Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (XBLA/PSN/PC) review review review review

[Family Fry]

This was the debut game on the Summer of Arcade XBLA promotion, priced at 1200MSP/?9.99.

PSN and PC versions release dates are to be confirmed, PC was due 28th August but this date my have changed and PSN version is due early September.

First thing that struck me about this game, it's using Unreal 3 engine and it looks absolutely lovely combined with this art style.



So how does it play and what's the story?

This game is a single player co-op experience. You play two as characters, at the same time, on one the pad.
Left stick (LT) controls big brother and right stick (RT) controls little brother.

Story wise your dad has taken ill and you both have to go on an adventure to find a cure, this will take you on a journey through various landscapes and settings meeting various folk along the way, pretty straightforward so onward you go.

Each brother has a specific set of interactions with people and objects you encounter.
For instance once scene sees you pick up a small cat as big brother, it hisses and scratches where as with little brother the cat purrs and is relaxed. These scenes make you curious to see how different interactions can happen, which lead you to experiment with specific combinations.

The light puzzle elements of the game are pretty straightforward throughout, lets just say your never going to be stuck on something for more than a few minutes as the solution always requires co-op.

Now getting on to what makes this game so good, the meat and potatoes shall we say.
Well I can't really openly talk about it but lets just say it's in the story and the journey, both of which make this game firmly stand out. I will gladly put this on my 2013 GOTY list, it really is a special game.

Game is about 2-3 hours in length, depending on just how interactive you are with things.

Eurogamer 9/10.
Destructoid 8/10.
Joystiq 5/5.
86 Metacritic score from 41 Critics.

So did anyone else grab this game? What were your thoughts?

[BaronSqwelch]

Good to hear it is great! Waiting on the PSN version myself as the wait turned out to be very short.

[Mayhem]

Downloaded the demo, hadn't gotten around to trying it yet.

[EvilBoris]

It's quite unusual, I'm looking forward to more of these types of experiences over the next few years on consoles.
The game has some extremely bleak moments and there is one moment in particularly that I never thought I would do in a videogame.

It's really a hard game to talk about without spoiling anything, but my advice to anybody playing in future is to make sure you are playing on a pad. You will lose part of the experience if you don't.

What is particularly unique is how the game binds you and the characters together via the control scheme.
Again, really hard to say anything about it without spoiling things.

I'd say it was this year's journey, but I don't think it is quite as good as Journey as an overall experience, but it is so unique in a couple of regards that everyone should play it.

[Plough Boy]

I really enjoyed playing this. It was engrossing and fully immersive.
The control scheme was well thought out. Frustrations with it were due to my incapability as opposed to it being flawed.
I thought that

->Open Spoiler<-

the mine and 'battlefield' levels were beautifully created. The Battlefield level also had a couple of laugh out loud moments in a warped way!

I'd definitely recommend it.
The price point is slightly divisive. If you're not convinced - wait for the inevitable price drop. 800 points or less and it should be a no-brainer IMO.

[Family Fry]

This is now available on PC and PSN.
Both versions are priced at ?11.99, buy it (on Xbox for ?9.99)
Seriously though give it a look.

[Mr Ono]

TotalBiscuit went as far as to call it his favourite game ever.

GOing to pick up the Steam version.

[nakamura]

Played the demo, really interesting title with a great atmosphere and it felt fresh.

[EvilBoris]

The demo is meaningless, all it will do is show you the graphics and controls, it doesn't show you the emotion. The more I think back to this game the more it impresses me, I'm not one to analyze games so much, but there are some truly inspired design decisions in this.

Major Spoilers underneath

->Open Spoiler<-

The way that the game works really hard throughout to mentally bind you and the 2 characters you to the Right and Left triggers, means that when the brother dies you have almost physically suffered a loss. Everything in the game requires both triggers to function and every puzzle has been solved in tandem, but all of a sudden you only have one.
When you first get in the water on your own and you start to drown as you always did pressing the button that would always give you the physical strength of big brother has now been replaced with mental strength and willingness for little brother to succeed by himself, because he still has to save his father.

I never thought I would have to bury the corpse of a sibling in a videogame. Crazy Bleak

[moonwhistle]

I saw this on my dashboard and the title is absolutely terrible.

Sons: a tale of 2 brothers, no wait, brothers: a tale of two uncles both with 2 sons who are also brothers. Oh forget it.

[EvilBoris]

And what did you think of the game when you played it?

[nakamura]

The demo isn't meaningless. It shows the nice graphical style, clever little interaction touches and interesting game ideas.

[EvilBoris]

If the full game was the demo X5 it would be a really boring game with a nice style.

[nakamura]

Yeah I get that but there is no point buying it at all if you hate the mechanics of it.

[EvilBoris]

To be honest, the best part of the game gameplay wise is 3/4 through and is still relatively short, they could of made a whole game of it.