Developer: Bossa Studios
Publisher: Bossa Studios
Platform: PC
I am Bread – Review
It’s been a while since we last took a look at I am Bread, and now that the game is finally out of early access, it was time to update our findings. Although the concept largely stayed the same, a lot of content has been added. Whether this will be enough to coax gamers who thought of it as youtube bait remains to be seen.
Story
In I am Bread you control a slice of bread, just sitting around in someone’s house and although its intentions are not clear, it somehow managed to become sentient. Moving through the house, your sole desire is to become a charming piece of toast. The other inhabitant of the house, a human named Bob, is slowly losing his sanity due to things randomly moving around, always accompanied by a single slice of toasted bread. This narrative is told by short slips written by his psychiatrist, eventually culminating in Bob’s pointless efforts to destroy the bread ruining his sanity and life.
Graphics
The textures don’t really hold up under close angles, but overall the game looks decent. It certainly isn’t the most graphically intensive game, but actually looks quite attractive from a distance. The best part is the interactivity, while traversing a room many objects will get stuck to you or influence your edibility. The UI is clean and clear, with the exception being the controls linked to the corners of your slice being pretty hard to keep track of, which is pretty much most of the challenge. The menu is neatly done, revolving around a fridge you can find a calendar to pick a level or a wall of pictures for credits.
Sound
The music is upbeat but not very noteworthy. All your interactions do come with their corresponding sounds, from eggs breaking, to the sound of the lighter used to make a petrol station explode, it’s all there. The ‘plopping’ noise indicating you have grabbed on to something might get slightly annoying after a while though.
Gameplay
Starting out from a loaf of bread, you’ll need to move to accomplish varying objectives. This is done by holding four buttons, each corresponding with a corner of your slice, and moving the joystick or mouse to travel around. As is advised when launching the game, it all works a lot better with a gamepad. In the story mode, your goal is to make that slice of bread into delicious piece of toast.
To accomplish your noteworthy goal you’ll have to find a source of heat (which might be a toaster, but can just as well be a lawnmower or car exhaust) and move over there, all the while avoiding nasty stuff like touching the floor or mouldy walls in order not to deplete your edibility meter. You can only hang on to things for so long, indicated by your grip meter. If you manage to find something that will turn you into toast you’ll have to be careful to get both sides, visualized by a meter at the bottom of your screen. Upon completion you’ll get a letter score, composed of time of completion, edibility and so on.
Besides story mode there are six other game modes. Free roam is pretty self-explanatory, but the others not so much… In rampage you have to rack up as much damage to your environment. This is made easier by many dangerously stacked breakable objects and getting combo’s improves your score with a multiplier. In bagel race you play as the donut-shaped breakfast confection popular in countries like the USA. The goal is to hit every checkpoint and end up at the finish (a porcelain plate) as fast as possible. In cheese hunt, edibility is replaced with integrity and you have to collect cheese to complete the level.
The last gamemode is Zero G. In this mode everything floats around like there is no gravity, and instead of moving by holding on to things, your slice’s corners now feature thrusters! Just when you’re getting used to the (on purpose) finicky controls, the game changes everything up again. Dodging objects and especially slotting right in that toaster really are a tough but fulfilling challenge.
In the early alpha you could only play as your everyday wholemeal slice, but now with the full release a lot more has been added. We already mentioned the bagel in the bagel race mode, but luckily there’s even more. In cheese hunt you’ll play as crackerbread, and in rampage you’ll turn into a baguette for maximum destruction radius! In free roam you can pick your preferred edible for all seven levels.
Conclusion
I am Bread is definitely still a solid game, more so than some people make it out to be. Often frustrating, but delivering that sweet, sweet satisfaction for getting it juuuust right, it proves that it’s more than just a quirky joke. The somewhat limited amount of levels still feature plenty of objects to interact with, with some classic modes as well as some original ones (Zero G!). I am Bread is certainly an example of Early Access done right, with player feedback being heard, and the game adjusted accordingly. Still, there are some bugs here and there and although a lot more content has been added, there’s just not that much replayability. Overall it turned out to be a surprisingly competent and fun little game, something very enjoyable and different from usual releases.
I am Bread - Review,
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