen everywhere. Still wasn't perfect, but I'm glad they took the time to make it as good as they did. Especially considering what the game is.

 

While the animation in this game is indeed superb, I am afraid the #1 video game hug remains:

 

 

[Twig]

I don't know what that is but it's terrifying.

[elmuerte]

Oo...

 

You don't know Grim Fandango?

[jmbossy]

 That moment is a lot more powerful if you know about the director's life story 

 

I love that fact.

It is sort of like reading a book, then afterwards studying the author's life. All the pieces start falling into place, and you say "Oh! that explains everything."

It's kind of beautiful.

[Thrik]

I don't know what that is but it's terrifying.

 

I... what? Someone find me a gun.

[Twig]

No I've never played Grim Fandango. I guess now that I look at it more closely I recognize that thing embraced by the giant yellow monster as the main character.

 

While I'm at it, I've also never played Full Throttle.

[Thrik]

Pretty sure it's time for you to die.

[elmuerte]

yep... no doubt about that. Was good knowing you.

[Twig]

It's not my fault I can't buy those games anywhere.

 

(Actually I have no qualms about pirating games that aren't for sale anymore but 

 

this is the brothers thread guys ):

[elmuerte]

You still can't buy the lucas arts classic?!

[Twig]

Is that a thing

[manny_c44]

You can just get the boxed re-release versions off of UK amazon, shipping isn't that much more expensive really.

[Tanukitsune]

Yeah, specially if you don't care that it's used.

[Twig]

X: guys i don't have money to spend guys

[elmuerte]

then steal a copy of your local PC game store

[Twig]

sold

[tegan]

I played this when it went free on PS+ this week!

 

My overall impression was "good, not great." There's a lot to love in there, but it's big story point didn't deliver at all for me.

 

I couldn't really tell you anything about the older brother at all. The younger one had a slightly more fleshed out personality, but there was so little going on with either of them that I didn't really feel any sense of loss. Moreover, he dies in the most video gamey scene in the whole thing: a kind of ridiculous boss fight against a giant spider lady. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.

I know that there was probably a very specific and deliberate reason for doing things the way they did, but I feel like having the characters speak English and not their weird Simlish would have made me get to know the characters a whole lot better overall.

 

Oh, and I had a surprising number of technical problems. I had to reset from a checkpoint once because the older brother got snagged on some geometry or something and could only spin in place. That kind of thing really took me out of it, especially for some of the late game stuff that could easily be mistaken for technical difficulties, like the invisible giant or the deliberately unresponsive controls during parts of the post-death sequence (little bro actually didn't swim like he was supposed to until the fourth or fifth time I tried the left trigger in that one sequence. He just swiveled in place like the aforementioned issue).

 

I did really like some of the background worldbuilding stuff, though. I like that it's there as just kind of a snapshot of a bigger world, and you don't get bogged down with lore explaining everything.