This game is dedicated to the interaction and adventures of two best friends, Arina and Frendt. They live next to each other but prefer to spend time in their treehouse. There, the guys are immersed in their own world of drawings, invented memories, games and adventures, and maybe even their own language. Arina is a little older, she clearly has the makings of a leader. Friendt is a classic modest bespectacled nerd. On the last night before parting, the rain-drenched house where friends took refuge will become their ship in the ocean of memories.
Download Gardens Between for iPhone and iPad (App Store)
Download Gardens Between for macOS (Mac App Store)
The game does not offer a storyline. The story is told not by text or voice, but through images and actions. But that’s exactly how memory works – from memory to memory. And each island-garden, where the guys get, becomes a separate three-dimensional puzzle.
Decision rules are not unique; not only new details appear, but even additional dimensions. But you don’t have to rack your brains over the passage of the game – its meaning is to return those childhood emotions that many of us would like to experience. It’s also not worth thinking about finding a way out – together with friends we are swimming in some kind of fabulous stream of memories. And it will not work to manage it in your own way – after all, this is their fantasy. The goal of each level is to light a lamp and bring a fireball to the top of the location island.
You won’t see the usual control mechanics in The Gardens Between. We can’t control either the characters or the environment at all. All we have is time. Using the on-screen stick, you can rewind it forward and backward, from time to time activating special objects in certain places. They just make an additional change in a somewhat static memory.
So, in one place, with the help of rewinding in time, it will be possible to dial a secret code, in another – to start the generator, in the third – to saw off a board by jumping on a saw. And the further we delve into the memories of the characters, the more difficult it will be necessary to form a sequence of their actions.
Such games are taken not by intricate riddles and not by unbridled action. The Australians from The Voxel Agents tried to appeal to the deepest feelings of each of us. The game is full of numerous and subtle details, with some of which you will surely be able to find your own, if not childhood, then certainly a significant memory.
It is no coincidence that the entire entourage is designed in the style of the 80s – 90s, where most of us come from. The appropriate parts of the landscape are either a video cassette, or a laser disc, or a calculator or a CRT television. So that nothing would prevent complete immersion in the process, even the heroes themselves turned out to be wordless.
Visually, the creation of The Voxel Agents studio looks simple, but neat, corresponding to the task set by the game. The animated world is characterized by lovingly written details. Following the movements of the heroes, the camera moves in a spiral, and in the background, in the fog, the outlines of other worlds are visible, not necessarily belonging to our heroes.
The video is accompanied by lyrical and slightly melancholy music, which emphasizes the emotional depth of what is happening and allows you to focus on the puzzles. As time rewinds, sounds also fade in and out.
The Gardens Between is a fun game to play. She suggests not to think, but to sympathize. Original and unhurried puzzles are part of the overall idea. The simple and touching story of the characters is understandable and does not need a deep disclosure of images and plot. It will take 4-5 hours to complete the game, so it will not have time to get bored. But you will want to spend a couple of evenings at The Gardens Betweens. There are several drawbacks in the game: a fixed camera position, the presence of stamps, and excessive simplicity. But this does not prevent you from enjoying this worthy representative of the indie genre.
Download Gardens Between for iPhone and iPad (App Store)
Download Gardens Between for macOS (Mac App Store)
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