Lack of Player Control in The Path, Braid, and Judith

I've noticed a similar mechanic pop up in several art games I've played recently. The games include Judith, The Path, and Braid, and the mechanic is wresting control of the player character from the player a certain points in the game. This is generally done to push the player towards a horrifying realization or situation they would probably rather avoid.

I'll try to keep this as spoiler free as possible, but here's the deal: the mechanic I'm discussing generally doesn't manifest until the end of these games. So, you might want to play them a bit first. Judith is a free download and takes about 30 minutes to play through. It's not a big investment, so I strongly recommend playing it. The Path is $10 on Steam. And... well, I'd like to discuss it. You can read what I have to say and decide for yourself if that warrants spending $10 to investigate further. It's definitely not for everyone, so I can't recommend it unequivocally. This leaves us with Braid, and, come on. That's the ONE art game that just about everyone has played. If you haven't, however, I recommend playing even if the "artsy" side of it has been spoiled. Buy it, play it, and keep reading. No spoiler alerts on Braid, because you should already know the twist.

First off, let's start with Judith. I was first made aware of Judith during an art game panel at GDC. Jason Rohrer was discussing the game, and its use of this specific mechanic of taking control from the player. The story begins with illicit lovers Jeff and Emily meeting at an abandoned mansion for a romantic tryst. Upon entering the mansion, Emily immediately becomes lost, and the player as Jeff must
search for her. The game soon changes, however, and the player takes on the role of Judith, a woman who previously lived in the mansion. The player controls Judith in the past, and explores the mansion through her eyes. The player soon finds Judith's husband has been hiding terrible secrets in hidden passageways within the mansion.

The game's website states "Judith is a game about control." This becomes apparent when certain sequences where the player is playing as Judith are taken over by the computer and Judith moves automatically without any player input. Without giving away too much of the story, Judith in the past and Jeff in the present progress through the many locked rooms and uncover all the dark secrets of Judith's husband. However, Judith begins to do much of this without the player's input. She is compelled to know more about the man she married, even if the player has lost the nerve to continue forth. This leads to a disconnect between the player and their avatar, Judith. By the end, I felt Judith's husband was more sympathetic than she was. Her husband practically begged her not to continue, but, like the player, was powerless to stop her.

The Path is an art game inspired by the darker versions of the Red Riding Hood fairy tale. The player is given the simple task of guiding one of six sisters down a forest path to their grandmother's house. Should the player stray from the path, they run the risk of running into wolves in different guises.

If Judith is a game about control, The Path is a game about death, temptation, and the loss of innocence. The player controls the girls as they travel to their grandmother's house, but upon reaching the house, control is taken from the player. The only input the player can make is to move the girl forward a single step; this action is performed by making any key input. The interior of the home is a strange, nightmarish landscape the girls must traverse in order to reach their grandmother if they followed the path, or a more gruesome end if they met their wolf on their journey. Regardless of how the girls got there, the house's interior is a frightening place, and the player is apprehensive about hitting a key to move forward at times. Other times, the environment is so oppressive, the player may sprint through sections, even though it carries them closer to their final destination. Still, as in Judith, the player would rather not be in that situation to begin with, and no matter how you do it, the only option is to move forward.

Braid is a bit more interesting. It's a platformer, but there are time control mechanics in play as well. For instance, player's character, Tim cannot die. The player can rewind time at any point in the game. The game is ostensibly about Tim's quest to save The Princess. There are, however, many layers of meaning once the entire story of Braid is uncovered. At its core, the game is not so much about lost love, but obsession.

The mechanic I've been discussing doesn't show up in Braid until the very end of the game. The player has finally reached The Princess, and she is show escaping from the monster Tim's been trying to rescue her from. Tim runs through a series of doors opened by The Princess running above him. Tim eventually reaches The Princess's castle.

Upon reaching this point, however, the player's controls are locked. He cannot move normally. Instead, he can only use the time-reversing function. When the previous sequence of the Tim reaching The Princess is reversed, it becomes apparent he was not saving The Princess, but chasing her. She was not opening doors to save Tim, she was trying to block his progress. She was not running from a monster, she was running from Tim and saved by the "monster." Tim has been an unreliable narrator throughout the game, and the player has been his accomplice. This is particularly interesting because this does not occur to the player until the last sequence of the game, the point where they lose control over Tim's actions. While it is fairly apparent that things are not going to end well for the player characters in Judith and The Path, this revelation slowly dawns on the player as they are replaying the uncontrolled sequence. This seems to heighten the regret the player feels in Braid: The player had little way of knowing they were doing anything wrong.

These examples are just a few ways this could be used in games. This mechanic could be used to create a sense of powerlessness or remorse in the player if used effectively.