I am Bread Early Access Preview

Today we’re looking at I am Bread, a beautiful story of one slice of bread’s epic and emotional journey as it embarks upon a quest to become toasted. Created by Bossa Studios, the team behind Surgeon Simulator 2013, I am Bread was released on December 3rd, 2014, on Steam Early Access.

If you’ve previously experienced Bossa Studio’s Surgeon Simulator 2013, you can probably get a good idea of what exactly to expect with I am Bread. Crazy difficult controls, sandbox-lite style gameplay, and somewhat open ended objectives that can be completed in many different ways.

One way in which I am Bread departs from its predecessor is obviously in the setting. Gone are the surgical scrubs, dangerous hypodermic needles filled with psychoactive drugs, and a helplessly unlucky patient. Instead, players literally take control of a slice of bread on a journey to become a slice of toast.

Much like Surgeon Simulator 2013, I am Bread’s control scheme may take some getting used to. Even players who’ve put in a lot of hours in the virtual ER may find I am Bread’s controls to be seriously difficult. Where Surgeon Simulator 2013’s controls made some sense, as far as keys being mapped to move the same fingers in-game goes, I am Bread maps the 1234 keys to each corner of the slice, with QWER mapped to latch onto objects for the bread to hold.

For PC players, I am Bread represents an example of a game whose control scheme might be worse on a keyboard / mouse than with a console controller. Using an Xbox One controller may be the weapon of choice for players that wish to embark on this bread-based journey. Regardless of your chosen peripheral though, I am Bread is going to be a seriously challenging game. Because let’s face it, if this was an easy game it probably wouldn’t be much fun.

Toasting some bread sounds pretty simple, surely many of our American readers do just that every morning before work. In I am Bread though, making toast is a bit more difficult. Players begin their bread-journey safely tucked inside of a full loaf of the good stuff, slowly emerging from the nest with a mission to get toasted. A cleanliness meter quickly degrades if your bread becomes soiled from inedible objects that you’ve accidentally broken, or when it touches the ground. The 10 second rule is very much in full effect here. Players will be challenged both with reaching the toaster, and making it there in a somewhat edible state.

Since I am Bread is extremely open-ended, players can employ almost any tactic they want to make it across the room and into that glorious bread heating kitchen appliance. Some players may choose to fling themselves onto a skateboard by which to slowly skate across the room, while others may scale the walls as a bread-based daredevil in hopes of making it there with maximum cleanliness. Regardless of what path you choose to get toasted, dangers along the way will pose a serious threat to you achieving your goal of becoming a warm piece of toast.

If reading this comes off sounding as crazy as it is typing it, please understand that I am Bread is even crazier than this. While I’m certain that somewhere in the world somebody has probably walked into their kitchen, in a state of moderate to high intoxication, only to find a slice of bread wielding a knife trying to turn itself into toast, this is probably the first time those of us sound of mind can experience such a thing.

It’s in this insanity though that I am Bread is completely at home. There’s so much to explore, crash into, and accidentally discover, that I am Bread is one of those games that really doesn’t reveal itself to most players until many hours into doing basically the same thing over and over.

There’s really no way to quantify this experience as good, bad, or somewhere in between you see, as the overall game is going to be really based on what you make of it. Will you become a knife-wielding bread-based skateboarder? Or maybe flying in circles from the kitchen’s ceiling fan is more your style. Regardless of how you choose to play I am Bread, you’re probably going to go through a lot of emotions as you explore this deep bread simulation.

With I am Bread still in its Early Access phase on Steam, there’s plenty more to come with this unique game, which dare I say may be the world’s preeminent bread simulator. Bossa Studios is hard at work with future updates, what exactly they’ll entail though remains a mystery.