Be the bread in our I am Bread Review.

From the studio that brought you Surgeon Simulator, comes an epic adventure filled with jam, butter and above all bread. Bossa Studios latest title I am Bread is the story of a piece of bread whose goal is to become toast, and it is up to you to get him there. So make sure to check out our review to find out if this tale of broken jars and dirty carpets just might be worth picking up.

To understand what I am Bread has to offer, you really need to understand that this is a simple title that is designed specifically around its difficult control mechanics and your ability to utilize them to accomplish various tasks. For some, the controls will be a complete deal breaker, but for those who are willing to come to terms with them, they will find that the challenge offered here is what gives the game its charm. To simply move your piece of bread you will need to anchor down a corner, each of it which is tied to a specific shoulder button. By holding down one of the buttons or any combination of the buttons, you can then use the left analog stick to flip the bread over from its non-tethered side and cause it to tumble in a desired direction.

While this concept can seem a bit elaborate for such a simple task, that is exactly the point of I am Bread. By being able to anchor any point down on any object, you are able to climb walls, knock over chairs, go up steps and even fling yourself across gaps by creating momentum. This allows for almost an endless number of possibilities, but depending on which mode you are playing, you will find a number of restrictions that keep things tense and challenging from beginning to end.

In the story mode, the goal of the level is to get your piece of bread toasted and this means getting yourself to a heat source. In general, this is usually acquired by finding something akin to a toaster or heater, but if you are crafty enough, you can create your own place to kick breakfast off. But, given that you are a piece of bread, this also means that you have to retain some level of edibility as you venture from one area to the next. This where things become more complex, as each of the eight levels rate your time, remaining health (edibility) and even your deliciousness. As your slice flops around you are able to break jars of jam and even cover yourself in butter, all of which determines just how tasty your toast is at the end.

The problem is that from where you start and where you need to be is generally an array of things that you will have to avoid, otherwise your slice of bread could become covered in dirt, potato chips or an array of other oddities. Moving slowly does allow you to avoid certain things, and moving along the walls will keep you alive longer as the floor will almost always ruin your score, but you are limited in your ability to grip onto objects, so you can only climb across areas for so long before plummeting into something that could taint your bread.

I am Bread does offer a few other modes to keep you occupied, with each offering their own set of rules. Bagel Race is a time-attack mode that changes the mechanic of the game slightly since bagels do not have corners. Instead it restricts your grappling to only two of the sides, which can be used to get it to roll forward if you can balance its movement. This is actually a bit of simple fun, but does exemplify that the game does suffer from a number of issues. The first and foremost is its camera. As a piece of toast it is easy to navigate around and adjust the camera angle with only a few challenges here and there, but when rapidly moving across the terrain you can find yourself having to blindly jump into the unknown or even unstick the camera when it somehow gets lodged against items in the world.

Rampage mode allows you to play as a baguette that acts as baseball bat more than anything else, which works fine for the modes premise which tasks the player with racking up points by destroying objects. Each time an object is destroyed, you are able to build up a multiplier and continue your rampant destruction. Cheese Hunt is about finding a set number of cheeses hidden around the area, and while some are easy to locate, others may require a bit more thinking to reach. Zero G mode is interesting but almost slightly too gimmicky to be of much fun. Instead of just using your ability to flop or roll to move, your piece of bread has a jetpack strapped to it while floating around in zero gravity. Items in the area are floating around and do become obstacles , but the mode’s departure away from its core mechanics takes a bit of the fun out of the experience.

Overall, I am Bread offers a decent number of things that will keep it interesting for those that want something that isn’t quite as serious as the latest first-person shooter or  RPG. So if you are looking for something that is light on the pallet that can be played by gamers of all skill levels, this is a great addition, but if you want something with some substance, sadly this breakfast food may be a bit too light of a meal.

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