(mashedmarket)

If playing the first three zones in Braid has taught me anything so far, it’s that time and the human mind are a lot like oil and water — they don’t mix. Sure, I can solve the temporal puzzles being thrown at me…but when it comes to interpreting these in a meaningful, narrative fashion, there’s some very real disconnect.

Maybe it’s developer Jonathan Blow’s voice that’s the problem. By coloring the experience with textual meditations prior to each level, he’s throwing words around like some kind of ventriloquist. His dummy text becomes the center of critical attention, where what we should really be examining is his artful designer’s puppeteering. Of course, Braid‘s mechanics HAVE received a lot of acclaim quite apart from the game’s writing. I just think these design aspects are more than capable of speaking for themselves without the assist.

And what they’re saying is a lot about regret, hope, and, well, precision. This last bit seems particularly strange and intriguing to me: few people treat time as a serious, concrete thing. We have very little reason to measure it with such a high degree of exactitude as demanded by this game. But in Braid, time is a switchboard, a coil, a gadget to be fiddled with. It just won’t do much of anything special unless you’re extremely careful to manage it.

Hopefully I’ll master this task soon so I can better evaluate what kind of statement this element makes in the broader context of the game. Perhaps in the end Blow’s ambling text will end up being a perfect complement to Braid‘s demanding machinations.