The Gardens Between
Fair · Narrative · 2018
Steam Deck VerifiedThe verdict
WAIT.
It has sold at a BANGER price before.
Today
$19.99Fair
On its price record
$5.38BANGER
- Length
- 2.5h
- Value
- $8.00/hr
- Reviews
- 94% positive
Watch this gameOne alert when it is worth buying.
Minimum on the Steam store: 4 GB of memory, Intel HD 4000 Series, 2 GB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
The Gardens Between is a surreal puzzle adventure that follows best friends, Arina and Frendt, as they fall into a mysterious world of beautiful garden islands. Manipulate time to solve puzzles and discover the secrets of each island.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
The value story
It has never been cheaper than $2.39. That was November 2023. 66 discounts in the 8 years on record. They run about 66 percent off, roughly 5 weeks apart. The math puts its BANGER price at $5.38. The record reaches that level 25 times.
Value puts it in the top 9 percent of the games it competes with. It is pricier than 92 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 96 percent. The nearest things to it, Riven ($34.99, scores 60) and The Beginner's Guide ($9.99, scores 59), are both worse buys on this math.
80 from critics against 94 percent from players, and the player number comes from people who own the game.
Steam's global achievement data puts 50 percent of players at this game's ending achievement. The median game this site can measure sits at 15. This site sampled 413 of its Steam-purchase reviews; none were written by buyers who refunded it, sampled from reviews written March 2020 to August 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 72 percent of the 295 reviews written there were positive, against 94 percent overall, and those are 13 percent of everything written about it.
Valve rates it Steam Deck Verified, and at 2.5 hours it is short enough to finish on one.
The drop-off
61% start to 50% finishSteam counts a larger share of its players at the ending achievement than it does for most games this site can measure. Steam global achievements
What players say
A short game (between one and two hours) with a story we all know: Friends who have lived next door to each other saying goodbye as one moves away. A story about the past, the present, and the future, and how reluctant we can be to let go of something that was joyful. But just because a story has been done doesn't mean it doesn't have value in each telling. We're taken through the story of Arina and Frendt's...
Since this is a short game, I'll try to be more concise with my thoughts. Since this is such a short game, there's bound to be spoilers and I think this game is better played blind as you can then piece together what's happening yourself as you go along. The Gardens Between is a beautiful game about reliving and reframing your memories with a loved one that you're going to miss due to some kind of life...
Recommend on the basis of getting it on sale. This is not a long game, and while I enjoyed the overall vibe, the levels didn't introduce enough difficulty to recommend the game at full price. It is cute and novel though.
Steam reviews, mixed to match its Steam ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
Cite this score
The Gardens Between scores 62/100 on the BANG Score (fair value) as of Oct 2, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/600990/the-gardens-betweenReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 26, price as of Oct 1.
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