Tandem: A Tale of Shadows is a cleverly crafted puzzle platforming adventure where you control one character from a top-down perspective and another from a side-on perspective, all within the same gamespace!
Playing a little like the excellent Toodee and Topdee, Tandem: A Tale of Shadows is an inventive dual-character puzzle platformer with a Burton-esque visual style, where both characters work together on different planes of perspective. It follows the story of a young girl called Emma and a little teddy bear called Fenton, who set out to solve the mystery of the disappearance of a famous magician.
In each level of Tandem: A Tale of Shadows your aim is to guide Fenton from the start to a glowing crystal shard. Fenton is viewed from a 2D side-on perspective and behaves similarly to a normal side-scrolling platformer character, able to run, jump and stand on buttons. Emma on the other hand is viewed from a top-down perspective (but within the same space and viewed from the same angle as Fenton) and she can move around boxes, stand on buttons and manipulate light sources.
You can switch between control of each character at will and you need to figure out how to make the pair work together to complete each level. For example, you may get Fenton to stand on a switch to open a door for Emma, or Emma may move a light source to create a platform out of shadows for Fenton to run across.
Tandem: A Tale of Shadows’ dual character puzzle platforming gameplay is a great concept and it allows for some very creative puzzle design. The environments are beautifully crafted and the way Emma and Fenton work together within them is a lot of fun. Highly recommended.
Download The Tandem: A Tale of Shadows Beta Demo Here (Steam)