I don’t get the appeal of “let’s play” videos. Growing up, taking turns to play a game was a pact made among friends to be able to enjoy each other’s company and play whatever the latest release was. But aside from that social setting, I’d rather do anything that is not watching someone play video games over the Internet. Nevertheless, the effect that let’s play have in the industry is undeniable. A fun “let’s play” experience can very easily make a game a hit. This has brought rise to a new category of game that seem to be made specifically to be watched. I Am Bread is one such game. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I think this makes it a game that’s much harder to enjoy without an audience.
I Am Bread puts you in the role of a loaf of bread who has somehow become sentient and yearns to become toast. Why? How? It is not explained nor does it really need to be. In order to become toast you must traverse through the room to a source of heat where you can fulfill your ambition to become a crispy treat. It is not as simple as just walking to the toaster. You must not just be toast. You must be edible toast, and so getting dirty or soggy will cause you to not be edible and lose the game.
The challenge seems simple enough the first few levels. Avoid the floor, avoid the clearly dirty areas on the counter, don’t get in the sink. But as you clear levels things get more complicated. Mold will be on the walls, surfaces will be dirtier, there will be no obvious path to the precious heat source you need to become toast. And the game is hard enough without the added challenges. Much like Octodad, a huge part of the challenge is to work around the intentionally imprecise controls. Loaves of sliced bread are not famous for locomotion after all.
It works like this: Each of the shoulder buttons is tied to a corner of your loaf. Your main form of movement is by flipping over and over, alternating bottons to move. Using the left stick will allow you to nudge your bread in one direction, for more precise, but painfully slow movement. Moving to walls or other vertical surfaces will cause your aspiring toast to stick to it, giving you options for movement, but this is limited by a grip meter. Once it runs out, you will fall, and hope its in a safe surface, because it can cause you to lose the game.
There are several game modes. Story mode where you play through levels in your basic quest to become toast, driving mad the poor occupant of the house you are destroying on your quest. There is Cheese Hunt, where as a piece of toasted bread you attempt to find all of the pieces of cheese to slather yourself in before you crumble. Bagle Race, where you race bagles, and Zero-G mode where a floating piece of bread has to avoid obstacles (though it feels more like its underwater to me). My personal favorite is Rampage, where you play a baguette which is allegedly angry and must smash as many things as you can, presumably in revenge or something. Much like the Great Old Ones, the motivations of bread are beyond my understanding.
Despite this game modes, at its core the gameplay for I Am Bread, the main problem is that when playing it the first time, it just did not engage me. Rather than feeling amused at the surreal setting and ridiculous premise, I felt annoyed by the intentionally shoddy controls, and frustrated when things would just not work as we needed them. This caused me to almost write the game completely off. But then a friend of mine came over and we decided to give it a spin. Having a friend to play with, as well as my kids in the room serving as an audience (and a lot of beer) completely altered the experience. It was great to watch the person playing as they struggled with the game, and the game’s humor and surreal ridiculousness felt accentuated by having the audience or being a part of it.
It can’t really recommend I Am Bread as a single player experience, but if you have a group of friends, it can make for a fun night. The caveat of this is that it is a single player title, at least on consoles. It is not really what I would call a couch coop game, or a party game. The label that fits it best is a spectator game. A game made to be played to and for an audience. I cannot say that it is a good game if you are looking for something to relax and get lost in; however, if you are looking for something to stream to a group, or only have one controller and want something everyone can take a turn in and is fun to watch, then I Am Bread fits that niche nicely.
This review was done on code provided by the publisher.
