QCF: Max: Curse of Brotherhood

he duality of a sibling can be broken down to a science—a gradual rite of passage in life from childhood to adult life. Despite the bond of blood, the relationship of brother and brother isn’t always built with loyalty and love; it’s all too susceptible to the harshest animosity that this world has to offer. Case and point; when your little brother is being a turd, leave it up to irrational anger to lead you to buy into the first online search result on how to make them disappear—which is where we find Max, and his curse of Brotherhood.

Building upon the onset of Xbox One in the first few months of its launch, Press Play takes upon themselves to inject some whimsy into the fledgling library of the new box, and while Max aspires to shine, it instead struggles to be competent at best, and a fumbled mess of asinine physics the rest of the time.

While being an exclusive to a next-generation console, Curse of Brotherhood opts to intentionally keep things humble behind a glamorous presentation that romanticizes the likes of Pixar, but unfortunately—this is the where the first hint of disappointment emerges.

Within the first ten seconds of the game’s introductory cut scene, frames of animation immediately began to stutter as if the animation was produced using Microsoft PowerPoint; the clipping of graphics and delay of motion, frame by frame, is bad enough to continually detract from whatever juncture you reach, from beginning to end. The visual design when performing in game is attractive at points but only up close, otherwise the drawn out perspectives dwarf Max and pertinent aspects of his path with exaggerated boom shots that display too much detail; these moments work during slower voyeuristic segments but negatively impact moments or puzzles that demand significant patience and skill.

Speaking of patience, be prepared to push it to the limit because Curse of Brotherhood fails to follow through with over half of the trials it challenges it players with physics that operate with the consistency of a waterproof towel.

To Max’s credit, the ideas behind every puzzle you encounter are designed completely differently from the last, but as their complexities demand the manipulation of certain physics as you advance; the spotty execution will leave any player salty from their collection of trial and error attempts ending in vain. The fundamental mechanic that the cheeky hero has is Magic Marker; at some point, it uhh, is imbued with actual magic that’s equipped with all convenient conventions necessary to traverse this alternate plain of existence that holds his little brother prisoner. During specific crossroads that serve the context required, players will be able to summon the marker, and use it to affect the environment in order to assist the little dude with attitude and they all have their specific rules and systems in place in order to be used. For example, orange highlighted areas will cultivate large pillars of earth; the architecture of these man-made platforms can be slightly manipulated by the angle of platform from where the analog stick is directed and will vary in size depending on how long the your marker is applied when pulling it out from the ground from wince it came. While they serve as primitive platforms at first, their use can get trickier when they’re used to manipulate other facets of the stage. Take for example, a movable block of stone that serves as a boost of height for Max climb up to an otherwise unreachable platform—on its own, the rectangular slab of rock still doesn’t have the stature required to reach the desired perch; what’re are you left to do exactly? Use you ability raise the ground and flip the dumb thing on its side of course in order use it’s longer side to gain that extra altitude. Now on paper, the formula behind puzzle makes sense but the shaky physics dictate the movement and reaction of any kind of mass in motion here is a joke. The natural platform will fall over as if struck with some non-existent force of wind strong enough to knock it over, pillars carrying it will shift it wildly out of the intended position it needs to be in order to work, and the list goes on. Keep in mind also that the scenario described is the introductory ordeal you’re challenged with after earning your very first power, the new ones you earn later on are both similarly intriguing and frustrating in practice, more so when used in conjunction with one another.

While puzzles will gradually grow to be more and more cryptic, Curse of Brotherhood still functionally retains the benefit of being able to somewhat communicate the means of how to proceed be it a slightly direct observation spoken from Max himself or series of objects and marker points telegraphing an implied course of action to solve the obstacle at hand. The major issue lies within the technical hiccups of the actual mechanics in motion, which are a vital part of seeing the solutions to the series of trials become known—this gross flaw ends up gradually sinking the experience into a shit fest filled with moans and groans.

When Max: Curse of Brotherhood follows through, it lives up to its potential, rewarding its players with a genuine sense of satisfaction earned from conquering a particularly advanced puzzle, these moments are just too fleeting and inconsistent—and it just goes downhill from there. While the desire to add to your shiny new machine may be a strong one, you’re better off waiting on a potential fix that Max is sorely in need of because this game is just not where it wants to be and players will suffer because of this glaring short coming.