Why Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is not meant for co-op

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons looks like it would make a great co-op experience, but game director Josef Fares says that would be missing the point of the game entirely.

Ozzie Mejia

September 30, 2013 2:45 PM

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If you've played Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, you're likely familiar with its unconventional control scheme that sees you controlling each brother with a separate analog control stick. You may be thinking to yourself that this would lend itself perfectly to co-op, but Swedish filmmaker and Brothers game director Josef Fares would say you're missing the point entirely.

"There were many voices in and outside that were saying, 'You should do a co-op game,' but I would rather cut my hands than do that," Fares told Game Informer. "The whole foundation of the idea is that you connect with your left hand to the bigger brother and right hand to the little brother."

Fares adds that many of the puzzles were tuned to fit the game's control scheme, designed just as much for comfort as they were for challenge. "A good example, for instance, is with the rope sequence or when you carry a log. Another example, when you tie your shoe [by] yourself you feel comfortable. If you do it with someone else, it’s going to feel a bit weird. That was how we approached this game. For me it was very, very important that the player controls two characters."

Brothers also proved to be easier for newer players. Fares notes that Starbreeze conducted early tests with new and inexperienced gamers and that they adjusted to Brothers' controls than the average FPS control scheme. Fares attributes this to the game's camera, which shows both brothers occupying the same screen at all times.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is available now on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?