The latest in a line of novelty ’odd protagonist’ games that have included Goat Simulator and Octodad, I Am Bread puts players in control of a single slice of bread. The aim? To become toast, of course. Developed by Bossa Studios, the team behind Surgeon Simulator, this has a similar vibe in that players have to perform a fairly straightforward task – in this case, getting from one end of the room to the other – with an obtuse control system.
Here, four buttons (preferably the shoulder buttons of a controller) each activate the ’grip’ of a corner of the bread. By gripping the floor, wall, ceiling, or any objects in your path with certain corners, you can then use the analogue stick to flip your bread over. Repeating this lets you move across the room. Making things less straightforward is the floor, which is filthy. Your bread has an edibility meter, a bespoke energy bar that drastically drops whenever you’re in contact with a dirty surface. Make your bread entirely inedible and it’s Game Over.
Initially an entertaining concept, I Am Bread ultimately becomes a niggly experience as its deliberately awkward control method clashes with its unintentionally erratic camera and physics. The idea that the simple act of climbing a chair is a massive accomplishment is a novel one, but it’s only one of the numerous obstacles you need to overcome to reach your goal. This comes paired with the fact that it’s all too common to mess up elsewhere just because the camera got stuck or because the temperamental controls meant you flipped forwards instead of backwards as you intended. At this point, repeating those herculean tasks ad infinitum starts to feel significantly less satisfying.
Almost aware that its game can be a little infuriating, Bossa has included the Magic Marmalade, a shiny power-up that appears at the start of the stage after you’ve died a few times and gives you infinite edibility and grip. This essentially does a Goldilocks and presents you with the other extreme, removing the challenge entirely and making the game nothing more than a test of patience as you stubbornly fumble your impeccable bread to its goal.
A number of alternative modes have been added in an attempt to keep things interesting, but suffer from similar annoyances. Most notable is the Rampage mode, which asks you to cause as much damage as possible in a time limit but puts you in control of a baguette with only two grips, which is even harder to control.
I Am Bread is not without its charm but once you get over the humorous premise you’re left with a game that irritates for reasons both unintended and deliberate. You’ll have a few hours of fun but by the time its YouTuber-friendly novelty factor wears off you’ll have decided it’s far from the best thing since sliced bread.
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