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[Cheater‽]

I think you're talking about World 1, Benzido.

There were certain puzzles that required you to use tricks that you are not told from the start (like the fact that you can jump higher every single time you land on an enemy)

Wasn't that used in World 2-1 to get the last piece?

[Bennett]

Ah yeah, world 1. I loved that world!

[agj]

So, here's a question. Does anybody know what version I should buy, of these, to get as little DRM bullshit as possible?

http://www.playgreenhouse.com/game/NNONE-000001-01/
http://www.impulsedriven.com/braid
http://www.gamersgate.com/?page=product&what=view&sku=DD-BRAID

[Fuzz]

Greenhouse, definitely. You just download the game, nothing else to download, and then type in the key it emails you. No complicated shit, as far as I can tell (I haven't yet got around to buying it).

[Jonp382]

Impulse is basically the same as Steam, except you don't have to be logged in to play the game.(Though apparently you don't have to for some Steam games either) Need to be logged in to download the game or updates, though. Greenhouse has an activation system with about 5 activations. After that you have to ask for more, but apparently it's easy. Don't know about Gamersgate. Apparently there's no DRM whatsoever, but don't take my word for it.

Cheater is right, bouncing on the enemy two or three times was in the very first level! Plus, it was really helpful throughout the rest of the game, although not always necessary. And from my own experience, the puzzles did not require extensive trial and error. Most of them could be solved through understanding the basic rules of each world, and then using both observation and creativity.

[Syrion]

I've got a fairly modern system, bought the Steam version and it's running just fine. I guess I don't need to repeat any elaborate praise for the game. I'm playing it for the first time and I'm enjoying it a great lot. It seemingly really is on the short side, but I just play one world a day, so it is going to last some more days for me


By the way, if anyone thinks about getting the Steam version only because of the achievements: Don't. There are only some for finishing the worlds, getting all puzzle pieces in each, finishing the game and succeeding at a time run. Nothing interesting or creative.
I wonder, are there any achievements in the Xbox 360 version? I don't need that stuff or something awful like a "gamerscore", but well-thought-out achievements can surely add to the fun.

[Cheater‽]

I wonder, are there any achievements in the Xbox 360 version? I don't need that stuff or something awful like a "gamerscore", but well-thought-out achievements can surely add to the fun.

Yes, I think for getting puzzle pieces, finishing worlds and finishing the game.

[Melly]

I got the Steam version because I already had some stuff in it and it was a matter of 2 minutes to get it and some more time before I could play it. Considering the game's so good I might jsut buy it again from Greenhouse and maybe crack it to safeguard it. For the future generations.

Overall the game's fantastic. Most of the problems with it are nitpicks, with notable exceptions:

- The twin doors, one that breaks your key with no effect and another which opens. Forces you to restart level. Pretty bullshitty, disnecessary and a bit insulting.

- The stars requirements. Bullshits include one which can't be gotten if you've already beaten the game, forcing you to start a new one, and another which literally has you waiting around 2 hours of real life time with the game running to get it. The others are just bitches to get.

- The text segments are too separated from the gameplay. This is not as serious, but it's still something that could have been greatly improved. At the very least have ingame characters, like the plush dinos (I want one) tell you that story instead of on books outside the levels, maybe as rewards for completing puzzles.

- Far too few configuration options and a very heavy game that runs sluggish on many computers. Get the demo first to see if you can play it. Besides the time mechanic and some fancy shader effects I can't see why the game would be that heavy. It uses nearly 400 MB of RAM alone. Might be the high res graphics, though the inability to change your resolution seems like a massive oversight.

Overall though, if you can play the game, buy it. It's seriously something different from what we see out there, and obviously a game that takes plenty of liberties and wasn't guided by marketing and money-whoring.

Also, the correct door is always the left one.

[Annabelle Kennedy]

- The twin doors, one that breaks your key with no effect and another which opens. Forces you to restart level. Pretty bullshitty, disnecessary and a bit insulting.

No!
you missed the point.  The reason one door opens and the other doesnt is the direction your walking through it.  The mechanic in that level is that if you walk right, time goes forward, if you walk left, time goes backwards.  One door (the door that doesnt open) you would have to pass through going right to left, making the flow of time go backwards.  Because the door *is* effected by time shifting (not glowing green) trying to open it going backwards through time simply shouldnt (and doesnt) work.  This is not some error or a cheap trick in the level, it's simply a matter of how the mechanic works. The puzzle to solve is that you can only open a door that is effected by time by going from left to right, which makes logical sense.  Perhaps the fact that it disables your key might be slightly frustrating, but given the way the game works this makes sense.  To me anyways...

[Zaphos]

Yes ... I went through the wrong door first, and it made me realize basically what annabelle said.  But I can see how it's quite easy to brute force or miss the point there, so in that sense it is a bit weaker as a puzzle.  I thought the 'hunting' puzzle in the same world presented a similar message in a more interesting way.

I thought the text before the levels worked decently ... it sort of set a tone or something to think about as you played, instead of being a more direct 'story'

[jeb]

My minor complaints:

- The game ran very slow on my comp, I had to use the -15fps command line option to be able to control Tim
- If I pressed ESC to reach the menu, the game crashed (all the time)
- The twin door puzzle annoyed me as well, but when I realized what I was doing wrong, it was such a cool feeling
- Some of the other puzzles also annoyed me because they felt so tedious... but then I checked some youtube clips and realized I was playing wrong. Some puzzles are a lot easier if you use the "paused rewind"... so it was my bad

In any case, I had a great time playing this game! Money well spent!

[Problem Machine]

- Some of the other puzzles also annoyed me because they felt so tedious... but then I checked some youtube clips and realized I was playing wrong. Some puzzles are a lot easier if you use the "paused rewind"... so it was my bad

Incidentally, I believe Jon Blow has stated that situations like this are the reason for the time trial mode, so that you don't just muddle through puzzles but understand them completely and in the way most integrated with the game's central mechanic.

Interestingly, the puzzle people are complaining about the most (the 5th world bounce) is actually one of my favorites. This is because the solution didn't occur to me while I was playing at all, but rather burst upon me in a moment of elation while I was brushing my teeth. I guess I can see the thing about simply not knowing that's how the game works, but in a game with no penalties for death I'm not sure there's an excuse for not exploring those mechanics. I'm also a little skeptical of the claim of never getting bounced on, because there are a lot of head-height cannons around, but whatever 

Yahtzee misunderstood the mechanics behind the doors in the fourth world as well, one of the things I didn't like about his largely excellent review.

[Zaphos]

I'm also a little skeptical of the claim of never getting bounced on, because there are a lot of head-height cannons around, but whatever 

I think what might happen is people hit rewind as soon as they see they're dying, and in the midst of that rehearsed process they're not really watching what's happening to the goomba, they're thinking about how far to rewind and how to avoid it.  So it's not like it never happens, but they never really see it happen.

My experience was definitely not *knowing* it would work that way, but trying it anyway because I thought 'it would be cool if it works this way' ...  It did strike me as a pretty cool puzzle

[Melly]

I figured out the headbutt mostly by accident too. Basically I died with the goomba hoping onto me, instantly rewinded, and watched my double being bounced on, and the goomba reaching the height needed for me to bounce off him and onto the piece.

I think the doppelganger mechanics of that world helps people figure this out by letting them see the effects their deaths would bring.

[___]

Finished the PC version, yay.  Ran smooth all the way through for me.

Wow, the stars?  Fuck that.  What the FUCK YOU CANT GET THE ONE STAR IF YOU COMPLETE THE FUCKING GAME FIRST?  AAAAUUUGHH

[team_q]

I was perfectly fine with the end without all this stars business.

[Problem Machine]

I think it's a little weird that people get worked up about the stars when they're seemingly extraneous bonus content. I still haven't gotten them (I got it on XBLA) and I think it was worth my money anyway.

[Chris Whitman]

There was just one puzzle I didn't like (spoilers):
The one in the alternate reality place where you had to jump into the bottom of the enemy to make him bounce up.  I had no idea the enemy would bounce when killing me and I felt like it was unfair to expect me to know that ...

Interestingly enough, this puzzle stumped me for more than half an hour and was the only puzzle to do so for more than ten minutes or so. I felt it was a bit cheap, because the mechanic was never really 'introduced' in the same way everything else was, and it also wasn't a standard platformer concept.


Aside from this, though, I thought the remaining puzzles were excellent, even if most of them were a bit too easy. I really felt that sense of satisfaction, as in Portal, where by the end of the game you've actually learned use the new game mechanics effectively. Particularly, the final puzzle piece, where you need to leave the ring around in a couple of positions, stand on the time fixing platform and then rewind the ring backwards through time came really easily after completing the rest of the puzzles.

I did not bother getting the stars. I don't think I was even aware they existed.

[cpets]

I played the game through the week it came out on XBLA, and then just let it sit for a long while. In January or so, I went back and took a try at the time trials and stars. I think they're both completely worthwhile.

Once you've figured out where the stars must be, getting them constitutes a whole new game in itself, essentially braid on nightmare mode. Where the regular game is pretty forgiving, the star puzzles require accuracy through several chained steps, often interspersed with overlapping rewinds. The most famous of the stars, with the ridiculous real-time wait, is not at all representative of the rest.

The time trial modes really show off how well-calibrated the game is. Everybody notices this in small bits, for single puzzles, but running fast lines reveals end-to-end coordination on some levels. (And ok, maybe this is just happy coincidence and not the result of design genius, but it's great fun to experience anyhow).

[Zaphos]

even if most of them were a bit too easy.

I don't think the (non star) puzzles are intended to be hard -- rather, they're intended to convey the underlying idea as simply as possible.  I kind of appreciate that design philosophy ... I don't want 'hard' so much as 'interesting,' and the puzzles were definitely all interesting.