These differences are fairly intuitive and the first level of the game is mostly built around getting you accustomed to them, but later stages will each feature a new gimmick to influence how you interact with each other. Air vents that can be used for a boost up to a new area are only active near Ember, and Rime can push objects around in the snow on the ground to build up a giant snowball he can stand on or use as a puzzle element. Many lifts are powered by lanterns on chains, Ember’s world causing the lanterns to rise and Rime’s causing it to fall. Most of the other heat-based fundamentals are more consistent though. Bafflingly, despite this being such a clear mechanical distinction between them, there are moments where the game breaks its rule of having the two realms entirely separate for a few puzzles, Ember and Rime needing to meet at the dividing line between their worlds so Ember can run across the edge of the ice behind him.
Rime, however, freezes any water in his realm, only able to run across the top of it. Ember’s heat means the water remains normal, the fire girl unable to swim but capable of walking across the bottom of any water-filled area. The clearest case of this is how Ember and Rime impact water differently. Their influence isn’t just a visual one, as the environment reacts differently depending on which half it finds itself in. No matter where they’re positioned, Ember and Rime will both have half of the on-screen real estate devoted to their element, the heat of Ember’s world allowing for beautiful natural backgrounds to shine under a warm glow while Rime’s world turns most everything blue or covers it with snow, meaning that the intended contrast between their worlds is visually communicated well but at the cost of almost all of the icy versions of locations appearing incredibly similar. Collecting the scarves requires solving puzzles where Ember and Rime must influence the world differently with their powers.
It’s almost impressive how many times she can reword the same generic idea of the two growing closer by working together, although she will at least occasionally cover some other topics like the history of the king or how a new location is making the two lead characters feel.ĭegrees of Separation is meant to be played cooperatively with another player even though it is entirely possible to complete the game on your own by swapping characters when appropriate. Solving the puzzles needed to acquire the king’s scarves is a natural way for the two to grow more familiar with each other, but the woman narrating the game has to chime in after every scarf you grab.
Even if the game had not a single word of dialogue, you could likely imagine the course it would take and the visuals do a decent enough job nailing in both their separation and desire to be together, but Degrees of Separation can’t help but constantly talk during the experience. However, the castle of an absent king may hold the key to bringing them together, and by collecting his scarves they can unlock new parts of it that may help them finally escape their loneliness and come together despite one being a representative of fire and the other ice. One day these two meet at a bridge between their realms, but as they come together, they notice they are not just separated by location, but by a barrier that prevents them from so much as touching each other. As opposites they appear together constantly in video games, and Degrees of Separation continues the trend of keeping ice and fire separate… except here, that separation is both the tool of play and the main obstacle the two central characters wish to overcome.Įmber and Rime live alone in the world, Ember in a vibrant warm forest and Rime in a frozen over castle. Hot and cold are practically the prototypical example of two diametrically opposed forces, fire and ice unable to mix for long before one has gotten rid of the other.
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