![](/uploads/1/2/4/1/124196617/556996249.jpg)
I won’t lie, the trailer for The Gardens Between didn’t sell me too much on its ideas. The whole theme of two young friends remembering their fun times together seemed a little on the saccharine side for my personal tastes. However, my curiosity was piqued by the gameplay elements, so I decided to give it a shot. I’m so happy now that I did.
The Voxel Agents created quite a fun and sweet little game with The Gardens Between.As mentioned earlier, The Gardens Between is about two young pals, Arina and Frendt, who are first seen huddling together in a tree house. A light suddenly swoops in and transports them to a series of small islands that encompass themes from specific memorable moments they had enjoyed together. By manipulating the environment around them, they progress onward to the next memory island.
![The gardens between help The gardens between help](http://comptorrent.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/32627-1.jpg)
After completing each one, you get to see more and more of the fun times they had together and get closer to the reason behind this heart warming recall. The Jurassic Park franchise has really gone downhill.The true appeal of The Gardens Between is the gameplay. While the movement options are incredibly simplistic, it’s how you’ll figure out how to interact with and manipulate the island around you that makes this game a unique puzzler. The only movement options you have are moving left and right, although there’s a catch. Moving right progresses the characters forward as normal, but moving left not only makes them walk backward, it also reverses time. I know this seems like a bizarre control scheme, but it comes into play frequently when trying to figure out how to move on. So this is where old computers go to die.One of the friends, Arina, is in charge of holding the lantern through each area.
The Gardens Between is a puzzle video game developed by Australian studio The Voxel Agents, released in September 2018 for Microsoft Windows, macOS,.
At the top of every island is an altar where the light is released to complete the level. The other child, Frendt, is the one who interacts with various objects throughout the islands. This results in altering the movement of certain items in order to reveal new pathways, or opening and closing flowers that will either light the lantern Arina is holding, or extinguish it. Certain paths can only be trod if there is no light nearby, so figuring out how to move the light orbs along is part of the challenge.The visuals and level design in The Gardens Between are beautiful in an abstract and ethereal sort of way. Each island is composed of objects that represent a culmination of items around a specific memory. For example, on the island revolving around a time they had fun watching movies and eating popcorn in one of their living rooms.
The whole formation is structured around a giant sofa they must climb in order to knock over a glass bowl full of popcorn to collect the light orb inside. This is but one example of the the clever layouts The Gardens Between has to offer. Here is the couch island I mentioned above.I really enjoyed the mild ambient score that accompanied each level. It was the perfect compliment to the feel of the game, but without being too overbearing as to distract from the curious wonders around you. There was no voice acting whatsoever in The Gardens Between, but I applaud Tim Shiel for providing all the serene melodies needed to create a successful sound design.My one gripe with The Gardens Between is that the game is relatively short. With 18 islands and one final island broken up into 3 different sections, this game will only take you about 2-3 hours to complete. I felt satisfied with the game dynamics and bittersweet ending, but I was definitely left wanting a bit more.
It does however have a fairly low price tag at $19.99 and I will say that I truly think it’s worth your time, especially if you enjoy clever new takes on the puzzle genre. If you’re worried, like I was, that the game about two friends reliving their fun times together will be too sappy for you, then never fear. There’s only just barely enough narrative to give the level designs purpose. The main focus is the environmental puzzle elements and they’re very well done.
I fell in love with the charm and mechanics of The Gardens Between when I reviewed it on the Nintendo Switch. This breathtakingly beautiful and mechanically simple puzzle game by The Voxel Agents felt right at home on the Switch.
Using only the thumbstick and a single button, I helped childhood friends Arina and Frendt explore a series of islands, controlling not the characters, but time as they wandered through colorful and fragmented memories. Despite being a little short, it was easily one of my favorite games of 2018.I wasn’t so sure how I’d feel about the mobile version of the title, mostly because I’ve been burned before. I opened The Gardens Between on my phone with no small bit of hesitation, since I usually find the controls and the graphics of mobile ports to be unsatisfying. I didn’t want my memories of this charming game tainted by blurry images or frustratingly wonky controls. It turns out that I had nothing to worry about.Playing The Gardens Between on iOS is a great experience, with crisp, clear graphics and seamless controls. Because you control time with a simple “right to move time forward, left to wind it back” mechanic, the touch controls are intuitive and incredibly user friendly. Stopping time at just the right moment to be able to tap an interactable object, can sometimes be a little challenging, since everything is scaled down.
However, this is a minor issue, and likely completely irrelevant on a tablet screen.I was concerned that the vertical format of the mobile version would cause me to lose scope, or lessen the beauty of the islands themselves, but this also turned out to be an empty concern. None of the intricacies, size, or complexities of the memory-laced islands were lost. The graphics have all been beautifully rendered and optimised for phones; music and sound alike are as crisp and clear as on the Switch.Returning to The Gardens between on iOS was a delight. It’s easily one of the best games out there for your mobile phone, even if it (still) is a bit short, with around 3-4 hours of gameplay. This wordless, bittersweet story of childhood, friendship, and memories works brilliantly on a mobile phone.
Everything I said in still rings true, and if you choose to play it on mobile, you can grab it for $4.99, a cool $15 less than the cost of the game on Switch.
![](/uploads/1/2/4/1/124196617/556996249.jpg)