Braid is a 2D puzzle platformer, in which the spatial depth the worlds lack is more than made up for with the depth of the story and puzzles. The plural "worlds" is not a typo, either. You will be traveling through several of them in the course of the game, though Braid is pretty short. The first world will introduce you to Tim, a suit-wearing young man who needs to find the Princess. You will also become acquainted with the cello and the rest of the excellent soundtrack that will accompany you - and change with you - for the remainder of your journey. You will read from the first couple of books and smile at Braid's bright, hand-painted art style. Then you'll walk through a door, and the rarely involved gears in your mind will begin to creak and spin. Braid is all about puzzles. You will solve puzzles to get puzzle pieces that will assemble jigsaw puzzles that will help you puzzle out the story and hopefully understand what Braid is really about. The puzzles are mostly based on space and time manipulation, are all reasonably solvable, and vary in principle from world to world. I could employ some more run on sentences to try and explain the puzzles at length, but I personally think they, like The Matrix, must been seen to be appreciated. I know I've never played anything like Braid before. And as for understanding what Braid is really about, I wonder if Jonathan Blow, the creator himself, knows that. If he does, he probably wouldn't be able to explain it. Even so, it's entirely possible to spoil it by talking about it too much, so I won't go beyond touching on an idea that the game, following the mechanics of braiding, may or may not include three intertwined storylines. Now go and play it. The princess is out there somewhere.
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