Max: The Curse of Brotherhood

 
Developer: Press Play
Steam Release: May 2014
Hours Played: 7.1
Similar To: Nyx Quest / OiO / Rochard / Seasons After Fall / Trine 
Rating: 5/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
So there was a time when I didn't think there would be many games to rival the magic of Trine or the inventiveness of Limbo but that was before I'd played Max: The Curse of Brotherhood. For this is a magnificent, action-packed adventure where you control a small boy, armed with his magic pen through lush and gorgeous environments with intriguing obstacles and puzzles at every turn. With the odd chase from a huge roaming monster and a fair share of sliding escapes, you'll mainly be on the look out to manipulate the environment by locating small glowing areas that you draw from with your magical pen. An orange glow allows a pillar of earth to be raised from the ground; dark green means the drawing of branches; light green will sprout vines, while blue will allow the formation of gravity-defying water slides!
    

BALANCE & PACE
As you apply your pen a small radius forms around it to show how far you can extend it to, but the game really shines through the highly versatile ways in which these features are used and combine together. Branches, for example, can be made into steps or box-shapes and then detached and pushed around; you can make circular branches and then detach them to roll across another branch you drew earlier; vines can be used as swings or attached to branches, and raised pillars and ledges can be hung from to avoid snarling monsters below. You'll also need such terraforming skills to sweep aside deadly bugs who can electrocute you... and the first-class level design and puzzles come at you think and fast. Like all well-made puzzle platformers, the game will always make you intrigued to know what is up ahead next.    

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
As well as top-notch level design, Max treats the player to well rendered environments and locations as well as giving the illusion that the gameplay blends with the 3D world even though it's acted out in a 2D mechanic. Both the movement of the character and the animations of both the enemies and environment is as fluid as liquid silver. The shading and lighting is also of a superb standard with the pen brilliantly doubling as a torch in the Alone in the Dark level where you'll need to travel through a spooky cave. Max's cries and exclamations also suit his movements when he's in tricky spots and that extra tension needs to be added. Checkpoints are also unobtrusively but generously included at very regular intervals so you'll rarely groan at having to do large sections again. 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
The game will send you on a 7 chapter journey through areas such as deserts, forests, woods, swamps and lava-infested caves. The chapters themselves are split into anything from two to five levels that last roughly around 15-30 minutes each depending on how thorough you are. That means decent bite-sized sessions. Chapter 1 and 2 have four and five levels each while Chapters 3-7 have two or three. There are 21 altogether. For each level, you may collect up to five Evil Eyes which are those odd eyeballs that sprout from the ground. Most hold four or five altogether but two levels just hold three. You won't find any in the first two levels or at the Death by Lava level towards the end or the final boss fight. Additionally, apart from the first two levels, a secret amulet hides in each. The level-select screen will hold all the information you need. 

CONCLUSION

For anyone who enjoys a well put together platform puzzler in the same class as a Limbo or a Trine then I'd heartily recommend Max: The Curse of Brotherhood. The standard of challenge and the weight of difficulty means that you'll progress at a good steady gallop and should never be totally flummoxed. The section where you had to collect five skulls hit the sweet spot like a bullseye! One slight wobble where I think the game got it slightly wrong was the hint system where Max would blurt out, too soon, what you should do in tricky situations; sometimes he would give no clue at all. Perhaps a five-minute window of quiet to let the player try to figure it out himself would have been better - but even here, I'm picking holes in an innovative hint system. Max is a shining platform puzzler that definitely deserves to be in your library.