Brothers a Tale of Two Sons Remake Review! A Co-op Experience To Remember!
We have said it before and we will say it again, Brothers a Tale of Two Sons is one of the most impactful and memorable games we have ever played.
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The gameplay here is nothing to write home about, but its the story, the journey that it takes you on that matters. This is an experience that will tugg at your heart strings, and understanding that before picking up the controller will only help you fully embrace it.
When this award-winning game released 10 years ago it came as a solo game where you would control both brothers simultaneously using both thumbsticks and triggers. This mode of play is still in the game, however one of the core features introduced with the remake and previously in the nintedo switch version was the ability to play the game cooperatively with 2 controllers.
Admittedly, splitting the game in half like this removes some of the complexity and difficulty of the game. Leaving each player with only 1 stick and 1 button to progress their way through the entirety of the game. As we said before there is nothing incredibly new about the gameplay here. It’s a lot of exploration, climbing up walls, walking along paths, and flipping levers, with the occasional intriguing puzzle.
But that is not to say that there are no fun moments. We thoroughly enjoyed flying a plane together and counterbalancing each other as we swung from handhold to handhold in an abandoned giant castle. But the real reason you play this game is for the experience. It is for the different lands you visit and the emotional heartstrings that the story tugs on. This is not a game that you will easily pick up, play through, and forget about the next day.
The story has stuck with me since first played it over a year ago, and as we played this time, there were things I did not want to do because I knew what was going to happen next. I kept wishing that there was another way, something else we could do to progress the story.
This game follows the story of two brothers shortly after their mother’s death as they journey through the world on a quest to retrieve a healing plant to restore their father’s health. You really get to experience each character’s personality as you interact with various objects and characters, and you get to experience each of them changing along the way.
Before you even start playing the game it gives you a warning about different things you are going to experience, letting you know that this might not be for you if any of these topics are too sensitive. While it did feel a little dramatic to us, it was something we had actually put into our original review. As a channel that generally covers more light-hearted family-friendly games, we did feel it worth mentioning that this game does have some darker themes and some sadder moments that you should be aware of before playing.
That being said exploring through the bright villages at the beginning, the dark caves in the middle, and making your way through the land of giants and snow-capped villages towards the end is such a wonderful feeling. The updated graphics really help make it all that much more enjoyable. Throughout the game there are little benches you can sit on to just enjoy the view, and while some simply show you upcoming moments others display a very pretty vista.
Not to mention that the graphics don’t only apply to making nature more appealing, and making the love interest actually pretty, it also makes some moments spookier, be it the wolves in the dark, the scary stumps that want to grab you, or…. Well, we will let you discover the next bit for yourself!
The vast majority of this game involves you playing, and the story tells itself through gameplay with the occasional cutscenes sprinkled in, there is no dialogue, or text to read. You are left to interpret everything yourself through the emotional music and scenes presented to you. These short cutscenes merged with the gameplay served to keep us interested and intrigued in the story rather than overwhelmed and annoyed at a constant barrage of info dumping, that we just want to spam A through. Overall we hope the graphics and the story will shock you at times, scare you, bring you brief moments of sadness, and leave an impact as much as it did for us.
While the gameplay mechanics are fairly simplistic since what was originally controlled by one player is now controlled by 2, that does not mean there are no good co-op moments. This is one of the best single-player experiences split into 2 players that we have ever seen. The game was designed to have both brothers working together, and so transitions fairly well into the co-op model.
You will have to boost each other up, figure out how to work together to maneuver a long pole through tight spaces, steer a boat, and communicate about which directions each of you should go, or take turns distracting things or swinging across gaps. There are a few moments in the game where only one player has something to do, and a slightly longer portion where one player has little to do except watch. But for the most part, the co-op experience is quite good.
As you play this game it is almost impossible not to see inspiration for what would later become It Takes 2. From being small humans in a giant space to paddling a boat together, and the little side things you can accomplish along the way. Be it throwing a ball through a hoop, rescuing a group of baby turtles, or finding a giant horn to blow.
We highly recommend playing through Brothers 3 3-hour story, this remake serves to make it more accessible in the modern day and makes the emotions reach a little deeper than they did before. While the story and gameplay is the same, they were great to begin with and needed nothing new.
This playlist will take you through some of our favorite couch co-op games to play together. These games were designed from the beginning with co-op in mind and will definitely fill that co-op thrill you are looking for! We cannot wait to see you there! We love you guys! Y’all are awesome!