Max: The Curse of Brotherhood

By: Robert Murphy

It has been awhile since I have taken up an adventure style puzzle game like this but with Max: The Curse of Brotherhood it makes me wish there were so many more of this style of game. Not since Limbo have I played something like this although this is far less bleak and dark and more something you'd want your kids to play for something fun to do. You play the role of Max, a young red headed boy who comes home from school one day to his annoying little brother (been there) who is playing with his toys and Max wishes for nothing more than to be alone. Going to the internet for a solution as we all do in today's world, he finds a spell that in turn opens a portal and gets his brother kidnapped. Immediately regretting his decision he jumps after his brother and now must travel through this new world he finds himself in to save his brother. 

Now you are not much of the hero type when the game first starts out, you're a young kid who doesn't want to risk getting in trouble for getting your brother sucked into another dimension. You appear quite small in this world and the first couple of platforming challenges you face are really easy but things get more difficult as you go on. After jumping your way through the first few platforms, you meet a mysterious elderly woman who tells you the tale of this land you find yourself in and she in turn will help you defeat the evil lord Mustacho who wants to use your brothers youth to become young again and continue ruling the land. This elderly woman possess the soul of your mighty weapon....a marker, this marker allows you to control various elements in the game such as creating earth pillars, creating vines to swing on, creating solid branches, controlling a gush of water, basically you become the Avatar when you have this thing. But all these abilities come gradually over time as you progress through the treacherous environments that you have to find your way through with your wits. 

All the puzzles in the game are fairly easy even when you get to the later levels, it involves a bit of trial an error though when you get to angling things like the water and end up falling to your death. The main drawback to the whole thing though isn't performing the puzzle over again or figuring it out, it comes from our main character Max. Since you don't possess many jaw dropping abilities as the young kid you are, you suffer from limitations like the inability to double jump or make it that tinniest fraction closer to grabbing that edge you missed. Things also get a little more challenging when Max will appear to glide and slide across a surface making you panic jump to your death, it's an issue with the game itself and when you're playing a puzzle game where any mistake can cost you, it can get a little irritating. 

The fun really kicked in more for me later on when I gained control of all my markers abilities, like I said before I felt like a real life Avatar with my ability to control all these elements. Solving puzzles was just so much more fun when I had all these abilities under my belt, water spouts are particularly fun as you create your own water slide in a sense and send Max on a ride through the air to a jungle vine. This also comes up when you have to do the puzzle you are presented with in a certain way to get to a hidden goodie, the game comes with amulet pieces to collect and eye stalks to sever that are used by Mustacho to spy on you. Often you'll have to take the puzzle in another direction to reach these hidden gems and then remember the correct way you set up your path before. This brings up the other issue I had with the game and that's the timing and quick time events you will encounter along the way when it really becomes a challenge to take your marker out in time to preform the action the game wants you to do. It happens every once and awhile but when you have to sit through a whole cut scene time and time again it got on my nerves. 

In closing, I enjoyed what Max: The Curse of Brotherhood had to offer with it's bright and colorful puzzle solving game play. It made me think back to playing Limbo as I said before and I'm glad to see this type of game make it's way to the Xbox One early on. Issues do arise though that can make the game play a little bit of a challenge when you involuntarily slide across a platform that cause you to freak out and fall to your death. Quick time events and timing issue are also a bit of a problem for the game and when you're trying to solve a puzzle over and over again do to you missing that split second time constraint, you'll be frustrated. 

Good:

- Cute and fun environments that fit the story

- Controlling all these elements with the flick of your marker was really quite fun

Bad:

- Timing and quick time event issues

- Some control issues with your character Max

- Max himself can bring fault onto himself by not being all he should be, whimply missing jumps and ledges

Scully Rating: 6.0 out of 10