Thank you Lightning Rod Games for sending us a review code!

A Fold Apart is a charming puzzle-platformer that tells the story of a long-distance relationship. Upon launching the game, you get to decide how the relationship will be structured. I opted for a male/female relationship over a same-sex one. You’ll get to play as and both characters as they communicate with each other and often misinterpret the texts between them.

The orange-colored character (female in my playthrough) is a nature-loving teacher while the blue (male for my game) is an architect. They begin the game in a happy relationship until the guy gets a once in a lifetime opportunity to design and build a skyscraper far away. Thinking their relationship is solid enough to handle the time away, he heads off to prove himself and pursue his dream. The characters text often and you can choose how to set the mood by choosing which message to send.

It seems that no matter which message you decide to send, it will get misinterpreted by the recipient. With each misinterpretation are a series of puzzles that will have to be solved by folding the sides and corners of the levels like a piece of paper. You also get to flip over the level and work with both sides of it. Your goal is to have the character get to the star while sorting out their feelings and doubts.

In the beginning, you only get to fold the levels from the sides. Later on, you get the ability to fold vertically, and lastly working with corners. The pacing is pretty good in this game and I found some puzzles easier to solve than others. There are walkthrough videos available which are quite helpful if you get stuck. One of the corner bending puzzles required some pixel hunting to get the angle “just right” to complete. It seems that even if you are a pixel off, you cannot complete it.

With the help of consulting a walkthrough a few times, I was able to complete this game in four hours. It’s not very long and it does not seem to offer much replayability. It does have a lot of charm and the story is engaging though I’m not a fan of the ending.

Other than the same-sex option, there’s not much to complain about morally. You can kill your character by flipping them over without having a platform for them to land on. Even with platforms, they seem to take long-distance falls quite well without any injuries or bloodshed.

The background music is pleasant to listen to, but forgettable. There is no voice acting. The paper flipping/folding sound effects are spot on though.

If you enjoy puzzle platformer games, A Fold Apart is worth looking into if you don't mind the LGBT relationship possibilities. It's quite a charming game and I look forward to more titles from Lightning Rod Games.