Tandem: A Tale of Shadows graced every puzzle lover by releasing October 28th with a one-week delay on Xbox. The delay had me worried, but I’m grateful it finally made its appearance. The game was developed by Monochrome and published by Hatinh Interactive and is Monochrome’s debut game for Xbox. This unique puzzle adventure title is a top-down view while in control of our main character, Emily, whom is accompanied by a teddy bear named Fenton. Fenton was brought to life by powers beyond Emily’s understanding but they both work together to solve a local mystery. The story that plays with each launch of the game explains that Scotland Yard has still not had any luck in finding a lost boy; Thomas Kane. Emily sees a stage coach rushing down the streets of London and sees Fenton fall out. This is where our story picks up as Emily and Fenton chase the horse carriage to a large mansion on the hunt for Thomas Kane.
The gameplay of Tandem: A Tale of Shadows is a puzzle game with very forgiving checkpoints that are given if either of the controllable characters die. Looking down we can see Emily and the Mansion which looks humongous in comparison. Fenton is not on the ground floor like Emily, but is rather hanging on the side of the wall. To describe it more geometrically, the bear can move side to side and jump on platforms along the Z-axis. Emily must help Fenton move around this mansion since a strange powerful gem put him into a dark realm. He can move along the walls of the manor, but also along the shadows that are casted by the aid of Emily. The mansion itself is broken up into sections and sticks to a theme for each. The game is quite good in a sense that it manages to introduce new mechanics with each area and is constantly changing. The puzzles were never stale, as some required some fast swapping at times between the characters. They proved hard at first, but the extremely generous checkpointing system made it a breeze. Tandem excels in evolving through gameplay as you progress the 44 levels, however the checkpoints could have been spaced apart more for a tougher challenge.
Each area introduces new enemies or objects to use in solving the puzzles. Around the time the player adjusts to the new challenges, the game adds in new features. The final level in each area is a boss level. However, each of the bosses are pretty easy considering the leniency of the checkpoints. The game was updated this week and fixed some minor issues in the game and made certain spots even easier. The area’s themes are unique to each world in the Kane manor, but the final level will use all the skills learned up to that point. Apart from using shadows to help Fenton grab the shadow crystal to end the level there are; Spiders, steampunk clockwork puzzles, timed platforming, and even ink valves to drain and fill for Fenton.
The visuals for Tandem: A Tale of Shadows are above what I had expected after watching the trailer. The game has stunning cutscene animations that play at the end and beginning of an area, but looks rather simplistic when the point of view shifts for the puzzles. Due to the view point, objects are much taller than Emily and this is to help with ease of creating shadows, but also add to the feeling of the mansion being larger than we are as a child. There are minor issues, such as when finishing a level as Fenton, Emily’s face disappears when watching the outro leaving just her eyes behind. Emily looks much like a porcelain doll and Fenton is a regular brown bear with bad posture. Apt, considering he has no bones. Swapping between characters with either trigger on the controller also changes the color scale, Fenton is stuck in a black and white filter since he is the one affected by these peculiar blue crystals the player finds at the end of each level.
The audio of Tandem includes an OST and some quirky sound effects for jumping around as Fenton. Emily is stuck on the ground and can maneuver objects or enemies for Fenton to be able to climb over and avoid death. The jumping sound effect for Fenton sounds a bit annoying with how much the player will need to jump around. However, I became conditioned to the odd sounds over time. Emily also sneezes in every single room that you enter in the game. She has some serious sinus issues from all the dust around the mansion. These are the two most childish sounds in the game and are used frequently, but the music for the game is perfect for scratching your head and solving puzzles. The score for the title sounds mystical and like that of a dream state. Swapping between characters doesn’t affect the music, but the areas in the mansion do. Last topic for the sound quality of the game is the voice acting. Emily’s accent is hard to place at times but she speaks English with a European accent. That’s as accurate as I can be since it sounds like her accent changes during certain scenes. There are only two other voices you hear throughout the game and are the narrator and another main character near the ending.
The longevity of Tandem is under par in my opinion. At least comparing the price point for the game to the time required to beat it. It took me around 6 hours to solve all 44 puzzles in the game, however there are many secrets scattered throughout the game. As Emily or Fenton explore a level the player should ensure that they are looking at the walls of the manor to ensure they aren’t missing any secrets hidden in the walls. The secrets explore a bit of the game’s story with the missing child of Thomas Kane and some are hidden very well. I did manage to miss quite a few of the secrets and still need to utilize level select to find the ones I am missing. The majority of the secrets are just small rooms that are hard to find, but there are also holes in the walls that are for solving the puzzles.
Overall, Tandem has evolving puzzles that never became too easy or stale to play. The checkpoints remove most of the challenge in this child like story and are in an abundance. The price is about what I’d expect for a title with above average visuals and audio that capitalizes on unique puzzle gameplay, yet it is quite short. The game does seem childish at times since the main character is a young girl, but the story felt lacking to me. Particularly the ending of Tandem left me expecting and wanting more. After the final cutscene finished, I was more shocked that I had finished my journey with such an abrupt end to it all. It is more of an open-ended story, so who knows where it will go from here.
Conclusion
Tandem is a unique puzzle game that uses shadows on top of character swapping to help each character get through the levels. Emily is in search for Thomas Kane and chases after the only source of information she has. The story seems to be more an explanation to why you are solving these puzzles than a true adventure. If you enjoy a great puzzle game, then this game warrants a though I would personally recommend waiting for a small sale. The game does have value, but most will be done with the game in less than 10 hours fully and most likely not wanting to return for more unless a sequel is announced.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox Series S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
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