Degrees of Separation – Review Union of efforts between opposites.
Launched precisely on Valentine’s Day and presenting itself as a perfect experience to occupy the two-player sessions in cooperation, devoting several hours to the full game confirmed the signs that had already been detected when we had the opportunity to test the start of the work a few weeks before of its official launch. Degrees of Separation, a work signed by Moondrop Games, is effectively a cooperative game that gives you the possibility to play solo and not the other way around.
After all, it makes perfect sense that an adventure carried out by two characters, Amber and Rime, at opposite poles of reality and separated by a physical barrier that prevents the contact between both has been thought to put two players to work together, using the mechanics only possible in a video game to overcome obstacles together. Although cooperation is a key element of the game and the ideal way to get the most out of your experience, it does not mean that the weaknesses of it when playing solo can be ignored.
Since all the puzzles involve the action and the constant movement of the two protagonists, it is not surprising that having to take control of both simultaneously is far from being the best method to solve the puzzles that are blocking our progress. Incidentally, I had already mentioned in my preview that having to constantly jump between Amber and Rime and ordering the AI controlled character to move toward us or maintain their position had everything to become a tiring and frustrating experience.
At the time, I also mentioned that AI was sufficiently competent not to place great obstacles in our progression. However, it is now clear that this is clearly not the case, as advancing in the adventure and the normal introduction of increasingly complex puzzles ultimately reveal the inability of the work to offer an experience that remains captivating for those who play without company, an experience that does not fall into monotony with the accumulation of hours.
In addition, the fact that the controls often do not have the necessary precision makes the experience of controlling two characters at once complicated and unattractive. Thus, Degrees of Separation is a work that should and deserves to be shared by two players, gaining a much more interesting dimension when played that way. Yes, controls are still a problem on some occasions, but the weariness and frustration of the puzzles and the problems of intelligence are clearly mitigated.
Essentially, the cooperative experience distracts us from its most obvious problems and highlights its most inspired elements, that is, the design of its puzzles. It is true that there are some whose resolution turns out to be obtuse due to the way the game introduces new mechanics, but in general they are puzzles that compel the players to activate the gray mass, to debate and to discover how the combination of the action of the two characters and their respective kingdoms of provenance will allow you to collect the various scarves that are scattered throughout the levels.
With a gigantic castle that serves as access point to the five levels of the work, whose access is unlocked by accumulating the necessary number of scarves, each one of the levels is distinguished by the introduction of a new mechanic that proves fundamental for an important diversification of the puzzles Even though the game abuses puzzles based on pulling strings and activating lanterns to move platforms, doing those actions through distinct mechanics has a pretty positive effect on the adventure.
This is because the introduction of these unique mechanics for each level almost always represents a breath of fresh air for a work that threatens too often to fall into stagnation. One of the levels, for example, allows us to transform the physical barrier that separates the protagonists and divides the screen into a bridge to reach otherwise inaccessible points of the scene, while another reacts with an explosion that triggers the characters in their respective directions whenever approach each other. Perhaps not to complicate the experience too much, these mechanics are not used together, but it would be interesting to see what the game could do with their combination.
As already mentioned, the puzzles of Degrees of Separation rely on the manipulation of the environment surrounding the characters through the unique characteristics of the realm of each of the protagonists. The kingdom of Ember represents life, heat, and nature, while that of Rime represents cold, silence and desolation. This dichotomy is the basis for all gameplay and means that while, for example, Ember walks underwater, Rime walks on icy water bodies, which Ember activates platforms with the warmth of lanterns, while Rime creates snowballs rolling trunks through the scenario.
Due to the unique characteristics of each one’s world, this means that scarves often have to be collected by a specific character, something that players almost always only notice when half the work to get there has already been done and it is necessary to start over the process. This is to say that the difference between the two realms is much more than a mere vehicle to make the artistic direction of the work stand out, as it also has implications for the gameplay.
But as is easily apparent from the images accompanying this text, the visual style of the Moondrop Games game is effectively one of its best elements. The obvious contrast between the two realms, the liveliness of colors and the visuals touched in faux 2D scenarios help deliver an extremely beautiful experience with its own unique charm. It is a pity, however, that the game does not take better advantage of its visual style to offer more diversified and memorable scenarios, abusing rocky caves too much without anything relevant in the background of the action.
Regarding his narrative, Degrees of Separation delivers his story through moments of narration that accompany our arrival at certain points of the scene. Choosing a more poetic and melancholic tone, the narrative is not clearly helped by constant cooperation between players, since the information that comes from the narrator is often muffled by the conversation between two people already thinking how to solve the next puzzle. But even on the ground, the way the narrative is told makes it difficult for us to invest in the two protagonists’ demands to save their kingdoms.
Briefly, Degrees of Separation is an interesting proposition for those looking for a play to play with friends or with their half. Although at the moment there is only the possibility of playing locally, the promise of co-op online has already been made by the producer. When played solo, the Moondrop title cannot help but be tired, monotonous and frustrated by few precise controls, artificial intelligence far from perfect, and puzzles that do not fit very well to be surpassed by a single player.
