Braid

Braid is a puzzle-platformer about a time traveller on his way to rescue an elusive princess. The puzzles are built around time manipulation, with each world containing its own spin on the character’s time-breaking powers. Braid was one of the earliest successful indie games, and an Anniversary Edition was later released with updated graphics as well as in-depth commentary and bonus levels.

You play as Tim, a time traveller journeying across various worlds. In the first levels, you have the ability to rewind your actions, but as you move from one world to the next, your powers will behave differently and progress to more complex mechanics. Each world acts as a chapter which is broken into a series of smaller, self-contained stages. Despite it being largely a puzzle game, Braid’s platforming occasionally requires some precision—although the time rewinding abilities do ease some of the fiddliness.

Completing a puzzle in any self-contained stage will grant you one piece of a small jigsaw puzzle. Each world contains a frame within which you can assemble these pieces. Most rooms can be traversed without clearing the puzzles inside, but eventually you’ll need to collect all the pieces to get to the ending.

Much like in The Witness or Animal Well, it’s quite common to not know how to solve a puzzle on your first visit to a room, in which case you can head back there once you’ve gained a better grasp of the time manipulation techniques. At any rate, you’ll need to exercise plenty of lateral thinking and spatial visualization in order to tackle these challenges, usually by working backwards from the solution.

At the beginning of every chapter, inside a pensive room where time feels suspended, players can read elements of Tim’s story. Each fragment is themed around the way time behaves in the chapter. The art style of Braid is reminiscent of a surreal, painterly world in which incongruent elements litter the background. Odd enemies patter about each stage, and the music shifts from soothing to ominous in the later worlds.

Braid was heavily reworked for an Anniversary Edition which was released in 2024. This version includes a full graphics overhaul and upgraded sound design, along with a sprawling audio commentary. The commentary is mainly accessed from new puzzle-lite areas, which also contain a dozen full-fledged extra levels.

This description was written by Hira.