Shady Part of Me review on PC from igamesnews.com

Among the traditional end-of-year blockbusters, there is often a more modest, more personal project that comes from the independent field. This year, the Parisian studios Douze Dixièmes and the publisher Focus Home Interactive take on this role and offer us a puzzle and platform game. This dark and dreamlike fable reacts to the name Shady Part of Me. Our journey of initiation can begin.

Between shadow and light

Shady Part of Me tells us about the journey of a little girl without a name in search of freedom and about her shadow, who has the peculiarity of being completely independent. Our heroine, who was surrounded by darkness for a long time, eventually developed a brotherly relationship with her alter ego, a true mirror inverted from the latter. A minimalist narrative emerges from this unique situation, composed of a scattered exchange between these two beings who get to know each other and the rare interventions of a mysterious voice-over. The interpretation by Hannah Murray, a British actress best known for her roles in the series Skins (Cassie) and Games of Thrones (Vère), adds significantly to the haunting atmosphere that emerges from a touching adventure of simplicity and sincerity.

You don’t have to overdo it to get exercise, and Shady Part of Me is edifying proof of that. Far from being perfect, the game from the Douze Dixièmes studios takes us into a dark surrealistic universe, while we draw inspiration from children’s dreams and nightmares in watercolors, but also in chiaroscuro with its main theme … the light. The different environments thus arise from an overflowing imag ination, which is influenced by these dreamlike and visual contrasts mentioned above.

The result is a surprising journey punctuated by a sober and elegant soundtrack who knows how to be discreet most of the time, not without sometimes daring to take the full measure of this story … that of a scared little girl and his shadow ruthless.

A fraternal duality

The Twelve Tenths Studios rely on a puzzle game mixed with platforms. This genre lends itself perfectly to the concept of Shady Part of Me to transcribe that unique relationship between the two protagonists through gameplay. The duality between the little girl and her autonomous shadow forces players to alternate between the two characters to solve a series of puzzles and progress.

These puzzles, imagining a constant play of shadow and light, are regularly renewed with the addition of new mechanics across the various acts. The latter, which are also perfectly introduced so as not to “disorient” the players at first glance, slowly but surely make the puzzles more difficult.

Beyond the great classics of the genre, namely objects to be moved or even mechanisms to be triggered, everything revolves around light projections and overlays. Shady Part of Me plays with our sights, disturbs our senses and confuses us during an adventure that lasts 5 to 6 hours. It’s about perceiving and then grasping the constant changes in perspective caused by the actions of the little girl and her shadow who cannot endure the light and cannot survive without a source of light. Fortunately, our protagonists have the power to rewind time, test an essential skill, make mistakes and start over until they find the solution that leads them to a new riddle and ultimately to that freedom that they hoped for. However, progress suffers from less inspired passages and somewhat confused handling … mainly during these famous changes in perspective.