Wadjet Eye has made a name for itself over the last fourteen years with its distinct point-and-click adventure game style and storytelling. By no means an in-your-face studio, most of its titles delve into the fantastical with real, believable characters. Telling tales about life and the human condition through sci-fi, horror, or a whodunit, Wadjet Eye typically delivers. Does Old Skies’ sordid tale of time travel meet the standard?
Is there ever a happy story about time travel? Of all the “wow, that sounds great, but it isn’t” tropes out there—infinite wealth, eternal life, superpowers—time travel seems to be the most tragic. Old Skies takes a steady—I would say too steady—step into chronological manipulation with its own unique ruleset.
We play as Fia Quinn, one of few individuals in 2062 who are gifted with the ability to time travel after a presumably rigid vetting process. The company she works for, ChronoZen, offers a service to rich folks: a chaperoned trip through time. Want to experience the 90s? Not sure why, but sure! Want to ask an ancestor something? Ehhh, maybe you stay at home and our agent will do what you need done. You know, wouldn’t want to paradox yourself out of existence by talking directly to great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.
Old Skies tastefully sprinkles details along the way intuitively and naturally as the story unfolds so as not to overwhelm the player. We learn about how death is handled, what happens if a person somehow meets themselves in the past, and how this mysterious organization (ChronoZen) tries to preserve civilization through its nigh-infinitely large archive of every person who has ever lived. Put simply, some of us are too important in history to risk changing anything about us in the past. Those peasants among us classified as “low impact?” Do whatever you want to them!
Delving into different eras through a series of chapters, the general flow is Fia interacting in the present with her colleagues and a couple locations (like a bar or art gallery) and then going into the past with a client. In classic point-and-click fashion, Fia exists within a screen with a few objects of interest, collecting the occasional item before changing screens to visit one of five or so other places within that era. Talk to folks, rub items against other important things, and crack the case to move on to the next chapter. Nothing fancy here: standard point-and-click stuff.
The puzzles are fairly simple. I rarely got stuck, and even when I did, I was able to progress after exhausting all possible variables. Don’t expect an infinite bag of holding worth of items. I view this as a positive, as the puzzles aren’t interesting enough to warrant frustration or analysis paralysis. Still, some puzzles, such as figuring out how not to die to end a time loop, can grow tiring in their repetition. At first, preventing Fia’s death can be fun, but the sheer regurgitation of the same scene over and over grated on me. A minor quibble, but it’s important to highlight one of the low points of the game.
Perhaps the weakest part of Old Skies is the pacing. I can be pretty forgiving when it comes to slow storytelling because sometimes that build up is necessary for a fantastic twist or payoff. Unfortunately, Old Skies takes about fifteen hours to stick the landing, and that’s an investment I didn’t care for. The first half of the game, especially, can feel like a slog. With a premise like this—what a time travel agent like this has to endure while the world around them is constantly in flux—I was expecting something grander; however, in true Wadjet Eye fashion, the larger-than-life world and plot are grounded by ordinary characters. In games past, this has been one of the studio’s strengths, as the approach is novel compared to the competition, but I sometimes found the protagonists as fascinating as a beige wall.
While all that can sound damning, the best part of Old Skies is where it ends up and what the story says about life, human desire, and purpose. Thematically, the game goes to some deep places, but the execution makes it feel like a struggle. The intense, gratifying moments are a punch to the gut, though, and if you’re in for that, you’ll enjoy those moments. Me, they were too far apart and too brief. Some threads connect the chapters, such as Fia’s time-traveling colleagues, but the characters and delivery of how they change over time simply don’t entice.
This is no fault of the voice actors. Old Skies is almost completely voice acted, and I enjoyed the performance. I’m afraid the modest, safe script may have inhibited the talent, but the deliveries were welcome, regardless. Visually, Wadjet Eye’s artwork is distinctive, but dated. Fourteen years ago, this style worked, but today—I’m not sure the characters breathe life into the writing. On the other hand, the environments look wonderful, with beautiful detail and colors that blend together in the powerful lighting throughout. Sadly, the characters clash against it.
I certainly didn’t dislike my time with Old Skies, but I didn’t love it, either. What a wonderful ending that almost made me forget and forgive the longest fifteen hours I’ve experienced in a game recently. The last chapter is absolute chef’s kiss stuff. Somehow, though, a story with a mysterious organization with limitless resources, a thoughtful ruleset, and time manipulation didn’t excite.
