Sure it is fun to see both characters fly in opposite directions, and even more fun to troll your co-op partner by sending them halfway to space as they try and climb a rope, but the novelty soon wears off and is replaced by aggravation. This is all well and good until it becomes obvious that these blasts are caused not only by a button prompt, but also when the two characters are too close together. As an example, one location adds the ability to create a blast at the barrier between Ember and Rime, propelling them apart and destroying obstacles caught in the explosion. The majority of these locations add an interesting twist to the gameplay and keep the puzzles fresh and challenging, but some are less interesting and more frustrating. If you are anything like me and get controller-throwingly annoyed by failing to complete a puzzle after an hour of attempts, this will be a very welcome mercy. There are dozens of scarves– protected by puzzles – in each location, but it isn’t necessary to collect them all in order to succeed, as long as you have enough to open the next door in the castle. Though this makes collecting the scarves much easier at first, the puzzles slowly increase in difficulty, forcing the player/s to think vertically, horizontally and every which way in-between in order to succeed. For instance in the first location, Rime and Ember are gifted with staves that have the power to create a solid bridge where their worlds meet, allowing them to climb to otherwise unreachable heights. Which each new location behind these doors comes a new twist on the game’s puzzles.

The doors, each requiring a certain number of scarves to open, take the player/s to a variety of different locations that are scattered throughout the castle, which acts as a hub area between them. It is discovered early on that these scarves are used to open locked doors that lie within a dilapidated castle. The puzzles in the early stages of the game start off fairly simplistic, easing the player/s into the idea of manipulating the environment with either heat or cold in order to collect mysterious scarves. Rime, for instance, is able to walk across bodies of water as they freeze in his version of the world, whereas Ember is able to swim right through them in hers. Players assume control of both Ember and Rime, each of whom can change the environment with their realm’s influence. The two protagonists, Ember and Rime, hail from worlds of fire and ice (respectively) and wield their realms’ elemental powers as they traverse a forgotten land in search of answers. Degrees of Separation is playable either as a single-player or co-op experience.

Degrees of separation game review