Bossa Studios, famous creators of Surgeon Simulator, have brought a dough driven, button-pushing puzzle game to the PlayStation 4 called I Am Bread. The objective in the game? Move your slice of bread using button combinations from one side of the room to the next in hopes of finding some way to become toast, while avoiding dirt, gross objects and anything to make your gluten ass less edible.
The gameplay is simple, yet complicated.
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You detach from a loaf of bread that is randomly placed in a room (I had a roommate in college that would do things like that) and you make your way from point A to point B. Using the R1/L1/R2/L2 buttons to move, and using the square/triangle/x/circle buttons to attach corners, while taking great care to angle yourself when moving around from object to object. And if you haven’t figured it out yet with that sentence, the controls drive the game and complicate the gameplay. Of course, they’re meant to complicate the gameplay. Much like Bossa’s Surgeon Simulator, the name of the game is to try to perform a simple movement through the use of multiple buttons, which turn out to be 60 percent of the actual gameplay. Seriously, a good portion of the strategy in the game is figure out the best way to move the bread without mentally driving yourself nuts. You’ll run into this from the first moment you start the game up, which is fine, if you’re knowing what to expect.
The other 40 percent of the game is trying to find the best, least intrusive way to get your bread moved and toasted without making the poor thing inedible. This includes climbing walls, boxes, beds, pillows, bottles, and even refrigerators, while avoiding dirt, bandaids and whatnot. To do these things, you have to get the control scheme down, which, again, is a good chunk of the game.
To make the game a bit easier, Bossa Studios has added some elements to the game, kind of like perks, to at least make the drudgery of bread movement a tinge bit easier. For example, once in a while you’re going to find a large stick of butter to rub yourself on (sorry, I couldn’t put it any other way), which helps you to move easier on surfaces. This especially helps when you’re trying to move along the dirty floor and your edibility is running out in the process (five second rule). Granted, the butter eventually wears off, but the fact that it does help for a short period of time adds some value to the perk. It also adds some much needed value to the gameplay.
Anyway, the controls and the goals of the initial story mode are pretty straightforward, though complicated/frustrating. Bossa Studios doesn’t beat around the bush with why it made this game, and players should probably expect some sort of sick, Dark Souls II level of enjoyment from guiding a piece of bread from one place to another.
Now, controls aside, Bossa does try to give you a nice variety of modes to play to keep the title interesting. They are as follows:
Story Mode: The loaf’s quest to become toast. This is pretty much the main body of the game that has all the bells and whistles attached to it.
Bagel Race: You play as a bagel trying to get to certain checkpoints quickly.
Rampage: An angry Baguette is something you don’t want in life. You play as a baguette that is hellbent on causing the largest amount of possible destruction in the least amount of time.
Cheese Hunt: You are a crisp cracker in search of multiple pieces of cheese.
Zero G: A kitchen without gravity where bread is propelled towards its toasty goal with small thrusters on each corner. This mode is actually quite cool and less cumbersome.
Free Roam: A mode to help take your frustrations out from previous frustrations caused by this game. This is a good place to start if you want to get used to the controls.
Honestly speaking, this isn’t a bad set of modes for a game about moving bread. Some of them add a little girth to the gameplay, but not all of it works. The Zero G and the Cheese Hunt are my personal favorites of the bunch.
Overall, the gameplay doesn’t go beyond what is advertised — at least not to the extent some people might expect. I think it’s a stupid-fun game that offers up a challenge for people with the proper amount of patience. I also think the $12.99 is definitely the right price point for it, but $9.99 would make it even better. Regardless, go into the game with an open mind, if you’re going to purchase it, but before taking the leap, know exactly what it is before committing.
