Originally released in 2013, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is, in my humble opinion, nothing short of a masterpiece. From its central gameplay hook (controlling two characters at once with a single controller) to its story and the way it’s told to the game’s set pieces, it’s an unforgettable experience through and through, a seminal work I’d recommend people of any skill or interest level in video games check out and delight in at some point in their lives. I was surprised, then, to learn that it was being remade; it was hard for me to imagine the game having anything meaningful left unsaid in its original incarnation, especially with coop being added to the game’s Switch re-release back in 2019. Still, my interest was piqued, especially considering the game’s director, Josef Fares, has gone on to make some of the most interesting games of the last decade, in particular the equally masterful It Takes Two. Who was I to begrudge a creator the chance to return to and refine an earlier work?
As it turns out, Josef Fares does not seem to have been involved with this remake beyond giving it his blessing, and indeed, calling it a remake is doing some incredibly charitable work in this game’s title. What’s actually new here is a visual facelift of the original game and some new cutscenes running in Unreal Engine 5, and not a whole lot else. This is, of course, to be dismissive of the hard work that I’m sure was put into making this project happen at all, not to mention all of the smaller animation changes and fine-tuning of the controls that I’m sure were done here. But as someone who hasn’t played the original in five years, outside of the visual makeover, these are changes that, while I’m sure they are noticeable and huge to anyone with backend knowledge of the game and its intricacies, might as well be non-existent. That’s all to say that effectively, what you’re getting with this purported remake is a graphical overhaul and not much else. And I’m sure I’m not the only one disappointed in the lack of ambition here.
To be clear, a competent remake of a masterpiece will more often than not still be, at the very least, pretty dang good. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake is no exception to this, as I found myself completely spellbound playing this game for the third time in my life, remembering just enough of the broad strokes to anticipate my favourite moments while still being able to be surprised (and heartbroken) by the details all over again. The absolutely inspired gameplay mechanics, namely in how you’re expected to control two characters simultaneously and how the developers managed to iterate on this dynamic over and over and over again, still amaze me 11 years later. The challenges you’ll be presented with navigating two characters at once can range from tasks as simple as an impromptu game of basketball or running from a farmer’s dog, to navigating a narrow, haunted cliffside by having one brother slowly sidle along the rockface while holding a giant tree branch, the other brother clinging perilously to said branch below while having to clamber up and down the length of it to not be grabbed by some ghoulies. I could simply run down an entire laundry list of all the variety the game presents you with, but in particular, the segment where you’re scaling up (and down and all around) an abandoned giant’s tower with a rope tied around the waist of each brother remains mind-bogglingly cool all these years later, not just because of how much fun the swinging mechanics are, but also because of the sense of both scale and dread on display.
That section ends very differently than you’d expect, too, with the brothers freeing a young, malnourished griffin from a cage and flying their way out, as opposed to an easily imaginable bombastic encounter with a giant fee-fi-fo-fumming behind you. In general, the gentle, thoughtful sweetness represented on screen here still touches me all these years later. The rarity in which violence is the answer, despite the world the brothers inhabit being inherently violent and threatening, is such a powerful subversion of the typical gamer power fantasies. The only way to survive a journey through an environment like this is to trust in the ones you love, and this theme comes through in the gameplay just as strongly as in the story itself, with the rare moments of the brothers being separated making me feel powerless and even nervous, despite having played the game before.
Speaking of story and themes, I was quite pleased that the remake didn’t take the coward’s route and change the game’s gobbledygook to actual voiced dialogue here. It would have been such a no-brainer attempt at giving this remake more of a justifiable existence, but one that would have absolutely been for the worst from both a storytelling perspective as well as an artistic integrity one. That the game is able to tell such an effective story with nothing but gestures and nondescript yelling is something to be celebrated, and the absolute right call was made to leave it alone, as I somehow doubt that Troy Baker voicing a character or several in here would have elevated the story to greater heights.
This version of the game does include the aforementioned coop brought to the Switch release. I didn’t have an opportunity to test it out here, but I did play the entire game in coop with my wife when that previous port was released. It’s a totally fine and fun enough way to play the game, though I wouldn’t recommend it to someone playing this for the first time; you completely miss out on the left-hand right-hand feel and puzzle-solving that playing the game solo provides, and indeed, I would go so far as to say the final moments of the game fall a bit flat without having controlled both brothers through their journey together entirely on your own. But to say anything beyond that would be dancing precariously close to spoilers, and no one’s here with a handy tree branch I can grab on to and save myself with if I were to ruin such a special game for you.
I really struggled in giving a score to Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake in a way that I normally don’t. This is a good, even great, version of an already fantastic game, and one that could have ended up so much worse. At the same time, it’s also an extremely surface level touch-up of an all-time classic that I and many, many other people have enjoyed for over a decade now. If you’ve never played the game before, tack on a full extra star to my score and consider this your wake up call to finally play Brothers in some form or another. Anyone looking for an excuse to return to this world and story need not feel obligated to check this version out unless the updated visuals and/or coop addition entice you, though.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake
Release Date: Out Now
Platforms: PC, PS5 & Xbox Series X/S
Price: £15.99
Thank you to 505 Games for the review copy.