The Gardens Between Reviews
A childhood bond reimagined as a series of elegant, time-based diorama puzzles, The Gardens Between is short but very sweet.
With a bittersweet story and a gorgeous, dreamlike world, The Gardens Between is time-bending puzzle game that you won't soon forget.
The Gardens Between is a magical journey that's well worth your time
The Gardens Between is a great example of a puzzle game with the most simple of mechanics, showcasing how much can be stretched out of so little. Its light story of friendship is sweet (if not a bit too saccharine). It complements the core mechanic of controlling the passage of time, and well, the inevitability of how no matter how much you'd like time to stand still sometimes, it'll move along regardless.
There's an elusive elegance to The Gardens Between. It's short, charming, and shows its rewarding puzzle mechanic in just a couple hours without stretching the game to its breaking point. Some people might think it's too short but it's a start contrast to a solid chunk of big budget games that boast nebulous amounts of content over shorter, more authored experiences.
The Gardens Between is a short and simple adventure that holds a lot of charm. It plays upon the nostalgia we all have for childhood and focusses on experiences we've left behind in adulthood. It's also distinctly bittersweet in how it deals with the nature of change within relationships. While it's not the longest game, it's perfectly put together, and though the puzzles aren't too difficult, the way they're crafted should be praised as should the whole package.
A beautiful, relaxing puzzler that demands little more than your attention.
A seductive art style, hazy synth sounds, and some well-designed puzzles give The Gardens Between a pleasant mood, but it doesn't stay in the mind long after the credits.
The Gardens Between is a masterpiece of minimalist storytelling, weaving a wordless tale of friendship and time. By drawing upon a few, nearly-universal childhood events, it allows the player to fill in the story with their own emotions and memories, creating a shockingly moving, personal experience. Featuring a gorgeous, surrealist style and challenging but fair puzzles, this is a must-have title for anyone who enjoys puzzle games.
The Gardens Between was one of my favorite Switch games of 2019, and with its mobile release, it is now one of my favorite mobile titles. The Voxel agents have done a great job of optimizing sound, controls, and graphics, making the gameplay and story just as solid, if not a tiny bit better, on a cellphone than it was on the Switch.
With only three buttons, this time-bending story is an impeccably crafted minimalist model of video game and puzzle design
A beautifully told tale of childhood memories wrapped around an inventive, if overly short puzzler, The Gardens Between nonetheless remains a warm and touching experience that deserves your time.
The Gardens Between is almost a truly great puzzle game, but it gets hung up in a couple of small areas.
Overall, The Gardens Between is not particularly complex or subtle with the linear-nature of its puzzle-solving and familiar story, but the level of creativity and depth the game reaches with its uncomplicated parts is not to be understated.
The Gardens Between is an excellent example of a creative puzzle game, where beautiful graphics, pleasant music and original mechanics with time manipulation create a perfect symbiosis.
Review in Russian | Read full review
As a title that I would consider a bit "under-the-radar" compared to the heavy-hitting games coming this fall, The Gardens Between is a wholly unique experience that you shouldn't let fade away from your memory.
Relaxing as it is taxing, The Gardens Between offers a poignant coalescence of charming visuals, a relaxing soundtrack and a bittersweet story.
Beyond those couple of snags, and really, those snags just remind us designing puzzles is a human effort, The Gardens Between stands out among its physics/puzzle/metaphor-driven peers. It's beautiful to look at and listen to, gratifying to solve (most of the time), and in the the end tells a simple story that's just bittersweet enough to sting your brain into thinking about your life a little.
The Garden is a very beautiful and moving game that lacks some fresh ideas after a few minutes of game. Its mechanics are cool but it's too bad it lacks some challenge and never tries to renew its formula during the whole adventure.. that is only 3 hours long.
Review in French | Read full review
Beautifully designed and painfully creative, The Gardens Between is an absolute delight. It's a shame that the lack of levels and short runtime prevent it from reaching true classic status.