Shady Part of Me is yet another Playdead-style puzzle platformer, but this time with a unique gimmick- the puzzles take place in both 2D and 3D, with each side affecting the other. You play as two girls, one is a 2D shadow and the other is a 3D girl who’s afraid to step into the light. Doing things like flipping switches affects both girls’ worlds and moving objects in 3D changes how the shadows move. The puzzles are sufficiently challenging, though skew towards the easy side if you exclude the optional objectives to reach the collectible paper cranes, and due to a huge variety of gimmicks and tricks introduced over the game’s 4 hour runtime, things rarely get boring, but they never really combine these unique concepts to make something truly special. Unfortunately this is also another game that slows down character movement far too much in order to make the game longer, which is a particular sticking point when the game has you shuttle both characters down long hallways one by one after solving a puzzle. The sketched art style could use more color to make locations feel more distinct, but it’s still excellent, with lots of cool visual effects and the music is lovely, if sparse. The story is also intriguing and kept me interested all the way through with some solid voice acting, but the ending was a little too vague, leaving it somewhere between surface level and the philosophical, interpretive level without falling squarely into either camp, giving the illusion of being deep without having much to say. Still, the game has a lot of charm and is a delight to play, with the unique mechanic being utilized in just about every way imaginable. While the flaws are numerous, they’re all really minor and in the end Shady Part of Me is still an imaginative, engaging experience that I highly recommend.