The Gardens Between

The Gardens Between
by The Voxel Agents - September, 2018

Available at:
Humble Store
Steam



The Gardens Between is a single-player adventure-puzzle game about time, memory and friendship.

Best friends Arina and Frendt fall into a series of vibrant, dreamlike island gardens peppered with everyday objects from their childhood. Together they embark on an emotional journey that examines the significance of their friendship.


Manipulate time to solve puzzles and reach the apex of each isle. Follow the duo as they unpack and explore their precious moments spent together, lighting up constellations and illuminating threads of a bittersweet narrative.

Features

• Vibrant, storybook-inspired art style
  
• Dreamy tale of adventure, friendship and growing-up
  
• Gorgeous single player experience with a meaningful personal story
  
• Bespoke ingenious puzzles require the manipulation of time to solve
  
• Accessible design; simple controls, and no text, speech, time pressure or complex UI
  
• Relaxing, ambient soundtrack by feature-artist Tim Shiel
  
• Play in full detail on your gorgeous 4k screen
  

The Gardens Between (Puzzle)

Options include separate indicators for Music and SFX and vibration on/off if you're using a controller.

A surreal, wordless puzzle game about memories and friendship. 


The mechanics are simple:  Forward, backwards, interact.  That's it!  Equally easy to play on controller or keyboard.

How it works:

Going forwards means advancing time, and as you probably guessed, backwards regresses time.  Yes, that means your characters will be walking, jumping and climbing backwards. ;D 

At first it seemed too simple.  "What, I just watch the characters move on their predestined paths, and click now and then?"  The idea did not impress me, but that was just during the early levels when you're learning how your interactions affect the environment.  It's not long before you actually have to stop and think about out how to proceed, and some of the puzzles are brilliantly-designed.


I don't want to give too much away about how your actions affect things around you -- after all, puzzling all of that out is part of the fun! -- but I will say that each of your characters have different abilities.  Watch for anything that glows or vibrates, especially during the memory portions.  Very important if you're going for all of the achievements.

Speaking of which, there are 17 Steam achievements, and unless you are really observant, you probably won't gain them all your first time through.  It is possible, but perhaps not without looking at what the achievements are first.

Once you finish the game, you can replay chapters by clicking on the constellation for that chapter or through the menu overview.

The graphics are charming, as you can see, and the music is very nice.



Despite how simple gameplay seems on the surface, the puzzle aspect ended up being really enjoyable, and I really love the overall esthetic of the game.  This is a great game to play when you don't have a lot of time, since each puzzle section is fairly short.  Discovering the ins and outs of The Gardens Between was truly a pleasure, and I'll definitely be going back for my missing achievements.  Recommended!