As the title suggests, here be spoilers if you haven't finished the XBox Live Arcade game Braid.
Best ending ever? If so, that speaks more to video games' Monty Pythonesque track record of crappy endings than to any transcendental quality of Braid. As great as the game is, it doesn't really come together in the end. The problem is that the story is both too obscure and too disconnected from the gameplay. You're never really sure what the story is about, nor how it relates (except allegorically) to what you're doing in the game. So when the rug gets pulled out from under you and you discover that Tim's actually the bad guy, it lacks the impact it could have had with a bit more connection of story and game.
Now that it's all over, I subscribe to the atomic bomb theory. But I can't say that I really care. Plenty of people are falling over themselves to praise Braid as high art. The gameplay and puzzle design deserve every accolade, but as for the story... it's unclear if the author himself really knew what the heck it was about. Which at least puts him on par with J.J. Abrams.
In summary... I recommend Braid be played, not read.
Posted by Peter at September 11, 2008 9:05 PM