Degrees of Separation
Game Reviews | Mar 4th, 2019
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Windows, Nintendo Switch (Reviewed on Xbox One)
Developer: Moondrop
Publisher: Modus Games
Genre: Puzzle/Adventure/Platformer
Rating: Everyone
Separated by a mysterious force, two people from different worlds…Ember and Rime…must work together to discover the fate of each of their worlds.
“Degrees of Separation” focuses heavily on co-op gameplay whether that’s with a friend or significant other via couch co-op or with solo gameplay. The two characters in the game each have unique abilities that you must combine in order to advance through the game. Ember has heat powers while Rime has abilities that are focused on ice and cold. Most puzzles must be solved by switching between the characters multiple times until you can progress. Some of these puzzles will be fairly simple while others are extremely frustrating.
The puzzles throughout the game were initially fun and were spread out enough that you could focus on and enjoy the fairytale setting and story of two lost souls trying to discover what happened to their respective realms. Soon enough though the game was beating you over the head with frustrating puzzle after frustrating puzzle to the point that the story seemed irrelevant as I would spend a half an hour or more in one single place and then move on without collecting scarves for some reason and I would just take another path which would lead to the same process over again. Soon enough I just tried running through the game avoiding all puzzles but alas, that was not to be as I could not progress without solving certain puzzles.
Other than the repetitive use of puzzles, there really wasn’t much more with the gameplay. There was no threat of dying and there were no enemies that I encountered during my time with the game. I would have loved to have seen more of the gorgeous world that Modus Games created or learned more of the fate of Ember and Rime’s realms and where their time together leads them, but instead I was looking for some Tylenol after banging my head on the wall so many times and apologizing to my dogs for my overuse of swear words.
“Degrees of Separation” would be great for fans of logic puzzles but the overuse of these elements as well as the lack other forms of gameplay make this game more avoidable than it should be.
Overall Rating:
