A Fold Apart

We need more games with this kind of courage. A Fold Apart cuts its own path in both puzzles and storytelling, providing players with a genuine tale of two people attempting to make their relationship work despite plenty of obstacles, the most obvious of which is geographic distance. Through authentic sounding texts and poetic musings, you're taken on a tour through their thoughts, exploring all the things that are important to them about both each other and themselves. Their problems ought to ring true for anyone who has attempted to see a relationship through troubled water, though the way in which its all presented -- a mix of cartoonish graphics and whimsical typography -- helps keep things from ever growing too dark or overly dramatic.

But most interesting is how the puzzles themselves are designed to mimic the problems they're experiencing. The novel mechanic of folding and flipping pictures to create new paths for them to follow serves as a lovely metaphor for what it's like to attempt to find new ways to keep love alive amidst major life changes and evolving personalities. That said, the puzzle mechanics can feel a bit awkward at times. Folding and unfolding the paper pictures is simple enough, but making a single mistake can lead to a series of useless moves you'll be forced to undo as you search for the right one. Hints are available, but adequate guidance up front would have been useful in limiting our reliance on them. This is far from a deal-breaker, though. A Fold Apart is a brave little game with some big ideas on its mind that are bound to resonate with many players.