Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake review: a beautifully Grimm revamp

There’s a reason remakes exist, and it's because of games like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Originally released in the melee of 2013 that not only saw Grand Theft Auto 5 steal, well… everything, but The Last of Us debuted and Assassin’s Creed: Black Black sailed forth. Good luck breaking into that scrum, sweet story-led coop experiment. But Brothers tried, and likely many overlooked it. 

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake aims to give this unique, emotional narrative-led puzzle adventure a second shot at your attention. Created from the ground up using Unreal Engine 5, the team at Avantgarden have pulled off something unexpected, Brothers looks and feels even better. Remodelled in UE5 and lit by Lumen, this is like playing a long lost stop-motion movie, an art house masterpiece rediscovered.

The stylised models and sumptuous environments were always present in the original Brothers, even if, perhaps a little scrappy, but now there’s a lightness, a luminous quality to everything that lifts the designs wonderfully. It perfectly suits the Brothers Grimm meets Laika Studios aesthetic that perhaps got lost on past platforms. (This remake is releasing on all the best games consoles and PC.) This is a game that revels in a deft touch, sleight of hand, those moments of lightness and wonder dropped between darkness and despair.

Brothers begins with a death, the siblings' mother drowns in a storm and the story winds forward to the pair leaving her graveside to pull and push their father to the village doctor, where the quest is ordered – leave home to collect a mysterious cure. 

This opening is whimsical and gentle despite the overbearing presence of death and foreshadowing. It’s also a moment when Brothers introduces its core idea, you must control two characters simultaneously, working together to overcome obstacles, solve puzzles and manipulate objects in the world.

Think of Brothers’ controls as rubbing your stomach and tapping your head at once; the left controller's thumbstick and shoulder button moves one brother, the right thumbstick and shoulder button the other. (On PS5 each character has a different Dualsense colour, which is a nice modern flourish.) 

Each brother has slightly different quirks and ways of seeing the world, represented by how they interact with people, animals and objects – it’s as simple as the younger brother mischievously dousing a sleeping drunk in water while the older sibling asks steadfastly for directions, the quest is all for the more mature child.

The pair saunter through the colourful fantasy realm, meeting locals and puzzling past blocks in their path, and there’s a playfulness to early challenges, like causing distractions to sneak past a comical guard dog or harnessing the power of sheep to lower a drawbridge. It's gentle, teasing out the control setup and characters depths little by little. 

As the duo venture deeper into their quest the world darkens, it becomes more fantastical, and so do the challenges. The brothers will soak in the blood of dead giants and survive a night of wolves - this is beautifully curated, as the older torch-wielding brother walks faster than his young brother, forcing him to linger at the edge of the torchlight.

The complexity of controlling two characters together, at once, can lead to a sense the puzzles are too placid, a slight development on a theme - one young brother squeezes through gaps, the older boy pulls levers; the younger clings on for survival while the older sibling swims.

There are some clever uses of the coop concept, such as shimmying along the pole of a glider, the brothers' shifting weight drifting the ramshackle kite left and right. A late game sequence where the pair dangle connected by a rope, swinging alternately to gain height. These moments rarely tax or threaten, but instead gently evolve the coop concept, adding and dropping new ideas in quick succession.

The act of using two characters at once, gradually learning to overcome the clumsy impractical nature of the controls while exploring and engaging with the world in different ways, depending on which brother is leading, builds layer upon layer. The game's mechanics are the characters. When that itch builds and begins to nag, telling you things are a little too safe, perhaps even familiar, a thing happens.

Brothers’ twist, this thing that happens, has cult status; it’s the perfect example of game mechanics as metaphor, and something many other developers have tried and failed to emulate ever since. I don’t want to give anything away and ruin the weight of Brothers’ moment or even dampen memories of it in the minds of players who have already experienced its revelatory impact, but it needs to be mentioned.

I would even say, in this remake, in Unreal Engine 5, it hits harder and feels more organic. The game's new visual revamp, its subtle lighting, wisps of fog and greater character detail, breathes life into every corner of the Brothers' world. When it's gentle and colourful, it's a lovely place to dawdle within and explore, when it draws darker, when the night descends and the game gets weird, UE5's tech really punches home a sense of unease. So when that moment happens, it feels so much better.

The story repositions everything you’ve done up until this point. You've explored and dallied, overcame the literal obstacle of those controls and grown accustomed to Brother's peculiar ways. The game’s many ideas and puzzles, while simplistic, served a greater purpose. The dual-control system is no longer a gimmick but an essential extension of character and story, developed over the course of the game’s four hour run. 

Now, if you think four hours sounds too short, and some will and did in 2013, I can honestly say the significance of Brothers’ narrative twist combined with its unique control setup will linger in the memory long after that 200th headshot in yet another live service shooter.

The original Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons dropped marks back in 2013 due to some rough edges, but in 2024, remade in the latest tech, this cult classic finely looks as good as feels.