Braid is a puzzle-platformer, drawn in a painterly style, where you can manipulate the flow of time in strange and unusual ways. From a house in the city, journey to a series of worlds and solve puzzles to rescue an abducted princess. In each world, you have a different power to affect the way time behaves, and it is time's strangeness that creates the puzzles.
It would be very difficult to adequately put into words how much I enjoyed Braid. It has, without a doubt, left a lasting impact on what I expect from indie games, raising my expectations to a level that only a handful of other games can possibly complete with.
In terms of gameplay, Braid is original, refreshing and clever to the point where I was stuck for a good half hour in places and, I am ashamed to say, had to resort to a guide to finish certain levels. Some of the puzzles are fiendishly difficult, but the solution in hindsight seems so obvious, and all make excellent use of the game's time manipulation mechanic. The variations of the different worlds keep things fresh to the point where my miniscule attention span was never exhausted. I was engrossed, and were it not for the fact that I could not for the life of me beat one or two of the puzzles, I would have happily devoured the whole game in one setting without so much as moving an inch. I can literally count on one hand the number of games that have achieved such a feat.
The art is beautiful, the music fits the tone of the experience perfectly, the story is clever and thought provoking, and the game has more to it than meets the eye - I suspect that very few players will have seen all that Braid has to offer. There is plenty of challenge, especially the 45 minute full speed run of the game, which, of course, I had to have the trophy for (I was playing on PS3).
The only slight imperfection that Braid has is that, as with all games that truly connect on some sort of emotional level with the player, there is little replay value. After your initial phase of playing the game, it seems almost wrong to go back and play it again, because I know that I will never have the same sort of experience with the game as I did the first time. Nonetheless, Braid is a magical, enchanting, wonderful game that deserves to be played by everyone who claims to be a 'gamer', and is well worth every penny of the asking price.