Degrees of Seperation is a puzzle platformer focused on cooperative gameplay. The core game mechanic is that you and your partner can’t touch, creating a divide between you. One of you plays a fire-based character and the other is an ice-based character.
In terms of gameplay, this fire and ice divide causes the environment you are in to react to the fire and ice. This divide can be moved and angled in order to affect different parts of the level. It isn’t a revolutionary game mechanic, but it’s unique enough to carry a lot of the game’s weight. New variations are added onto this game mechanic as you progress through the game, but they never feel tacked on. The biggest issue with the gameplay is that there are too many puzzles. It takes a very long time to progress to the next region of the game, and some of the puzzles get repetitive. There are only so many puzzles you can solve when they all have different variants of the same solution.
The other big issue the game has is the story. It feels like a sappy Disney movie and is usually overbearing. There is too much story, which is especially noticeable because it is so lackluster. The characters are pretty generic and underwritten. Given that it’s a puzzle game, it doesn’t need to have much of a plot, and it probably would have turned out better if they skipped the story altogether and just focused on the gameplay and level design.
The visuals are decent and fit together well, but aren’t anything special. The soundtrack isn’t very notable either, but it does its job.
Degrees of Seperation is a competent puzzle game in dire need of some content trimming. The level pacing is far too slow and leads to repetitive levels, all while a mediocre story plays in the background. Still, it has some good and even great ideas that give it a fair amount of strong moments. Worth playing for puzzle platformer fans that like the concept, but it isn’t a hidden gem that everyone must play.
