There is a category of games that exists in my library that I like to call “date night games.” These are games that I play solely when I want to curl up beside my partner, do something together, and delight in a shared experience. They’re cozy and warm, and though they are not the games I would play on my own, they become lovely little experiences when shared with another.

This doesn’t mean I’m not discerning in my date night games. Just because a game is inclined towards being cozy doesn’t mean it’s automatically good. For a game to work well as a date night game, it has to have that certain ineffable something that just makes it a joy to engage with.

Ah, the two seasons - orange and blue.

Degrees of Separation is a cozy date night game. You play as either a lady of the kingdom of fire and summer, or a gentleman of the kingdom of ice and winter. Together, the two of you must solve puzzles and collect scarves to figure out what has put your kingdoms in disarray.

Like most puzzle-platformers, the soul of the game lies in the multitude of puzzles players must solve to collect scarves and progress. These puzzles can be done in any order - to a point - and require both players to work co-operatively. The puzzles themselves range from straightforward and simple, to baffling, though this range is not necessarily a bad thing. On multiple occasions, I found myself skipping some puzzles, then coming back to them, the knowledge from a later puzzle propelling me to a solution in the earlier one. It’s a dynamic design that leads the player to think about the world more holistically, rather than approaching each puzzle as a discrete entity.

There are other reasons it’s a date night game.

All of this leads Degrees of Separation to feel like a more robust world than it actually is. Coupled with the narrator telling the story of Rime’s increasing infatuation with Ember, the world begins to feel like a grand epic in a way that many puzzle games don’t. It ceases to be the story of two people solving puzzles, and instead, becomes an adventure, shared by two people, as they fight to save their world.

Sometimes they have to be far apart, though.

This is not to say the game is without its flaws. When some of the solutions to the puzzles are “cheese it until it works,” it goes without saying that the puzzle design might leave a few things to be desired. Shifting in and out of split screen is horrifically disorienting, and I found the characters’ movements to sometimes be a bit clunky.

All of these feel like minor complaints, though, beside the sheer wholesomeness of the game itself. It is a sweet little game, telling a sweet little story about saving the world. The graphics are cute and well done, and the game is just sweet. It felt like a game where my partner could justifiably curl up beside me, and we could just enjoy the evening, solving puzzles and exploring.

It’s a lovely little date night game.

Developer: Moondrop

Genre: Puzzle, Platformer

Year: 2019

Country: Norway

Language: English

Play Time: 5-7 Hours

Youtube: https://youtu.be/1DvTZWFVkgY