PLEASE NOTE: The following is a non-biased review, based solely on my own impressions of the game after completion, and every sentenced should be taken with a grain of salt, as it only another opinion.
Star breeze studios has always been a bit of dark horse in the world of video gaming. they've steadily realised some decent games throughout the years, such as The darkness, syndicate and as of recent Payday 2, all of which have strived to be unique and introduce innovation in their own little ways. However to a gamer such as myself, none of them have ever struck gold in my eyes, until now with their latest product, Brothers: A tale of two sons.
Brothers: A tale of Two Sons PROS:
People have often loved to throw around the idea, of video games being a form of art? games such as Bioshock, Journey and Halo make easy testament to that analogy, however Brothers dares to go into a direction few video games have ever even considered. I'd be lying if I told you that I was one of those people that view video games as an art medium, however I'd also have to be a brain dead moron not to acknowledge the fact that most video games consist of at within them. Playing through the city of rapture isn't art, its a huge amount of pixels on a screen that move along a path as your finger does on the analog stick, however take of still photo of said path, and it can now be considered an art which could be hung on a wall. With that said Brothers has a brilliant colour palette with an art style that can put Rayman origins to shame at times, and whilst the graphics aren't ground breaking, its the visual art-style that will have you in awe.
Brothers goes deliberately out of its way to attach you to the characters you're playing as, and the most surprising thing is, is that it does so without speaking a word of english or any known language for the matter throughout the entire 3 hour adventure, and yet by the time I was done with game I felt closer to these two brothers, than most other video game characters I've played in games that easily span over the 10 hours of gameplay that use the native english language, impressive.
Brothers communicates to its audience throughout the use of emotion, action and a deep brotherly relationship, that most people with younger or older sibling. And by the time the credits role, you may feel a little heart struck.
But perhaps what really grabbed my attention about Brothers, was its bizarre yet unique style of controls. The game has you controlling both brothers using each analog stick to control each character. The idea is fresh and works really well, especially when the game has you using both brothers to defeat bosses and solve puzzles, that whilst aren't hard will certainly have you questioning where you're thumbs should be. It should also be noted that you're linear adventure is full of interactivity, and smaller side quests which will help you to gain all the achievements/trophies in the game which aren't all that hard. For example, the game rewarded me with a nice 20 gamer-score for simply dumping a rabbit into a pile of coal, in which turned a white rabbit, into a black one.....how odd.
Brothers: A tale of Two Sons CONS:
Often the concern of buying a game is asking yourself the question, am I really getting enough bang for my buck? When it comes to Brothers A tales Of Two Sons, that question can be quite worrying. Given the game ask's $15 for an adventure that can be completed in under 3 hours or heck even 2!( including side missions) $15 can be quite a pinch to your bank account considering the library of games available to consumers that ask less, can spam well over 3 hours. Whilst I was impressed with the overall game right through to the credits, I did feel a little empty with content, it sure would of been nice had the game provided the player a few more puzzles, as most of them are far and few and can be completed way too easily, considering the game ever so slightly increases with difficulty. This can be a real shame given the amount of potential the developers could of played around with, given the game's brilliant concept. Other than that, and initially trying to figure out how to control the two brothers my complaints about this game are much like it's puzzles, "far and few".
Brothers: A tale of Two Sons VERDICT:
Brothers: a tale of two sons, is far from any game you've played before, however this can go one of two ways depending on who's playing it, for me it was simply amazing, and to say it deserves anything less than a "Great" 8/10 would be me making a mockery of myself and lying throughout my teeth. And whilst I'am not praising the game for being game of the year or anything, I highly recommend any gamer that has an appreciation for a deep emotional tale, with a brilliant art palette and a interesting control scheme, to immediately invest their money/time into this game. We can only hope that Starbreeze recognises this game's brilliance and continues to develop innovating experiences such as this one.