We originally met Ben and Isabelle's alter egos in Qwok Games' first incarnation of Together Alone when it was a much shorter game with a simpler, sweeter story. It may technically be the same game, but more has changed than you may think. Revising the user interface to be more intuitive—including keyboard commands such as [U] to undo a single step or [R] to restart from the beginning of a puzzle—adding diverse puzzle elements, and tripling the number of levels, creators Jan Niestadt and Gijs Rosengarten have evolved Together Alone: Love in Limbo into a richer, more polished, and more substantial game then its predecessor. Additionally, the simple character interactions of the first have been developed into a full-fledged—and immensely snarky—narrative, replete with complications and twists which enhance and mirror the gameplay. It's a bit what you'd imagine a game made by Charles Dickens and Danny DeVito would look like.

It's hard to find fault with the results without nitpicking, so here's a nitpick: in some ways it's almost too complex. The evolving black comedy of the story panels, which are interspersed between levels, and the wide range of puzzles, many of which require a lot of back-and-forth between characters to solve, make this a hefty undertaking, not a light jaunt of laid-back game playing. While it's easy enough to skip past the story or disable it in the options, you can only skip a few puzzles before you're required to stick it out and solve your way through, taking a bit of the casual out of the gameplay. Then again, that's hardly a complaint, especially if you're craving this style of puzzle. In fact, once you make your way through the first 75 levels, you can continue on with a level editor and player-made puzzles. Together Alone: Love in Limbo is overflowing with hours entertainment, a remarkable treat for fans as well as those new to the genre.

Together Alone: Love in Limbo