Review on: The Gardens Between
Developer: The Voxel Agents
Available On: Steam (Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS), Nintendo Switch, iOS, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
There is something to be said about a story unfolding, without the need for words. As a writer, words and how to express those words, are how I see stories and perspectives being shared across platforms and countries. This is one of the core reasons I do what I do – write, speak, blog. But The Gardens Between does it (storytelling) so beautifully without having to explain anything aside from the initial controls instruction. Everything else unfolds as the game is being played; it’s just a matter of discovering the methodology and the order to things.
In The Gardens Between, there are multiple levels and scenarios that depict the passage of time and the memories between the two characters, and how their real-life adventures are visualized in a dream-like imaginary-world puzzle stage where you’re supposed to get from the start to the finish. The gameplay is surprisingly simple – you CONTROL TIME. You work to finish the game by moving forwards or backwards in time. What complicates it is what’s in the middle. As the stories progress, it becomes more challenging to complete each level. To get from the start to the finish, you’re supposed to light your lantern and bring it to a pedestal that takes you to the next level. Along the way there are obstacles such as another lantern that sucks up your light, there’s a fog that dissapates when your lantern is lit which incidentally also causes bridges to disappear, and items that appear and dissapear depending on what you click and which order within the level.