This is part one of four part series in which I will be reviewing all the games available in this years Xbox Live Summer of Arcade Promotion. The first is Starbreeze Studios heart warming adventure, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.
As the name suggests, Brothers star you a pair of young siblings. Having already lost their mother to the fierce seas, the brothers are desperate not to let their father go as well and they travel across the world in search of the missing ingredient for the cure to his ailment. Although the game has no dialogue other than very loose gibberish spoken by all characters, the story is easy to follow through the interactions of the siblings. Older brother is the strong and sensible one, asking people politely for directions and letting the younger brother cling to him as they swim across rivers; this is due to the younger brothers fear of water ever since their mum passed away and he was powerless to help. He is the more mischievous of the two, throwing water in the faces of sleeping pedestrians and generally being a rascal, however he has his uses, he is able to fit in smaller spaces than his bigger brother. Each of the brothers are very charming and despite the aforementioned lack of dialogue, you will grow to care about their plight over the course of the three to four hour adventure.
As you traverse the world, you will visit all manner of locales and come across some truly unique tasks, such as using a giants help to get across a series of cliffs or flying on the back of a mythical creature. The world is alive with a very vibrant colour palette and a semi cel-shaded approach that matches the gentle nature of the game perfectly.
What makes the game unique is in its control system, it’s not rare for a game to star you as more than one protagonist, however I cannot think of another game that has you directly controlling two characters at once, and it is on this hook that the game draws you in. Using a thumbstick and a trigger for each brother, you control them both simultaneously. The controls are certainly unique, and can take a fair bit of getting used to, for about the first hour of the game my brain and hands did not want to work in tandem at all, however, when it does gel and you are seamlessly controlling both characters at once to solve all manner of puzzles, the game really satisfies.
The game really revolves around these puzzles, requiring you to use the brothers in tandem to make your way across the world. The game is fairly gentle natured and checkpointing is frequent, meaning failure is only a momentary setback. As for the puzzles themselves, they start out fairly straightforward and get steadily more complex as the game progresses, but even towards the end they rarely frustrate or insult. There are a couple of head scratchers, but use a bit of patience and logic and you will find the answer soon enough. It is a great story to play on a relaxed weekend or when the kids are there.
The game does suffer from one quite sizable issue in its depth. As mentioned at the top of the review, the story clocks in at only about four hours maximum, which is short even for an Xbox Live Arcade game. That would be okay if there were a wealth of other modes, but there aren’t. Your only option once you have finished the story is to play it through again. It is for this reason I suspect that Starbreeze made all of the achievements attached to the game missable, optional quests. If the game provided you with every achievement just for completing it, there would be little reason to go back. However, in my first playthrough of the game I only picked up one achievement, meaning that score junkies and players who want to experience everything the game has to offer will be tempted with a second playthrough. Even with this though, 1200 Microsoft points is steep given the lack of content. A price tag of maybe 800 may have been more appropriate.
Overall, Brothers is a fun, coming of age tale that can be enjoyed by both adults and children alike. It is a relaxing, endearing experience and is more than worthy of a weekend of your time. The only main drawback is the content to cost ratio which could be better, it’s likely why the game was included in the Summer of Arcade promotion.
As mentioned Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is out now for 1200 MS Points on the Xbox marketplace. The next Summer of Arcade game is Charlie Murder, a side scrolling 2D beat-em-up which launches on 14.8.2013 for 800 MSP. You can check out launch trailer for both games below.
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