Shady Part of Me
Everything sounds cooler en français
Why
- Creative and sometimes challenging puzzles
- Distinctive art-style and beautiful soundtrack
- Creepy vibes and story
- Easy to pick up & put down for quick sessions
Why Not
- Essentially a puzzle game, so if you dislike those it might not be for you
Impressions
It's crazy to me that this only has ~650 reviews at the time of writing, it's an absolute gem. The art style and music really drew me into the vague story, which is slowly revealed by conversations between a little girl, her shadow and a mysterious 'other'. The details are left very open ended even after credits roll, but I don't think that takes away from the emotional journey you'll go on over the ~5 hour runtime at all.
The gameplay is pretty great too; essentially just solving puzzles but the creative use of light and shadows cast by objects in the real world lead to some really satisfying/amazing sequences. There's a good distribution of easy to head-scratchingly difficult puzzles, mostly landing in the 'challenging enough to make you think but not break the flow' category. Auto-saving checkpoints after each puzzle and the game immediately picking up from the latest on boot make it easy to play in short bursts when you have time, but like most games of this type longer sessions are ideal to really soak in the atmosphere.
Definitely give this one a try, ideally with the (IMO far superior) French voice acting. I liked it so much that I looked up what else they've worked on and what do you know, they're also behind MIO, apparently releasing in late 2025 and a game I already had on my wishlist/was looking forward to a lot. After playing Shady Part of Me it went from looking interesting to probably an insta-buy just on the strength of their previous work.