PAX West Spotlight: The Gardens Between
By Rae
The Gardens Between is a lovely little puzzle game by The Voxel Agents, with an interesting gameplay twist – the player doesn’t actually control the characters.
Instead, The Gardens Between puts you in charge of the passage of time, with a few small actions in between. Interacting with certain items will change the environment around you. At times you will have to move backward to undo time’s effects, make a small change, then fast forward again to see what changes and if you’re now able to move forward.
The unique gameplay could be strange to get used to at times, but I like it – it forces you consider the world around you and accept that you can’t change the character’s actions. All you can do is think of what small changes can be made to make big differences.
Complicating matters a little bit, you are following a pair of friends, giving you two people to watch out for. And of course, as you move forward the puzzles become more complex – you might need to move time forward to make one change, then back to make another, or determine what to do with new interactive items.
Overall, the music, gameplay, and art of The Gardens Between are all rather calm and lovely. It was beautiful to play, and I could easily see myself spending a full evening or rainy day working through puzzle after puzzle.
If you’re at PAX, it’s definitely worth a stop to check out – especially if you love calm, atmospheric puzzle games. If you’re not, definitely check this one out when it arrives! The Gardens Between comes out September 20th, 2018, on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC!
Check out more on The Gardens Between at http://thevoxelagents.com/gardensbetween/