Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Review- Two Brothers Must Embark On A Journey Where Their Bond Will Be Tested To Try and Save Their Father

Written by Brandon Hofer on August 18, 2015

Reviews: Navigate a dangerous world around you with your brother as you work together to get the cure for your father.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a story about a family that has endured some rough times and it doesn’t appear as if it is going to get any better. The two brothers have a father who has become very ill and the only way he can survive is by getting a special medicine so the two brothers set out on an adventure to obtain what they need to help their father. The story has its ups and downs with there being some really happy and fun moments as you make your across the world along some with some really sad and dark moments.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is unique mostly because of its gameplay. As you make your way through the game you have to solve puzzles to overcome obstacles but the way you do it is what makes this game unique. There are two brothers that you must control with the oldest brother being controlled with the left analog stick and the younger brother being controlled with the right stick. It is probably going to take you a little while to really wrap your head around that but it is imperative that the brothers work together in order to survive this adventure. One of my favorite moments was when we were trying to scale a mountain and each brother had one end of a rope tied to him. To get to where we needed to go I had to have the younger brother use the older brother like a pendulum so he could swing to where he needed to go and then the older brother would do the same with the younger brother. Each brother also had their own skill sets and could take advantage of different situations. If there was a big switch that needed to be use the older brother would need to use it because he was stronger but if there was a small space to get through you would have to use the younger brother because, well, he was smaller. Neither brother can stray too far from the other at any time which also adds another dimension to the puzzles that you will encounter. You always have to be thinking about what you are doing. To lower a gate using the older brother, for example, you need to be constantly holding down the left trigger while you control the younger brother with the right stick to cross to where you are. If you let go of that left trigger too early then your brother isn’t going to make it over to you and he might die and you have to restart at your last checkpoint. This game is all about multitasking and you need to make sure you are on point with everything that both of the brothers are doing.

There is no combat in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons but there are ways to fail an area and have to restart at a checkpoint. It could be you let go of a button when you weren’t supposed to and one of the brothers fell down a cliff or you weren’t quick enough with one of them when you are being chased by something. As you progress through the game you will notice that it is a really nice looking game with some gorgeous vistas. There were a few occasions where I told my Kinect to snap a screenshot, which I might end up using for the background wallpaper on my Xbox One. The environments are varied as you go through the game which I appreciated as I never felt like I was bored because I was stuck in the same type of place for too long. The audio and the music were also enjoyable as I went through this although the characters don’t really talk all that much and when they do it is a gibberish that you can’t understand. The only real complaint I have with the game is that when a scene would load it seemed like it would take a second or two longer then it should and you would see some graphical pop in. Other than that though the game ran and played just fine.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a story about the bond of family and, more specifically, two brothers as they risk their lives trying to find the cure that will help their father recover. The game is relatively short but you will still encounter a great deal throughout your adventure and you’ll probably end up making some stupid mistakes until you can fully train yourself to control one brother with the left half of the controller and the other brother with the right half of the controller. I haven’t played anything like it and it was refreshing in that regard. The story of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons was at times a happy one and then at other times there are some definite dark points to it. Overall I enjoyed my time with this game and I am curious to see what the developer does next.