I am basing my opinions on all of these games solely by the impressions I get from the game in the first hour. Here we are focusing only on how well the developers are able to introduce the game to you, and how well they are able to keep you interested in the game in the crucial first hour of play. This wasn't as much of an issue when I was younger and only had a few games but now that we have leasing services like PS Plus it isn't uncommon for people to have hundreds of games all at one... which is exactly the situation I found myself in recently.
I can't possibly play all of these games from start to finish so unless the game is outstanding, I only play it for an hour. Even if the game absolutely sucks, I still play it for an hour.
So now we look at an unusual puzzle game that is telling a story about a couple without using any words. This is called The Gardens Between and at first glance it seems really interesting and innovative.
There isn't any dialogue spoken in the various cutscenes and thankfully they are quite sort because if there is one thing I can't stand, it is long cutscenes at the beginning or even during a game. We are quickly introduced to the game's only two characters who do have names but I don't know how we were ever meant to figure that out.
A couple of kids are hanging out in a treehouse in the backyard looking forlorn when all of a sudden lightning strikes near them and they and the treehouse are transported in the treehouse to a series of bizarre islands that all contain pieces of shared memories that the two have. We are not told this by any dialogue or story, but it just becomes kind of evident. I looked this up later to confirm that this is in fact what it is and it turns out I am correct. It wasn't a huge mystery.
The puzzles at first seem very simplistic because they only thing you can do is walk to the right or the left and by doing so your movement causes movement in other things that are on each of the islands. The only way to progress past an island is to gather some sort of light sphere in your lantern and carry it to the top or even of each of these islands. Once that is done you get teleported to another island.
The only other aspect of the game that you can directly control is that the boy is able to hit certain chimes that will stop the progression of time, thus allowing new paths to open up based on how things fall or how certain robotic frog-like things that are capable of carrying the lantern move about the various stages. Other than this, there aren't any other aspects of the levels that you can directly control.
The graphics and sound are quality and I was pleased that there are very few instances of long-lasting load times. Every level seems to load very quickly and since there is no way to die there isn't any situation in which you would need to re-load any of the levels. I also appreciated the simplistic nature of the puzzles and how there is so much to look at as you start to piece together the lives of these two and you can see that they are quite great friends. At first I thought they were lovers but as time goes by you can see that it is a purely platonic and even childlike situation they are in. It's nice and it is touching and it all gets told without a single word uttered or muttered.
The downside of this game is that since there really isn't much that you are able to control the gameplay quickly becomes quite boring. Other than watching what is going on and figuring out the exact moment that you are meant to stop time for something to trigger, sometimes out of sight on the other side of the island you are currently standing on, there really isn't much else to do at all. Once a puzzle started involving me slowly walking back and forth over and over on the same island I found myself getting quite bored.
The game only has about 20 levels I have been told but I think most people will get bored of the lack of control that you actually have as far as anything is concerned in the environment. You cannot jump, or intentionally climb but only just move from right to left. This makes that game simple as hell for anyone to play, but ultimately means that most people will likely lose interest in this pretty quickly. Perhaps it is a good thing that there are so few levels because of this.
I still recommend that people have a look, especially if they are casual players that are looking for a more relaxed experience with a story that you kind of have to figure out rather than be told it.
