Shady Part of Me Critic Reviews

Excellent gameplay, unique ideas, and a strong presentation make for an easily recommendable narrative puzzle platformer.

Shady Part of Me has captivated us with its stunning artistic direction and its creativity. The puzzles are cleverly constructed and based on an efficient physics engine. The dual gameplay is used to its fullest potential and is constantly renewed with new ideas and elements that will challenge you without being overwhelming. In addition, the sublime soundtrack featuring Hannah Murray certainly won't disappoint.

This cute, well-designed and relaxing little gem takes playing with light and shadows to the next level. Its gameplay is based on the cooperation between a little girl that’s afraid of light, and her shadow twin who helps her in her journey through magical, a little surrealistic and beautifully drawn environments.

In a beautiful mix between 2D e 3D, a little girl and her shadow show us the fragility of the human mind, between fears and anxiety. Along many psychological sessions, the two characters try to cooperate to solve a large number of puzzles based on light, shadows and gravity. A little gem.

If Shady Part of Me’s narrative was a little less vague, the story would probably have greater stakes than are evident. None of that compromises the high standards of design and the entertaining challenge of the game itself, though, and the visual diversity of each act ensures that the black-and-white aesthetic never seems the least bit drab.

While it may not be a very long game, Shady Part of Me is well worth the time playing through for both the interesting gameplay and aesthetic that surrounds what is a pretty somber story.

Shady Part of Me looks very similar to games like Alice, Contrast, Inside, Limbo and Little Nightmares in terms of atmosphere, gameplay or artistic direction. Despite all these influences, the game has its own personality and manages to seduce us frankly.

Shady Part of Me is an emotional journey that explores the fragile balance between light and shadow.

Shady Part of Me tells a compelling story of solitude, resistance and self-consciousness. Douze Dixièmes' first game is a delicate one, a realistic portrait of a tribulated adolescence.

A Shady Part of Me is short and could be completed in an evening or two, so it’s much easier to digest what’s on offer before the simplicity of it wears you out. Overall, I would love to have seen more complexity in my time with it, or simply deeper twists on an already crowded genre. If not mechanically then emotionally. LIMBO and INSIDE were standouts not only because of the mechanics but the world-building and tension as well. Likewise, Braid was an homage that never squandered on difficulty. I hope that what comes next from this studio is a bit more daring than what came before it, as A Shady Part of Me inspires confidence.

Without ever revolutionizing the genre and endowed with less inspired passages, this puzzle and platform game, able to test the most lively minds, merges content and form to transcribe a duality that is both playful and visual.

This is a peaceful experience, full of puzzles and a compelling story about inner struggles, which we have found to be perfect to sit back and relax.

Shady Part of Me remains a good level puzzle-platformer and an experience that, in its own small way, has something to say.

Shady Part of Me offers an interesting and entertaining take on the light/shadow dichotomy used as a puzzle mechanic, though the lack of a strong narrative to bind it all together (when one is clearly hinted at throughout) does raise a single but important warning flag.