Hidden Memories of the Gardens Between: rebuild and rediscover memories in VR

Hidden Memories of the Gardens Between healed something within me.

Back in 2018, Australian studio The Voxel Agents released a game called The Gardens Between, where you tag along with best friends Arina and Friendt as you manipulate time and interact with different objects to reconstruct childhood memories. This is a fun and very beautifully constructed puzzle-based game in which you fast-forward or rewind time to move through the level and recover memories while Arina and Friendt run along on the screen.

Nearly six years after its original release, the amazing storytellers over at The Voxel Agents decided to expand the experience beyond a controller-based game and brought it to VR with the title Hidden Memories of the Gardens Between. This new title is a wonderful addition to the incredible story in The Gardens Between, allowing players to go literally hands-on in this wild memory-rebuilding adventure.

Yes, it's as beautiful as it sounds.

The game begins with Friendt discovering Arina's diary while moving houses, and he begins to relive each memory, page by page, with the player putting them all back together. Arina and Friedt lead the player through puzzle-solving levels that consist of time manipulation, just like the original game, as well as interaction with background objects. Players can interact with things such as video game controllers and CDs, a saw, a log, a paintbrush, and many more items that will either go into Arina's diary as the player recovers the memory or will help in solving the puzzles within the levels.

Not only do players get to experience the masterpiece of storytelling that the original game is, but there are also 40 new, incredibly fun, and smart interactive VR-exclusive puzzles added to the story, fully remastered visuals for VR, and more, with the game having twice the content of the original game.

The time manipulation done in the VR setting is pretty fun and immersive, with players pinching left or right to rewind or fast-forward through certain parts, sometimes more than once, to solve each level. There are plenty of creative parts where the player needs to go through the same part twice, but at different times, and after interacting with other items in the same area. Though these puzzles can be a smidge challenging at times, it's what they're there for - to make the player think. It really makes you get into the shoes of these two kids as you go through their most cherished memories and bring them back to life.

Players can also lift and lower any surface in the game to their comfort level, which was a gigantic plus. Also, this is the kind of game where your movements won't be as wild as in other VR titles, so playing this sitting down is doable. Players can also turn and spin the map and levels around freely, and it just all looks incredible in VR. The soundtrack complements the environment and the overall chill vibes of the game perfectly and creates a really relaxing atmosphere for the player.

As I mentioned up top, I experienced feelings at certain points and with certain memories because, as the cool kids like to say, my neurospicy brain likes to delete memories for me at random, and seeing nostalgic moments, even if they belong to two fictional characters, being put back together and brought to life brought a smile to my face.

Hidden Memories of the Gardens Between comes highly recommended from us here at Pixigonal, especially to players who enjoy a cozy gaming experience that takes it a step further.

Hidden Memories of the Gardens Between is now out for the Meta Quest and Steam VR.

Pixigonal received a free copy of Hidden Memories of the Guardians Between in exchange for an honest review.