Context of Practice Indie Research: Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is an absolutely fantastic game that has been praised highly for its uniqueness in storytelling and also how it used an interesting concept of moving around two characters at the same time. The game follows the life of two brothers as they journey around a mysterious land in search of a cure to their fathers illness. As they travel around the stunning environment we learn more about them as characters and their back story of how they lost their mother and the younger brother's nightmares of going back near water after witnessing her drowning. It's a fascinating tale of how close these two brother are and how far they will go to save their fathers life.

It is truly a brilliant story and the character development that is used throughout is beautifully told through the meeting of new characters and how they contribute to the story and tell it by helping the brothers. The additional characters that feature in the game all tell there own unique story. The most moving being the short story of the bird-like-hippogriff creature who is locked in a giant's cage in a tower. You free him and in reward he help you, taking you to the next stage of your quest away from the giant. This caring act brings you closer to the bird in this one simple gesture of thanks before he collapses from presumably starvation. A tragic loss that you can't help but feel so connected to because he helped you in that brief moment.

The truly marveling story then takes you further by introducing a woman who you save from a tribe in the mountains. This opens up possibilities for a love interest between her and the older brother; escalating the story further and again engaging the user in a perfect story with so many twists and turns in it. Then there is the relationship between the two brothers as this is something special. Although there is never a lot of words spoken between the two of them, they have such a strong relationship and are able to help each other at every step of the way on their journey.

This game is also perfect for environmental storytelling. As you move through the different locations you get a certain emotion of awe from each of them. There are often places to see that are below you can as you move around the camera will change, allowing you to see every detail in the beautiful place. There are also a number of different benches located around that act as lookout points as well, enabling you to interact with them and watch as the camera zooms out showing you a picture perfect scene fold out in front of you; and the view is something to behold. The environments are all creatively designed and crafted beautifully to give a very illustrated feel to the world that invites you in closer, allowing oyu to see into the distance and imagine whats happening over there.

Altogether this is a fantastically brilliant game to look at and worth a play - even though its very difficult to control both characters at the same time. The game tells the perfect story of friendship, courage and bravery as we see two young brothers go out against all odds and help their father - there only family. It's a truly inspiring story that works so well and is done so right as even though there aren't many words spoken, and when they are they are in a different language, you still know what they are saying as they move, emote and interact with the environment on their journey.