Braid Ushers in Next Golden Age of Gaming
Posted on 08 August 2008 by Erik
Yesterday I was able to pry myself away from Geometry Wars 2 and Pixeljunk Eden long enough to try the already critically acclaimed puzzle-platfomer Braid. I made my way through a few worlds to give myself a good impression of what made the game such a fresh take on the platformer/puzzle type, and instead ended up almost moved to tears over what the game does for the bigger picture of gaming.
I wanted to touch upon the strong notion that we are moving towards total digital distribution in media and specifically gaming. It’s scary to think we went through a point in time where games like Braid (and the aforementioned other titles that have had so much success through download) were almost impossible to release on a major level. These titles simply weren’t made for next-gen disc releases, for several reasons including price, game length and overall reception.
Braid has, thus far, been an amazing game; lots of challenging puzzles, a unique feature that constantly has you rethinking how you go about playing and a surprisingly deep storyline steeped in realism. Yet a release like this means so much more to the big picture of gaming; it ushers in a new renaissance, where the old school game types I fell in love with 15 years ago have not only been brought back into prominence, they’ve seen significant improvements.
I’ll admit, the last few years have been difficult for me as a gamer. It was like living in the cold war, an arms race between two (occasionally three) giants who invested themselves into building epic, graphically superior titles that promised 100 hours of gameplay. I felt that while something had been gained with these new titles, something much more important was lost.
Core gaming took on a totally different persona; instead of inputting initials to signify your superiority, you put balls on your enemy’s face. Instead of sweeping through platform levels to make sure you collected every last item you could, you swept the area for enemies named ‘69a11th3tim3.’
I was crestfallen to see that the undeniable popularity of these games (fueled by a level of competition that hadn’t been seen in gaming before) shot down the possibility of recapturing the feeling you had when both you and gaming were younger and frankly much more creative. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would never capture those feelings again, but a light has emerged at the end of the tunnel in the form of digital distribution.
Without the revolution of downloadable content, we would never see games like Braid (Evolved Mario) and Geometry Wars (Evolved 80’s Arcade), at least the vast majority of us wouldn’t. They simply wouldn’t exist on the scale they do now.
It all adds up to a new Golden Age of gaming, the ability to purchase a new game and be generally excited about it, not because its running on some type of engine or that it boasts umpteen hours of gameplay, but because it’s genuinely fun. These titles open the door to developers and designers that up until recently were unable to find a decent medium to present their product.
At 23, the original excitement I felt when I first entered the realm of gaming is back; I’m born again, and what I feared was lost and gone forever has returned.
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Tags | Braid, Gaming, Geometry Wars 2, golden age, PixelJunk Eden, PlayStation 3, ps3, XBOX 360, Xbox Live Arcade
