Max: The Curse of the Brotherhood instantly catches the eye. The quick initial plot shows young Max coming home to get immediately annoyed by his younger brother, Felix. In his frustration he reads out a spell, that magically comes into effect – a portal opens, and a monster grabs Felix. You jump in after them, and the story then follows Max on his journey to rescue his brother in a fantastical kingdom.
The plot is simple, and honestly never reaches any great heights. However, the visuals are fantastic. Everything looks vibrant and bright, full of detail. There were many moments, even when I had something chasing me, that I would stop or want to stop and simply taking in the sights. The game is a looker, and that holds true even in 2017. The level design and vistas are gorgeous, and the characters are beautifully animated.
While controlling Max, you’re essentially playing a platformer, and the gameplay mechanics are solid. It’s not really innovative, and later areas can feel repetitive, but the platforming rarely feels frustrating. The controls are intuitive, and it’s easy to see what’s coming up ahead. Also, Max has a drawing tool with which he can interact with his surrounding and puzzle his way across levels. It’s an enjoyable mechanic, and the puzzles are cleverly designed to support it.
As you progress further in the game, you unlock more abilities for your marker. This then allows you to get through more elaborate levels and challenges. It’s a good thing that the levels are designed in a way that allows you to slow down and enjoy the detailed environments. You’ll need to figure out what you can draw on and alter in order to get Max across the levels, and it’s a lot more fun to do that when everything looks so great. This also dissipates some of the issues like repetition, because even when you’re essentially doing the same thing, everything looks so different.
Another great thing about the game is the generous checkpoint system. You’re more free to experiment and die, and the game will instantly bring you back a few steps prior. And there are certainly some areas where you will dies, simply because you weren’t able to see what had to be done next while already swinging across a deep chasm. It’s annoying, but at least the game does not punish you overly for it.
Max The Curse of the Brotherhood is definitely a fun game. It looks great, and has some clever gameplay mechanisms. The plot is a bit thin, but also really funny at moments, and I generally had a fun time defeating the curse.
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