If you plot my emotional engagement/enjoyment over the course of playing this game it would be a steady rise for the most part. The beginning is slow and the "puzzles" are easy. As the two brothers make their way toward and through town, you start to see how the unique, one analog stick for each brother control mechanic can be used in interesting ways. I learned the personalities of these two people, how much they care for one another, how they interact with other people and with each other, and I did this all through the medium of the control scheme. That is Brothers' greatest achievement. The input method informed the story. That is just great game design. Their journey leads them through many fun and/or engaging moments that build off of each other superbly for the most part. The combination of the unique controls and the constantly escalating moments had me engaged.
Then you meet the girl. Firstly, she is introduced as a typical damsel in distress; tied to a pole, clearly about to be a sacrifice for the group of tribal people with spears, chanting around her. Like males are wont to do for females in video games, the brothers save her (in a quite strange manner). This begins a kind of chase sequence where you follow her around various locales avoiding monsters and finding out subtly that she may not be your typical video game damsel in distress. Ledges that you have to struggle to balance on she practically skips across. This was definitely a design decision, as well. The animations all suggest that this is of utmost ease to her. At this point I was starting to really like her and apparently the older brother was starting to as well.
Sadly, this is where I began my steady decline of enjoyment for the game. The older brother, blinded by lust for this now blatantly flirty girl, leads the trio into a cave system at the girl's behest. Once inside the cave, the girl turns into a giant spider. For no apparent reason. And, as giant spider-ladies are wont to do in video games, she fights a boss battle with you. At the end of this increasingly depressing boss battle where you methodically rip all her legs off one by one as she hobbles around the arena, more and more crippled and pathetic with each dismemberment, she manages to stab the older brother with one of her poison fangs. By this point I had checked out.
The designers seemed to know the story they wanted to tell, but just couldn't find a way to get to the places they needed to go. "Well, we know the older brother has to die, but gosh darn if I can't think of a way to kill him off," I imagine one designer saying to the other. "How about we take the girl and we make her into a giant spider! Then she can bite the boy and kill him slowly with her poison. Is solves everything!" Indeed it does, imaginary game designers in my head. But it does so out of nowhere, blindsiding the player with one of the most overused of boring video game tropes: the giant spider. Kiss of the giant spider woman ex machina.
I feel like this was one the elements of the ending that the devs just didn't earn. Spider woman out of nowhere kills the brother who dies at the base of the maguffin tree. Then, of course, comes the painfully plodding burial scene where you are forced to drag your brother's body excruciatingly slowly into a hole then, step after slow, heavy-handed step walk around the grave and push dirt into it. They may as well have put text on the screen that said in bold letters, "ISN'T THIS SAD? YOU CAN CRY NOW. GOSH, THIS IS SO SAD."
Thankfully, the game does have one last trick up its sleeve. After the tortuous burial sequence, the young brother makes his way home. The feeling of only having to move the one stick struck me as poignant and drove home the impact of the loss the younger brother had experienced. In order to get home though, the young sibling must cross a body of water which, due to witnessing the drowning of his mother at the beginning of the game, he had not been able to do without his brother's help to this point in the game. As a player I steered the young brother to approach the body of water, but the character on the screen stopped at the shoreline, simply shaking his head, terrified. So I briefly tried to find a way around, hoping that wasn't the solution to this puzzle. Thankfully it wasn't the solution; I had to find a way through the water. I stared at the screen for a few seconds, the terrified child at water's edge refusing to obey. Then, almost reflexively, I squeezed the interact button for the dead brother. Astoundingly, the younger brother dove in and swam across. It was beautiful and it's a moment that makes this game worth playing.
In my opinion, that perfect moment should have happened one time. Unfortunately, the devs decided to drive the point home so it happens 2 more times before we reach the end of the game a few minutes later. I believe this is a lack of confidence in their design choices. They felt like they had a truly wonderful moment of gameplay and instead of letting the moment be what it was, they had to have the moment a couple of more times just to make sure the players understand what was happening. They even go so far as to have the dead brother's disembodied voice call out the younger brother's name when it happens. We knew what was happening the moment we pressed the interact button at the river, but the devs weren't positive we got it so they made it as obvious and ham-fisted as possible. Like a comedian on stage who delivers a truly funny joke, then explains the punch line to the audience to make sure they "got it". It takes away from the perfection of the initial moment with each repeat. It would have carried even more weight, in my opinion, if we never needed to use the dead brother's interact button again after the first time. He found his strength through his brother and from then on the strength was in him.
In wrapping up, I want to be clear. I believe this is a good game that deserves to be played. I believe that it demonstrates what many developers seem to consistently forget; a button press can be worth a thousand cutscenes. I believe that game design students should be forced to study this game, not just for its triumphs, but for its many (in my opinion) flaws. I also believe that there was potential to be a truly timeless, classic game, but that potential was squandered on tired tropes, non-sequitur story beats (well, one at least....giant evil spider lady...), and a lack of developer confidence (confidence both in their design, and confidence that the player "gets it"). This is a good game that could have been great. I know am virtually alone in that opinion. I'm cool with it.
Thankfully, the game does have one last trick up its sleeve. After the tortuous burial sequence, the young brother makes his way home. The feeling of only having to move the one stick struck me as poignant and drove home the impact of the loss the younger brother had experienced. In order to get home though, the young sibling must cross a body of water which, due to witnessing the drowning of his mother at the beginning of the game, he had not been able to do without his brother's help to this point in the game. As a player I steered the young brother to approach the body of water, but the character on the screen stopped at the shoreline, simply shaking his head, terrified. So I briefly tried to find a way around, hoping that wasn't the solution to this puzzle. Thankfully it wasn't the solution; I had to find a way through the water. I stared at the screen for a few seconds, the terrified child at water's edge refusing to obey. Then, almost reflexively, I squeezed the interact button for the dead brother. Astoundingly, the younger brother dove in and swam across. It was beautiful and it's a moment that makes this game worth playing.
In my opinion, that perfect moment should have happened one time. Unfortunately, the devs decided to drive the point home so it happens 2 more times before we reach the end of the game a few minutes later. I believe this is a lack of confidence in their design choices. They felt like they had a truly wonderful moment of gameplay and instead of letting the moment be what it was, they had to have the moment a couple of more times just to make sure the players understand what was happening. They even go so far as to have the dead brother's disembodied voice call out the younger brother's name when it happens. We knew what was happening the moment we pressed the interact button at the river, but the devs weren't positive we got it so they made it as obvious and ham-fisted as possible. Like a comedian on stage who delivers a truly funny joke, then explains the punch line to the audience to make sure they "got it". It takes away from the perfection of the initial moment with each repeat. It would have carried even more weight, in my opinion, if we never needed to use the dead brother's interact button again after the first time. He found his strength through his brother and from then on the strength was in him.
In wrapping up, I want to be clear. I believe this is a good game that deserves to be played. I believe that it demonstrates what many developers seem to consistently forget; a button press can be worth a thousand cutscenes. I believe that game design students should be forced to study this game, not just for its triumphs, but for its many (in my opinion) flaws. I also believe that there was potential to be a truly timeless, classic game, but that potential was squandered on tired tropes, non-sequitur story beats (well, one at least....giant evil spider lady...), and a lack of developer confidence (confidence both in their design, and confidence that the player "gets it"). This is a good game that could have been great. I know am virtually alone in that opinion. I'm cool with it.
