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Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

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Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Developer(s)Starbreeze Studios
Publisher(s)505 Games
EngineUnreal Engine 3
Platform(s)Xbox Live Arcade
Steam
PlayStation Network
ReleaseXbox Live Arcade
7 August 2013[1]
Steam
3 September 2013[1]
PlayStation Network
3 September 2013[1]
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a downloadable story-driven adventure video game developed by Starbreeze Studios and published by 505 Games released on 7 August 2013 for the Xbox Live Arcade and on 3 September 2013[1] for Steam and PlayStation Network.

Gameplay

The gameplay revolves around the interaction between the two brothers with each other and the world. They must overcome obstacles and solve puzzles by working together. The player controls each brother with one of the analog sticks, allowing each character to move freely and individually. There are also individual action buttons for each brother.

NPCs will have different reactions when interacting with each brother, where sometimes only one of the brothers can get specific information from specific NPCs.

Plot

The story begins with a boy named Naiee paying his respects at his mother's tombstone, who drowned at sea while he tried to save her. His elder brother, Nyaa, calls him to help their ill father to the village's doctor, who in turn tells them the only way to save him is by collecting the waters from the Tree of Life. The brothers embark on their journey through the village, hills and mountains, while facing challenges such as the local bully, a farmer's dog and wolves. They also help others along the way of their own adventure such as reuniting a friendly pair of trolls, saving a man attempting suicide, and aiding an inventor.

Eventually they reach a giants' castle and free a badly injured gryphon who helps them before succumbing to its injuries. The brothers press on through a valley of dead giants that went to war and save a girl from being sacrificed by tribesmen. The girl in turn helps them travel the glaciers avoiding killer whale-like fish and helping giant sea turtles. They arrive at an old town that was in the middle of a battle before everyone suddenly froze to death and the trio have to escape from an invisible beast that stalks the ruins of the town. After successfully defeating the monster, the girl starts romancing Nyaa and tricks them to go into a cave, much to Naiee's dismay. Once inside she reveals herself as a monstrous spider and while trying to eat Nyaa, the brothers manage to thwart and kill her by pulling off her legs, but not before she mortally wounds Nyaa.

Nearing the end of their journey they at last reach the Tree of Life and Naiee ventures on to reach the top of the tree, he collects the Water of Life but as he returns to the bottom, Nyaa has died from his injuries. The younger brother, unable to revive him using the water, buries and grieves for him before returning to the village aided by another gryphon. Upon reaching the shoreline, Naiee has to face his fear of drowning due to his memory of his mother. His mother's spirit appears to comfort him and with the aid of Nyaa's spiritual guidance, Naiee is able to overcome his fear and swims to the village where he finally gives the doctor the water. The father recovers from his illness. A short time afterwards, the father and Naiee mourn at the tombstones of both the mother and Nyaa while a gryphon flies on into the mountains.

Development

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, formerly known as P13, was being developed by Starbreeze Studios and was the first game to come from a publishing partnership with 505 Games.[2] The game uses the Unreal Engine 3[3] and was being developed in collaboration with the Swedish award-winning film director Josef Fares.[4]

Reception

Brothers won the award for Best Xbox Game at the 2013 VGX Award Show (formerly Spike Video Game Awards; VGAs), in competition with Grand Theft Auto V, BioShock Infinite and Tomb Raider.[5]

There have been numerous positive previews for Brothers, and parallels have been drawn with Journey and Fable. IGN said that Brothers "might be the best downloadable title since Journey".[4] 1up said "I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into when I met with Swedish film director Josef Fares a few months back. I knew it had something to do with Starbreeze, a studio that Matt Leone deconstructed in one of last year's phenomenal cover stories. But film directors transitioning into video games have had a less-than stellar record. Look at the Wachowskis, Spielberg, John Woo...let's just say that their cinematic outputs far outweigh their video game analogues. So what could a film director possibly show me in a video game that would impress me during the busiest season in our medium? Well, it turns out that Fares was prepared to debut a downloadable title called Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and that it was about to command my utmost attention."[6]

GamesMaster's James Nouch rated a preview of the game 2/5 saying, "Brothers is a charming, emotive adventure that flows at its own rather sedate, pace",[7] but in their final review GamesMaster gave it a 91/100 writing, "Short but immensely satisfying, it's Ico meets Limbo in Fable's world. In a word: spellbinding."[7] Edge gave it a 7/10 in its review. It praised the visual style, pace and story, as well as the controls, saying that the control scheme "understands what it means to communicate meaning through interaction"; but it criticised Starbreeze's lack of confidence in making an art game.[8] UK's GamesTM magazine gave Brothers a score of 8/10 in its review in issue 137.[9] Joystiq gave it full score in its review, 5/5. Joystiq's Ludwig Kietzmann says: "It's rare for a game to forge a connection so strong, and even rarer for you to become the connective tissue."[10] Official Xbox Magazine UK praised the game and its touching story and inventive controls. They gave it a review score of 9/10.[11] The Digital Fix also praised the game and gave it 10/10, with Rob Kershaw writing "Brothers is nothing short of a triumph, glowing brightly in the embers of the dying fire of this console generation and reminding us all why we started playing games in the first place."[12]GameTrailers.com rated the game 88/100 in their positive review, writing "A Tale of Two Sons rubs elbows with Ico and Journey, though the setting and style are a bit more traditional."[13] Sweden's biggest gaming site FZ.se honored the game with 5/5 in its review, describing it as a masterpiece with a very touching story, extremely beautiful landscapes and inventive, well implemented controls.[14]

Both IGN and PC Gamer forecasts that Brothers can be one of the best games of 2013. IGN states this with "It's no secret that we love Journey. It was our Game of the Year for 2012, after all. And we quite love Fable too [...]. So to combine the two into one cinematic, story-driven experience – one written and directed by a decorated Swedish filmmaker – meant our interest was piqued. And after we saw the game, we knew: this is going to be good. Really, really good."[15] PC Gamer said "this could easily shape up to be one of the indie darlings of 2013."[16] TotalBiscuit named the game his "Game of the Year 2013"[17] and highly recommended in to anyone who has the means to purchase it.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Suszek, Mike (7 August 2013). "Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons kommer PSN och PC Steam den 3 September". Retrieved 28 August 2013.
  2. ^ "Starbreeze AB acquires P13 Project". Reuters. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  3. ^ Kain, Erik (27 September 2012). "'Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons' Looks Gorgeous, Comes To PC And Consoles Next Spring". Forbes. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  4. ^ a b McCaffrey, Ryan (29 October 2012). "Is Starbreeze's Brothers the next Journey". IGN. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  5. ^ Spike VGX Awards 2013
  6. ^ Sliva, Marty (31 October 2012). "Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Demands Your Divided Attention". 1up.
  7. ^ a b Nouch, James (February 2013). "Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Preview". GamesMaster (260): 56. Cite error: The named reference "gmaster" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons". Edge (260): 122. July 2013.
  9. ^ "Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons". GamesTM(137): 137. August 2013
  10. ^ Joystiq.com 7 August 2013
  11. ^ Official Xbox Magazine UK. 7 August 2013.
  12. ^ The Digital Fix. 7 August 2013.
  13. ^ GameTrailer.com - Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons. Aug 7, 2013.
  14. ^ Review - Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, FZ.se. Aug 7, 2013.
  15. ^ McCaffrey, Ryan (28 December 2012). "The Final Year of Xbox360". IGN. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  16. ^ "The best PC games of 2013". Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  17. ^ [1]
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