1. Old Man's Journey is one of those games you'll probably start and finish in the same sitting. Or at least over the course of a weekend. Or maybe it will take you a month to play through a game that's under two hours long. I don't know. Maybe you're dumb. Maybe you have almost no free time. There's a lot of factors at play here.
2. The setup is you are an old man and you go on a journey. It's not just a clever title. You are sitting on your stoop and a courier comes up on a bicycle and gives you a letter. You read it, pop inside to grab your things--suspiciously already packed--and get going.
3. The mechanics of Old Man's Journey are simple enough but never explained at all. You click on various parts of the the landscape and can stretch it about into different shapes. You click on a spot to have the old man to journey to it. You can also click on sheep to make them move to another patch of grass. That's it.
4. Controls on this for PC are mouse only which is kind of bummer.
5. This could be considered a really slow platformer where you contort the ground rather than jump. The piece of land you are standing on cannot be moved so you are forced to puzzle your way through what order you need to visit the platforms.
6. Eventually, there are waterfalls you can slide down, sheep that must be clicked on and wheels you need to roll around to knock over barriers. It adds a satisfying bit of progression.
7. Even w/ these additions, at no point does Old Man's Journey ever get hard. This shit is casual. Deal w/ it.
8. Given gameplay is not much of a challenge, exploration has to be a reward unto itself for Old Man's Journey to work. We are not talking a massive chunk of gaming here so this is more than enough to pull you through the whole thing.
9. It works because it's just so pretty. The hand painted look builds a sentimental feeling which jibes well w/ the whole idea of an old man going on a journey.
10. The wonderful scntfc composed soundtrack does much the same. It has the strummed acoustic instrument sounds you'd likely expect from such an endeavor but adds unexpected electronic elements that nevertheless blend in seamlessly. Like all of his scores, it's well worth checking out even if you don't play the game.
11. The story here is really more backstory. All that happens in game is you walk around. As you do, you run into sights that remind you of your past after each major section. You are rewarded w/ a mostly still image from your past. You are left to your own devices to piece the specifics of your history together.
12. Some of the turns in this history surprised me. Your journeying old man is not entirely w/o flaws and his lonely situation at the outset is not something that simply happened to him. This old man is, frankly, pretty much a dickhead. It makes everything a lot more interesting in the end.
13. It may sound like faint praise but Old Man's Journey is sparing in its use of your time and energy but delivers handsomely on what effort you do put into it. It may I also be faint praise to say that if you look at this game, realize it's a light puzzle game w/ great art assets and think you'll like it, you almost certainly will. Go ahead and give this a whirl if you run across a free evening sometime. I is pretty straightforward in what it promises and it delivers.
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