It seems that the world of puzzle designs is never going to cease finding new ways to get players thinking in new ways critically. The latest of these designs is the split character control where both roles function independently yet work together to proceed through each level. This design comes from the developers at Monochrome, who worked with Hatinh Interactive to publish Tandem: A Tale of Shadows. As an intriguing puzzle game, this title definitely brought a new perspective of puzzle designing, but was it entertaining to play through? In the end, I'd have to say that it was, but it wasn't flawless.

Story

After setting out to solve the mystery of the disappearance of famous magician Thomas Kane, Emma finds her first clue as a vehicle rushes by. As it passed, a magically living teddy bear named Fenton fell out of the vehicle. Quickly getting up to chase the vehicle, Emma found herself chasing after the bear which lead them both to the entrance of a strange mansion. With this being the main and only lead she has on the whereabouts of Thomas, Emma and Fenton set out to make their way through in hopes of finding the lost magician.

Gameplay

Both characters are given the same controls with only slight differences. Emma moves on a 3D plane where she can go left, right, up, and down. She is able to run and interact with objects, such as levers and doors, but she is not able to jump. Fenton moves on a 2D plane where he can go left and right. He is able to interact with objects as well and is able to jump, but he is not able to run. The difference between these two is that Emma is on the ground and Fenton is sideways on one side of the wall.

Luckily, there are random pieces of wall and what appears to be floating siding to act as the ground for Fenton. Other than these wall pieces, he is limited to moving on top of shadows as walkways. If he is covered in the shadows, you will not be able to switch to him. If he is not on solid ground, you won't be able to switch to Emma.

Emma typically controls the light source and has to make the shadow walkways for Fenton to cross. There are levels where she doesn't have the direct light source and in those levels, players have to work with the environment to make the shadows happen. If there isn't enough ground and Fenton falls, he is met with a spiky death. Even if either character dies, they are simply reset to where they were last registered as stable and safely grounded, so there are no worries about messing up or limited lives.

The goal for each level is to get Fenton to the crystal that provides the next piece of a key. Once you have all the pieces and reach the last level of the section, you will have to solve a master puzzle that is in the form of a boss fight, if puzzles were bosses. By completing this room, you will be given the key and granted access to the next section of the mansion.

Each section of the mansion presents its own form of obstacles and dangers. From creatures that can kill you to various ways the light affects the shadows and creatures around it, there is a large variety to go over. This is what made the game more interesting though as each section had a handful of testing what does what exactly and figuring out how to work with the given environment.

Visuals and Audio

Graphically, this game has a very strange but visually attractive art style to it. It is colorful when playing as Emma and sucked into a world of black and white hues when playing as Fenton. This gradient change between the characters helped signify who I was actively controlling as well as put their perspective in the light so that you can see what will affect that character directly. It isn't a highly sophisticated art style, but it is definitely the most fitting for this game type.

The music and sound effects of this game weren't very impressive though. They had their quality and did a good job to bring out moments in the experience, but none of the tunes really stuck with me. It felt more like the music and sound effects were placed to give the environment more lively and not leave the player in silence while solving their way through each room.

Replayability

I really don't see a reason to play through the game more than once. There are some hidden areas that you can find throughout the game, but other than trying to locate those, the levels themselves are the same.

What Could Be Better

There were a handful of times where the way to proceed through a room was through a broken wall that took Emma through an alternate path. These were typically revealed with some clever lighting, but there were some that seemed to be hidden in darkness. While that is fine when it is a secret area, the times that I couldn’t find the opening in the wall that I needed to take in order to proceed were rather frustrating. Once you know it is there, it completely changes your perspective on how to handle a section of the level. They should make it so that these are always very obvious to the player when available.

Conclusion

Tandem: A Tale of Shadows was an intriguing experience of puzzles and curiosity! While the story itself was never very compelling, they managed to have a surprising end that I wasn't expecting. The various styles presented in each section of the mansion were a great way to keep me interested throughout the playthrough and gave me things to like and hate for each one. I wouldn't put this in the list of difficult puzzle games, but it was definitely a unique one. A fun title for any puzzle game fan to consider looking into adding to their collection.