Brothers is that rarest of beasts; the perfect game. It does exactly what it sets out to do, does it beautifully, and wraps up at just the right time. In an era where so many "games" are just frameworks to manipulate your neurochemistry to devour all of your free time and income, it was so refreshing to revisit an obvious passion project that still hits as hard as it did when I first played it over ten years ago.
The game is elegant in its simplicity. The titular brothers are on a quest to retrieve some medicine for their ailing father, which will require them to go on a perilous journey to the Tree Of Life. You play as both brothers, each tied to their own analog stick for movement and one of the trigger buttons for interaction. You can generally move one brother at a time if you find it easier, but learning how to control them both effectively at the same time was one of the more satisfying elements of the game for me. The game fits best in the adventure genre, as you explore the world, avoid danger, and solve puzzles to make progress.
Mind you, there's nothing wrong with a complex game, but there's a magic here that would be lost if it were more, well, video game-y. The simple controls and lack of inventory keep the screen UI-free and allow you to fully immerse yourself in a gorgeous fantasy world. Characters express themselves via gestures and excited bursts of a fictional language, rather than pausing for long bouts of exposition. And the game is linear enough so that you'll never be stuck wondering what the next move is. Your main goal is obvious enough, but you'll still get to enjoy some other little triumphs along the way, like reuniting a loving troll couple and saving some baby turtles.
The game is about four hours long, and the basic controls and relatively simple puzzles make it accessible for just about anyone who can wield a controller. Brothers is the rare game where the biggest challenge will be to your emotional stability, as opposed to anything involving game mechanics. I won't spoil anything here, although that's probably a bit redundant at this point. If people know only one thing about this game, it's the trail of broken hearts it has left in its wake. Don't let that discourage you from sharing this with your children, though. Kids, maybe more than anyone, need some melancholy in their art to prepare them for the miles ahead.
While I wouldn't say the game has much replay value, I did enjoy my second go quite a bit. I could autopilot the puzzles and really take in the beautiful art work and music. I love how abstract the game is, letting your imagination run freely. You'll come across the remains of a battlefield of literal giants, traversing their dead bodies, and the brothers seem relatively unfazed by the whole thing. Is this just a typical occurrence in their world? I don't know, and I like that I don't know.
So, should you buy this game? Absolutely. It's well worth the full price, but there's no shame in waiting for a sale. Times are lean. My only suggestion is to NOT buy the remake instead of this version. I'm sure there's nothing terribly wrong with it, but it doesn't need to exist in the first place. This game is absolutely stellar as it is, and looks and sounds fantastic. Yes, heaven forfend, it looks like a game released in 2013, and that's okay. It's great, even. We don't need to constantly retouch and resurface a game each time we hit a new hardware plateau. Part of the joy of art is in the nostalgia, and seeing a snapshot from a time and place that we either remember personally or wish we could have experienced first-hand. The endless remastering of art - especially when the original version gets delisted - is shredding our shared cultural memory like so much confetti.
So get this game, and this version in particular, while you still can.
