Old Man’s Journey is a short indie adventure game with charming graphics, a touching story, and a unique gameplay mechanic.
Type: Single-player
Genre: Adventure, Puzzle
Developer: Broken Rules
Publisher: Broken Rules
Release date: 18 May, 2017
What is happening in the game?
One day, an old man is visited by a postman and he receives a letter. He knows right away that he must travel to the sender of the letter and you must guide him through all the obstacles and puzzles in order to assure he completes his journey. While you do that, the old man reveals tiny bits of his not-so-fortunate past, which together tell the full story of his life.
Gameplay Video
Pros
- Story | One of the most praised aspects of this game is certainly its story. What starts as a peaceful journey with no clear path, ends in a somewhat tragic and touching adventure of an old man. I don’t want to reveal too many details about the story, so I’ll just say that Old Man’s Journey is all about reuniting the old man with his family. The story does become a bit predictable as you progress, but that doesn’t make it any less beautiful, so that shouldn’t bother you too much.
- Graphics | The graphics are stunning; the developers really made an effort with them. If I understand correctly, everything is hand-drawn, which is also a huge plus. Animations are also quite well made. I really loved the level where you have to drive a truck across the countryside.
- Intriguing Gameplay | When I first launched the game, I was quite surprised when I saw that it is not solely a fun adventure puzzle game with no special twists. When I got stuck about ten minutes into the game, I suddenly discovered that you can actually move the landscape in order to reach your goal! There’s a trick, though: you can’t move the part of the landscape on which you’re currently standing, so you have to move around a little and try to figure out how to change the environment in a certain way.
- Soundtrack | If you look at the Store Page for this game, one of the user-defined tags displayed says “Great Soundtrack” and I can only agree with that. There are 12 songs featured in this game, each fitting the atmosphere of the associated scene and story. The soundtrack was made by Scntfc, who is also produced Oxenfree’s amazing soundtrack.
- Puzzles | There are a few different elements which you have to figure out, not only the thing with the landscape. Each type of puzzle is first introduced with a super simple environment with its only goal being to show you how things work. After a while, the puzzles get a tiny bit harder and they make you think a bit. The puzzles never get extremely hard and you can’t lose in any way, so you don’t have to be all stressed out. You can take it easy; the game will wait until you figure everything out.
Cons
- Length | The game is a bit over an hour long, which is slightly disappointing. If you’re smarter than the average gamer, you can probably finish it in even less than that. That hour was certainly a very enjoyable one, but I still think that everything ended a bit too soon, although the story couldn’t really be stretched any further without becoming boring.
- No Achievements | I know it’s the story that matters, but it never hurts to include a little extra to cheer people up and make them keep going. Sadly, there are no achievements in this game and it would really be nice to have at least a few of them.
- Pricing | For the amount of content that is included, I can’t say that $8 is a justified price. The game is just too short and even though the story and the graphics are really lovely, there should still be something more to fill the void.
The final verdict
The only real problem this game has is being too short, and therefore the price should probably be adjusted a bit. I certainly enjoyed the story and the unique gameplay, which made a big impression on me. The puzzles were quite interesting and it’s uncommon to see such ingenuity in puzzle games.
If you’re unsure whether to buy this game or not, I would suggest you wait for a discount, even if only a small one. I enjoyed every minute of the gameplay and if you’re a fan of similar adventure games, definitely keep an eye out for this one.
With love,
BirdCute
