VideoGame Pure, concentrated frustration
The following review is based on the Early Access version as it was on 10.12.2014.
The idea is simple: you are a slice of bread, and by controlling each corner of the slice, you have to flop around and even walk on the walls in order to reach a device in which you can be cooked. Sounds like fun, right?
Sadly, it's anything but.
One of the primary reasons are the controls. For the most part, your ability to control the bread is limited to making individual corners stick to whatever surface they are currently touching (by holding down keys 1, 2, 3 and 4), and having the bread as a whole flail in whichever direction you move your mouse. The big problem here is the lack of some fine control: there were many times when I wanted the bread to bend itself somehow so that it could get on top of the table I was trying to climb, instead of just flailing around on the table's side and seeing the surface of the top, but being unable to actually touch it. Also, the game is very picky about when to allow you to grab onto something - if something is away from one of the slice's corners by mere millimeters, it's already considered unreachable for that corner.
But all of this wouldn't even be that bad if it wasn't for THE biggest problem, one that absolutely kills this game without mercy.
The grab time limit.
You can't hang onto surfaces for long. If you stay attached to something for too long, the game will give you the middle finger and make the bread fall down. There are NO words to describe how INFURIATING this is to happen in the middle of your struggle with getting the bread to climb onto something. If you only had to worry about becoming inedible (from touching the floor or anything gross), this would be a fair challenge. But no, they HAD to make the game even harder by applying a completely arbitrary limit, instead of just adding some unavoidable obstacles that make you inedible very fast if you touch them, so that people couldn't get across the levels in unintended ways.
Maybe they will change it in later versions. I don't know. As it is now, I Am Bread is completely devoid of any fun whatsoever. If you thought Surgeon Simulator is frustrating, then don't touch I Am Bread with a ten foot long stick. Or better yet, don't touch it at all. Don't waste your money.
But to the game's credit, the music is nice.
VideoGame How to Drive Yourself Mad in One Easy Step
If you want to experience the true feeling of playing I Am Bread, there's a very easy way to do so: Stick your hand on a pre-heated electric burner, let it roast for a few minutes, then nom down. Delicious, nutritious, incredibly painful.
I Am Bread is a game by the creator of QWOP and Surgeon Simulator 2013 , this time taking the Katamari Damacy ideal to a control scheme which demands you have approximately ten thumbs on each hand. You play, appropriately, as a slice of bread which aspires to become a delicious piece of toast. In so doing, you move around an oversized home, breaking jars, climbing fridges, smashing T Vs, and ultimately driving the owner of the home to madness. The whimsical nature of the experience is something many creators should aspire to, and certainly one which is rarely seen outside of the indie scene - so points go to that.
A great deal has been put into creating a whole host of colourful environments, and the music fits that perfectly as well: bombastic at times, the sort of symphonic themes you would expect to see on a grand and epic journey. (That this epic journey is being made by a slice of bread in no way diminishes this.)
Unfortunately, the game's experience is heavily diminished by the rather... obtuse control scheme. The game really is a worthy successor to Surgeon Simulator 2013, meaning that the very act of moving around is a finicky process which takes forever to learn. A tutorial or sandbox of some sort would not go amiss in the slightest.
To add to this, the game's objective - 'become toast' - is occasionally difficult to determine. Certainly, some levels have an obvious way to win - in the first, for example, you start with the camera pointed at a toaster. Others, however, become more and more obscure, even to the point where they challenge the control scheme for bringing the players to the heights of incredulity.
Ultimately, I Am Bread is a game which basks and revels in its independent roots - and of course its sheer unforgiving difficulty. If you're the type of player who prefers an easygoing experience, skip this one... but if you want to fry your brain and snap your controller on a challenging affair, go right ahead.
Oh, and bring marmalade.
(Rating: 7.8/10.)