Now Playing: A Tale of Two Sons

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons was another Steam sale purchase. It’s a third person adventure/puzzle game with some platform elements and an emphasis on character and narrative. Two young brothers embark on a quest to save their dying father. At least I think he’s dying. He’s probably dying.

All the characters speak in a fictional ‘sims’ style language, so the story is really told through the way characters interact, their body language, tone of voice and expression. It’s all very nicely done and works well at conveying exactly what the player needs to know without directly explaining things.

The lack of any sort of hand holding also extends to the gameplay. You’re told how to control each brother and from then on it’s entirely in your own hands. That said, the game is so simple and easy that it’s not like you’d need prompting every time you hit a puzzle, but it’s nice for a change for a game to trust the player to figure things out on their own.

The controls are simple. One stick for each brother’s movement, and a trigger each to interact. It’s a little awkward at first coordinating each brother independently, especially if you’re used to using one stick for camera movement, but you soon get the hang of it. The game plays out like a co-op for someone without any friends, one in which you control both characters simultaneously. You’ll need both brothers working together to progress, and the way they interact with each other and the environments is very cleverly integrated into the platform and puzzle segments.

Unfortunately, as neat as these sections are, they’re simply not at all challenging, and the mechanics never expand or grow more complex as the game progresses. You’re introduced to maybe 2 or 3 new ways of interacting over the course of the game, but generally, everything you’ll learn within the opening prologue and first chapter is pretty much it. This is a real shame, because the action/puzzle segments are very nicely designed and fun (if easy) to complete.

Graphically, Brothers is a very nice looking game, with some lovely, highly detailed environments, many of which have small, interactive elements for the player to explore. The setting is also good, a lush, fantasy landscape with all sorts of wonderful creatures to encounter – some friendly, some not so much. The game also does a great job of keeping the environments varied from one location to the next, and it’s all quite tightly paced.

That said, the game is easily completed in about three hours and has pretty much zero replay value. And whilst I enjoyed the puzzle and platform segments (and even a couple of fun little boss fights, believe it or not) it feels like the majority of the gameplay consists of simply pressing forward on both control sticks, watching as the brothers run along a (very lovely) linear path from one cut-scene to the next. You’ll hit a neat puzzle here and there along the way, but these are usually completed in a couple of seconds, and then it’s back to pressing down the sticks.

I hate to say it, but I got a little bored playing Brothers. As much as the two characters can interact with the environment and each other, a lot of the time I felt rather disconnected from the game. Like it was an adventure I was watching, rather than participating in. There’s one moment you find some goats to ride up a mountain. It seemed like fun, until I realised the brothers raced along two set paths and all I had to do was hold down both sticks. Hell, a couple of times during a ‘the brothers slide down something’ moment, I just let go of the control sticks entirely to see if it would make any difference. It didn’t, of course, the game just played itself without me.

And because I found the gameplay not particularly engaging, the narrative never really had as much impact as perhaps it should. Like I said, this wasn’t a story I felt I was involved in, or had any real influence in, I was just along for the ride.

But Brothers is still a pretty neat little game. It’s got a great setting, a lovely art style and graphics and some genuinely clever puzzles combined with a unique and interesting gameplay mechanic. It’s just a shame that the gameplay never increases in complexity or depth as the game progresses. If you’re looking for something a little different, something you can sit down and play one rainy afternoon then it’s certainly worth checking out.

6/10