Recently my girlfriend has expressed interest in playing video games with me. We've been making our way through The Last Guardian slowly but surely, but decided to take a break from it to play something else.
I was looking through my old xbox 360 games for something to play when I stumbled upon Brothers. Now, I'd played it with my actual younger brother back in 2015, and I already considered it one of the greatest multiplayer experiences that I'd ever played, so I thought it was a no-brainer to pick that.
You might be asking, "But YaBish, isn't Brothers a single player game?"
In the technical sense, yes. But in the literal sense not so much. The best way to play this game is on a controller. This allows one player to control the older brother (left stick and left trigger), while the other player controls the younger brother (right stick and right trigger). This is important for reasons that I'll get into later.
We started up the game, and her investment in the story couldn't have been clearer. Game Director Josef Fares shows his film roots by hooking the player right off the bat emotionally. The stakes are high, but personal. These two boys have lost one parent already, and they're about to lose another. The simple control scheme was easy for my girlfriend to pick up, and she loved the early stages as the younger brother.
A fantastic aspect of the game is how differently the two brothers act, despite the player's input being fairly limited. The older brother will act with courtesy and politeness most of the time, while the younger brother has no qualms about causing a ruckus. One great implementation of this is in an early puzzle where the two brothers have to cross a bridge with a sleeping guardsman blocking their way. The older brother attempts to tap on his shoulder and politely ask him to let them across, but the guardsman shrugs him off. The younger brother's approach is bolder, tossing a bucket of water over the guardsman's head to make certain that he stays awake.
It's this dichotomy of approaches that allows each player (if you're playing multiplayer as I suggested) to fully invest in their character and step into the shoes of each brother. If you're my girlfriend, you begin to roleplay the little brother a little too much, and stop short on ledges so I can't jump across.
As the game progresses, the storytelling is masterfully conveyed through the fake "Simlish" of the characters. You can hear several words repeating, and you begin to contextualize what they mean and how the characters are using them. This quality gave the game a bit of a storybook feel in my opinion, something which would've been lost with regular voiced dialogue (ie. real languages).
The story takes several twists and turns, but there are just a few moments that I want to point out as especially powerful:
*HEAVY SPOILERS BELOW*
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1. The moment where after escaping the troll, you wander back out into the wilderness, and witness a man trying to hang himself. I had completely forgotten this moment in the game. As I realized it, I was frantically telling my girlfriend to climb the tree to loosen the rope. She almost choked, but we managed to save him. Afterwards, if you interact with him, both the brothers console them, which I thought was a nice touch.
Also, as far as I can tell, helping him is entirely optional.
2. Climbing up the giant's house was great fun, with the swinging rope mechanics in particular being particularly satisfying when playing with two people. When we got to the top, my girlfriend remarked that the owl/gryphon you free looks similar to Trico. The subsequent journey into the Valley of the Giant War and collapse of the bird creature were a stark tonal change and one that left my girlfriend feeling a little uneasy.
3. The moment where the brothers soak themselves in blood in order to imitate the deity of the cultists was a great spot of black comedy in my opinion. Definitely played well with the tone of that area.
4. My girlfriend caught on pretty early that there was something amiss about the girl we saved. When the girl nimbly walked across the tree branch, my gf laughed and commented "reminds me of The Exorcist." I played it off, but when it was later revealed that the girl was indeed a spider, she was excited/terrified that she called it.
5. Last but not least, I have to mention the Tree of Life, with the death of the older brother. This scene alone makes for some of the heaviest emotional moments that I've felt playing a video game. The sheer brilliance of taking away the older brother's control and pinning your hopes on the younger brother to save him is amplified when playing multiplayer. Watching him ascend the tree, and come all the way back, only to be too late to save his brother was heartwrenching.
Then the next scene tore my heart out of my chest. Forcing the player to bury their older brother is extremely bleak and more importantly, something that could only be accomplished in a game. When I played it with my younger brother, I cried. It's the closest approximation to loss that a game has ever been able to convey, both through storytelling and gameplay, as the left trigger and thumbstick are left without function, as lifeless as the brother that they once controlled.
At this point, my girlfriend started to break down. She refused to bury the older brother, tossing the controller on the floor, and leaving me no choice but to do the deed myself. Fortunately, I was able to get her to pick up the controller again for the last segment. The journey continues for the younger brother, and the return of the bird creature, while a bit of an Eagles from LOTR-style cop-out, really helped cement the arduous journey that you've travelled upon.
The trope of the brother being unable to perform certain tasks, while a bit overplayed in other media, is well utilized at the end of the game, as the left trigger regains function as a form of spirit guide for the younger brother, allowing him to force his way through swimming and climbing where it had been physically impossible. This serves both gameplay and storytelling purposes, showing the growth of the younger brother and letting the players know that his older brother and mother will always be with him in spirit.
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Brothers is not a perfect game. The camera controls can be a little wonky (especially so if you're playing with two people.) The puzzles are little too easy at times. But overall, if you want a gaming experience that is wholly unique, Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons is one of the most interesting, insightful, and poignant games you could choose. Just remember to grab somebody else to bring along with you for the ride.
If you've played it before, I'm more than curious what you thought of the game, and if you're as interested as I am in what Josef Fares does next. His studio that he founded (Hazelight) is supposedly working on a new game being published by EA, but nothing has really come from that in 2 years. Maybe an E3 reveal similar to Unravel is in the cards?
