Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Breaking the conventions that games are built around is a dangerous business. Such experiments often win brownie points for being differentiating themselves from the same ol’, same ol’ shooter, but new ideas often stumble under the weight of expectation, failing to be precise enough to compete with the stereotypes that many games have had ages to perfect. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons excels under these conditions, offering inventive solutions to their gameplay, which strips away traditional mechanics to tell a more unique story.
Best described as an adventure game, Brothers has players guide the titular twosome using the thumbsticks, giving each sibling their respective stick so that players can guide the two brothers at the same time. This makes guiding the characters through their magical fantasy world an experience in and of itself. Simply traversing the world is like rubbing your belly while tapping your head, a test in your ambidextrous skills. After mastering walking through the world, players then engage in the wonderful puzzles that Starbreeze has put together. These puzzles often involve having the brothers work together to get through obstacles, or around dangers.
Each setting of Brothers sweeps players to absolutely gorgeous settings, capturing the magic that eludes so many games which are too busy being grandiose and photorealistic. Each section of the world toys with elemental ideas like size and terrain, making sure that players stay constantly enamored with the game. While they may sometimes be clichéd settings, it is what Brothers does with these settings that helps set them apart from other fantasy games.
Brothers manages to tell an effective story in a unique way, leaving dialogue and superstar voice work in the dust. Starbreeze tells their story through the actions of the characters and its camera, which is stunning effort few modern games would dare to attempt. Not only is it a brave choice, it’s a smart choice, whether it is communicating the next leg of their journey to the player or the two Brothers arguing about the road forward, you connect to what the characters do and what the camera tells you. Without speaking a word of dialogue the deft hand of Sweedish filmmaker Josef Fares tells a story with more emotional impact than almost any other title released this year
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons merges story and gameplay in a union that is rarely matched in games. It shrugs off what many players have come to expect from fantasy games and tries to come up with something new, even better it actually succeeds in what it was attempting. The work that Brothers exemplifies is some of the finest this year, it takes players through an emotional story while still beautifully weaving its gameplay into devastatingly gorgeous scenes. In an industry that is often accused of stagnation and lack of creativity it is exciting to see something so daring be so done with such excellence.
Year Walk
People can argue the validity of the mobile gaming scene, and there is plenty to argue. It is rare that games are made for iOS or Andriod devices exhibit the care and quality that one would expect from console or PC titles. There is definitely a large library of great games on mobile devices, but they usually end up scratching an arcade itch, much like Ridiculous Fishing or Plants Vs. Zombies. That being said, there is significant development in the mobile gaming market every year, and this year the most impressive game the platform had to offer was the puzzler-thriller from the incredible team at Simogo, Year Walk.
Basing their premise on an old Scandinavian legend of how people who would starve and dehydrate themselves for days, then strip naked and wander into the wilderness to see into the future, Year Walk tells an eerie narrative. Simogo takes a dark spin on the old new year tradition, having the player hallucinations turn into strange monsters and haunting ghosts which grow ever-stranger and more terrifying as you wander down the rabbit hole of Year Walk’s fascinating premise. Year Walk sucks you in with it’s mysteriousness and its engaging atmosphere, creating a mobile experience that is almost impossible to find anywhere else.
Much like Simogo’s later release, Device 6, Year Walk is a game that you play even when you have set it down, or tucked it back into your pocket. It’s puzzles are unforgiving in their challenge, daring you to forget about them with their intriguing premise, but difficult enough that you will often find yourself scratching your head. It is a daring move on the part Simogo to challenge players in this manner, but it makes the end result all the more rewarding as the puzzles of Year Walk conclude with delicious jump scares or skin crawling revelations.
It is hard to find games that make your hair stand on end, but Year Walk uses it’s mobile platform to suck you in. Horror games played on console or PC can be escaped by taking off your headphones, but since you will find yourself playing Year Walk in public places, you are forced to confront your fears while being holistically sucked into the atmosphere. And what an atmosphere it is. From crunch of the snow beneath your feet, to the bizarre, disturbingly beautiful style of art, Year Walk is an atmospheric treasure as all true thrillers are.
The immersion becomes complete after you download the companion app and start to dig deeper into the mysteries. It is in this companion app that you can really start to get lost in the game’s chilling narrative, and unlock the final secrets that Simogo has tucked away for you. Just when you think you have unraveled the games final mysteries, there is always one more trick up Simogo’s sleeve to keep you off balance and ruminating on the game’s haunting themes.
Year Walk is a mobile triumph, ignoring the commonplace ideas about what the mobile platform is the game begs players to follow them down their rabbit hole and discover the true wonders the game has to offer. It is hard to find games that can wrap up your mind as completely as Year Walk does, but it is a tribute to the smart choices made by the developers. Simogo uses the mobile platform to their benefit and come away all the better for daring to venture where most developers would not, be them mobile or otherwise. This insanely clever studio dares to think outside the box and recognizes that the mobile platform is not better or worse, but it is a completely different animal and must be treated as such. Everyone with a iPhone owes to themselves to take an evening this new year, put on some headphones, turn off the lights, and embark on one of the most spine-tingling adventures 2013 had to offer.
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