DERU - The Art of Cooperation

[i] My Experience [/i] My co-op partner and I first tried the demo for DERU, and found ourselves excited to get into the full game. We liked the coordination required as well as the simplistic abstract art featured within the game. Once we got into the actual game, we appreciated the other playable shapes we were given to use (outside of the triangle): the circle, which can lose or gain mass by giving or taking it from your partner, and the square, which can leave its mass around the level in the form of blocks to intercept certain obstacles. Unfortunately, after playing through the first two worlds, the game began to grow tiresome and became a slog. My co-op partner had purchased it (we played using Steam's Remote Play Together feature) and so we wanted to ensure that he got his money's worth, but we found ourselves less and less excited each time we played. Solving the puzzles always felt "bumbly" to me - we seemed to stumble on the solution rather than devise it in advance with any cunning. And since there is no real story to latch on to, the only incentive to continue playing is the enjoyment of solving the puzzles (which was absent for us). I also didn't like the way that developer Ink Kit hid some of the player checkpoints under various masses of white or black color, requiring you to explore to find them. Another closely-related irritation was when the developers would stack two different colors of lines on top of each other. You'd attempt to cross a line that your color could successfully traverse only to destroy yourself on the "enemy" color below it. We finally called it quits on what seemed like the penultimate level of the game, entitled "Renatus." There were at least four sections (we were stuck on the fourth), and they all must be completed on every attempt. After trying a number of ideas (and having to re-do the initial three sections multiple times), we decided to take a break and come back to the game with the fresh set of eyes. Unfortunately, the next play-session felt the same. Although I can recommend checking out the demo to see the concept and artistic presentation, I wouldn't recommend a purchase.

Let's say... your little cousin comes to your house, he wants to play with you but you don’t have any game for co-op. What should you choose you may say. Think no more just pick DERU. The game is so simple that me and my younger cousin learnt how to play it in a few seconds. There are 2 shapes on the map (like triangles, squares or circles in black and white color) and the goal of this game is to get both of those shapes in a correct place. To finish the current round you have to cooperate with your friend (or cousin in this case) to block a waterfall by using a shape of opposite color of the waterfall (fe. black triangle will block white waterfall and vice versa). Had a lot of fun with this title.I can no doubtly recommend it to everyone looking for some co-op action.

Супер и весело 10/10

This game is by far the best one to play with Steam Remote Play! The first time I encountered this game was a long time before its release at the Game Convention in Zurich. Back then I said, this game needs to have online multiplayer and not just local. Thanks to steam remote play, the dev was able to integrate it, so basically only one person has to buy the game and the second person can join in too. Works well with each having a controller. It can also be played alone, but generally together it's so much more fun. The game's art style is simple, but it makes the game very complex, as you need to differenciate between black and white to solve the puzzle. And believe me, you will accidentally kill your player more often than you want to admit it. It has a very nice learning curve, it is not too hard, but not too easy too. For me one of the best coop games on steam and very well executed with the steam remote play. If you think the price is too high? Well it might seem like that, but you can enjoy this game multiple times with multiple people and only one person has to buy it, so it is worth it.

Deru is one of the best co-op games I have played in a while. This game is perfect over Remote Play Together because there's little need to worry about latency. This game is gorgeous, simplistic, and beautiful. You need to play this game with someone who is patient and communicative, because you WILL mess up. But it's okay, because each level will end pleasingly and make your combined efforts worth it. The gameplay is simple - move your characters to the goals, while helping each other. Each level is fresh and unique. Everything is perfectly designed to work together. Once we finish this game, we'll start again.

Great aesthetics Good puzzles Good for local co-op play, or in-city remote play... But, anything more, the lag just kills the game... absolutely unplayable when playing between two countries and don't even try playing when you're playing co-op across two continents (Frames per second changes to Seconds per frame)...

DERU est un jeu de réflexion en coopération assez court, mais très sympathique! Le but du jeu est assez simple: chaque joueur contrôle un personnage blanc ou noir, et doit prendre sa sortie respective pour finir le niveau. L'aspect réflexion provient des flots noirs et blancs qui traversent les niveaux: un personnage peut plonger dans un flot de couleur opposée pour le bloquer, mais tout contact avec un flot de même couleur le tue instantanément. S'ensuit donc une chorégraphie entre les deux joueurs qui doivent coopérer pour assurer leur réussite. J'ai personnellement trouvé que le jeu était un peu lent au démarrage (le premier chapitre est à mon goût un peu trop facile et répétitif), mais cette impression a immédiatement disparu dans tout le reste du jeu, grâce à un level design qui se renouvelle et se réinvente. Le seul défaut du jeu réside dans son prix: 15€ pour une campagne d'environ 5-6 heures, c'est un peu cher. Heureusement, le jeu est régulièrement en réduction, où il tourne autour des 5 euros, un prix bien plus abordable. De plus, le jeu fonctionne en co-op locale, donc pas besoin d'acheter le jeu deux fois! En bref, si vous êtes intéressé par un jeu de réflexion assez détente, à jouer avec quelqu'un d'autre, ne cherchez pas plus loin, mais attendez les soldes par contre :P

A cute puzzle game to play with a friend/partner. Somewhat short, but many puzzles have multiple solutions, and it has a nice symmetric sort of asymmetric gameplay.

The game is really absorbing and fun. It is meant to be played by two players. It is mainly logical puzzles but sometimes skills are needed in order to progress further. But always teamworks wins. The puzzles-levels are slowly becoming harder. We played it for 5 hours in the span of three days. Usually after the break we can easily manage to move further from where we have been stucked before.

Not Recommended