A FOLD APART

A paper missive to a faraway heart

Ever been in a long-distance relationship? Or had to balance one with moving for a job? Then get out the hankies and prepare for the ugly tears because A Fold Apart doesn’t hold back from grappling with the difficulties of matters of the heart. It handles the subject with a massive amount of maturity to create a concoction that’ll have your heart in a whirl, eyes getting watery, even as you solve the blocky puzzles that punctuate the dialogue.

It’s designed to be personal from the off, giving you the option to choose from (inclusive) two-character options to represent your in-game relationship – one character has gone to the big city to work as an architect for a year, while the other, a teacher, stays at home in their more rural town. As they text back and forth, 1 they frequently end up overthinking the messages. You play through the blocky puzzles as they attempt to work through their emotions, their inner monologues appearing on screen as you progress.

Your goal is to collect the star on each level so you can progress from one piece of paper to the next. You can fold certain edges over to make each side of the paper-based level interact, and each chapter introduces new mechanics, from page rotation to platforms that can only appear on one side of the paper. These are perplexing puzzles but they don’t become tiresome. 2 It’s pretty too, with the beautiful background environments reflecting the mood of the characters. Everything comes together to create a game that will make you introspective, and by your interaction, really care about this small and personal story.

Oscar Taylor-Kent

At times you can choose how to phrase your texts, which makes you feel engaged. The game is only a couple of hours long (and £14.99), which feels like the right length for the puzzles.