Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake Review

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over 10 years since the original release of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. In all of that time, I never actually got round to finishing it, so with the full release of this remake, it seemed like as good a time as any to play through to the end of this charming pseudo-co-op title. Although, we can knock off that “pseudo” from the description now, as Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake also includes a full co-op mode, and so I played a lot of it with my partner to experience the game in a manner that was never available back in 2013. 

If you read my recent preview, you’ll know that I thought the new engine was a lick of fresh paint on an already nice-looking game. I think the 2013 release still holds up well in modern times, thanks to a cartoon-esque look. Instead of that style, this version has a more realistic-looking aesthetic, with a much more muted and subtle colour palette in place alongside a higher resolution rendering of the characters and world. There’s an option for HDR, which is a nice quality-of-life improvement, but sadly no ultrawide support. There are still a few minor graphical anomalies in cutscenes, like eyelashes clipping into characters’ faces, which is a minor annoyance, but it was infrequent enough that it didn’t negatively affect my experience playing.

The original premise remains intact: you and your brother are on an adventure to find a cure for the unnamed illness that’s hurting your dad. As in the classic version, you control both brothers using a different thumbstick for each, but unlike that release, you can also have a friend with a second controller take the reins of one of the two heroes. If you do this, the controls don’t change, so whoever is in command of the little brother will need to get used to using the right stick for movement or manually switch the stick orders in Steam settings, as the game doesn’t give any options to do so.

Controlling both brothers simultaneously is just as fiddly now as it was beforehand. It’s all fine until they cross over, and you end up controlling the character on the left with the right thumbstick and the character on the right with the left thumbstick. Fortunately, you can usually just swing the camera when this happens, but in a few locations, such as tight corridors, this wasn’t possible. You do get used to it, but be prepared for the occasional pause to reorient yourself. Playing with a friend gets rid of this issue, and I honestly found it to work perfectly as a couch co-op game, despite the fact that it wasn’t technically designed for this.

I said in my preview that the music didn’t sound that different to me, and I still think it doesn’t. I’ve been reliably informed, however, that it’s been re-recorded by a full orchestra this time around. This, for me, is a testament to how good a job Starbreeze Studios did for the original score, as I hadn’t realised that version wasn’t a full orchestra. Nonetheless, Avantgarden’s 2024 rendition sounds really nice, fits the theme of the game well and serves as a perfect backdrop. 

There are a couple of other new additions with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake. In the menu, there is a Bonus Content option, which gives you the means to flick through a virtual artbook and also watch a pretty comprehensive walkthrough of the 2013 version of the game with a commentary from Josef Fares, the original creator of the game. These bonuses were previously only available on the console releases, so it’s nice to see them on the PC. It’s a shame there’s nothing new here, though, and the soundtrack option that the console ports had isn’t present either.

The gameplay is just the same as the original. It’s not too taxing, and all moves at a sedate pace. The characterisation is, as in 2013, completely splendid. Through the short tale, you really get a feel for the brothers and their plight. There are some sad moments in the game that genuinely had me a bit choked up, and this is largely down to how well the characters portray emotion. This is all the more of an achievement when you consider that there’s no actual language used, the characters speak in a Simlish-style chatter and it’s their tone and body language that conveys everything you need to know. 

If you already have the first release of the game, you’re unlikely to find anything new here, and that’s to be expected from a remake. It may mean that the value you can get from the game is limited depending on how keen you are to replay through it. As someone who didn’t play the original, though, I utterly loved it. The option to play in co-op with a loved one is the biggest upgrade here, and support for Steam’s Remote Play Together function makes that easier as well. Overall, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake is a shinier version of what was already a wonderful game, so ultimately, it would have been quite strange if it hadn’t ended up being a beautiful thing.