Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is one of the most memorable games ever made. The story is absolutely beautiful and even without comprehensible dialogue, the emotions and motivations of the two main characters pour through. You play as two siblings trying to save their dying father. Mature subjects like death, loss, and accepting their inevitability are portrayed in a fascinating manner throughout the experience. The varied visuals create a surreal environment that is a treat to explore. Every aspect of the game, especially the musical score, draws you into this mysterious and dangerous world.
A unique feature from the game has to be how you control both siblings at the same time. Each stick moves one of the brothers and holding the trigger buttons makes them interact with the environment. The gameplay is filled with transversal and problem solving challenges. It takes some time to adjust to controlling two characters at once as we are accustomed to seeing only one protagonist at all times in other games. The first few moments of the title can be confusing but eventually you master the controls.
You would expect the controls to be complex considering that you maneuver two characters are once. Thankfully, they are not. The actions are dependent on the context and that makes playing the game easier. It is hard to control two characters at once and having to worry about different buttons would have been a detriment to the gameplay. Additionally, because both of the brothers interact with objects differently, you learn quite a lot about them by the way they use the same item. Not only do the context-sensitive triggers simplify the controls, but they also serves as a unique storytelling technique.
As mention earlier, the visuals are a sight to behold. Your adventure begins in a Norse village filled with simple people. You eventually explore bloody battlefields, dangerous frozen lakes, high castles, and dark prisons. The game does not recycle environments and always throws you into a new place that is even more exciting and wondrous than the last. The art has to be one of the best features of this title.
There are also important choices you can make throughout the game. There are countless people who need assistance and it is up to you to help them or walk away. I spoke with some of my friends who also played this game and we all agreed that the decision to save a man about to hang himself was the most moving and powerful. You can keep on walking and let him die or you can cut him down. This adds another layer of depth to the game and makes the environments you go through feel alive and complex.
There are numerous side quests and other interactions that add to replayability. I initially was just powering through areas but once I decided to take a break and look around and see what else was going on, the game become more personal and enjoyable. You should not rush through Brothers and make every effort to explore and interact with the humans and animals that populate the landscape.
Unfortunately, there are some issues that detract from the experience. Sometimes when you reach certain checkpoints, you lose control of one of the brothers and have to restart the game. Apart from that, even though the game made the jump to next-generation hardware, the character models and many of the textures look blocky and blurry. While the controls can be fixed, the textures will remain the same. When a game makes it way to new hardware, there should be a greater level of polish. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons seems unchanged and that might be an issue for many gamers who wish to experience this title hoping for a more refined experience.
Overall, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a fascinating experience that gamers looking for a challenge should try out. The emotions, visual variety and sense of awe make it an unforgettable experience. A few years ago, Phil Spencer stated that Brothers was one of his most favorite games. After playing the title from start to finish, I finally understand why he said so. Every Xbox One owners should play this game and I cannot recommend it enough despite its minor flaws.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.