The Gardens Between 4+

The gardens between is a gorgeous and inventive puzzle game with clever time bending mechanics. Only ten or so levels in and even though it hasn’t become very difficult yet every time a puzzle comes together I get the biggest smile and find myself repeating each time “okay this game is really cool.” Just realizing the solution then watching the pieces fall into place is so satisfying and that satisfaction is only bolstered by the lovely animations and an incredibly strong art direction (seriously in love with this art style!) Very thoughtful level design; beautiful, winding mountains covered with household objects that tower over you as you ascend the summit, manipulating time to position falling objects or jumping boxes, orchestrating a “right place right time” flow of events. All of it services a very satisfying gameplay loop and a clear sense of place; stooped in nostalgia and our relationships with the passage of time. Besides some minor hitching on level start-up and that it makes my iPad (6th gen) really hot pretty quickly, the game runs well and the touch controls are good and simple; not a bunch of different inputs and not finicky in any way. I could go on about how great the sound design and music are (which they really really are superb) and how much I like the subtle, wordless storytelling/atmosphere building, but I’ll stop here and heavily implore you buy this game and experience it for yourself.

An immersive experience first, and a puzzle game second.
Amazing and worth it.

Art: 10 / 10
Puzzles: 8 / 10
Music: 9 / 10
Controls: 10 / 10

Overall: 5 Stars

Full Review

I never review games, but this one was just too great to stay quiet about! I played this on my iPad Pro 11” (with comfortable headphones) and could not be happier with the overall gameplay experience. TGB’s colorful art style, paired with its atmospheric sound design and minimal touch controls, creates an immersive experience that’s perfect for the mobile platform. Everything looks, feels, and sounds just right on the iPad.

The game’s puzzles and level-design are also quite good. While I can’t say that any of the puzzles completely blew my mind, TGB certainly offers its fair share of twists and challenges in about 20 levels. If you’re an extreme puzzle-gamer, you probably won’t find yourself getting stuck very often, but chances are you’ll still have a great time discovering the game’s progressively complex mechanics.

All in all, if you love art, puzzles, and immersive experiences, this is the game for you. The Gardens Between isn’t an impossible puzzle game that you would play to push your brain muscles to their breaking point, but it is a stimulating and imaginative experience that’s great for winding down at the end of a long day. For $5, it’s an absolute steal.

Buy this game.

I’m halfway through the game and it’s just beautiful. I understand the cost for the graphics and sound/music alone but I’m beginning to regret spending $5 on this and not a different app... The puzzles are getting harder now but it’s annoying how SLOW everything moves. There are times when you have to repeat the same process over and over going back and forth in time and while the graphics and scenery are pretty to look at, I just want the kids to hurry up. Maybe there should be a speed setting for that. Also when you finally finish a level it takes too long to see the scene and light up the constellation and all I’m left wanting to do is get a move on to the next puzzle. I get it. It’s a story too not just puzzles and it’s like monument valley with the little animations after you complete a level but monument valleys are much quicker or more engaging I guess. I’m gonna finish it regardless but I wrote this hoping the developers will see it and maybe consider making an update with an option to speed things up a little.