Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Now this is a game that you might not have heard of.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a single player cinematic driven game on the Xbox Live Arcade, Steam, and the Playstation Network.  Throughout the game, the player follows the story of a younger and older brother who must work together to find a cure for their dying father.  Haunted by the premature death of their mother, they must overcome the obstacles of fantasy world if their journey is to succeed.

I think the coolest part of this game are the mechanics.  The player controls each brother with their corresponding joystick on the controller.  It makes the gameplay rather interesting when you have to control two free moving characters at the same time.  It becomes even more interesting when there are two different tasks that you have to accomplish at the same time.  This actually turns out to be a very fun game.

The amount of thinking involved in controlling two characters is phenomenal.  I've found myself stop for a moment just to figure out what I have to press so I don't mess up.  This game isn't really hard, but it is set up in a way that could make it insanely difficult.  It incorporates puzzle elements as well as a certain skill element all into a cinematic friendly game.

I've been thinking about the gameplay elements in this game and I think that there is a hidden meaning behind why they made them.  The story is about two brothers on their journey to save their father.  To overcome obstacles, there is a not-so-hidden theme of teamwork that is crucial to progress.  I personally think that the gameplay mechanics are a direct hint at this theme.  In fact, I find this to be a rather ironic mechanic as well. 

This is a single player game where the player controls two characters.  What's funny is that you have to make the two characters work together, which is harder than it may seem.  I think that the developers were trying to show the player that it is harder to do work that two people were meant to do as one person.  In other words, it's hard to do a job that requires teamwork as one person.  Having all of the power doesn't mean you are able to control it.

I'm sure that there is some kind of psychological study out there about the number of tasks that the brain can handle at once, but here it is obvious that two tasks may be pushing it.  I would argue that most games require one player to do two tasks at once.  However, these tasks are not as poignant as the ones in Brothers. 

I think this game is really cool.  Whether it's the fact that it makes me think in ways that I haven't before or that it looks absolutely beautiful, I think that Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons should have more of an audience than it currently does.