For as a lot as change might be scary, it may be all of the lonelier to stay stagnant whereas the world and the folks in it proceed transferring on with out you. That is the crux of Outdated Skies, a point-and-click journey sport during which you play as Fia Quinn, an expert time traveler proof against the consequences of the shifting timeline. On the floor, Outdated Skies first seems to be your typical time-travel story concerning the pitfalls of affecting time, however the story surprises in the way it as a substitute delves into the negatives of not influencing the movement of time, of being somebody that nobody remembers, no matter what you accomplish. It makes for an extremely affecting story, one which has caught with me because the credit rolled.
As Fia Quinn, you are tasked with traversing the timeline via a handful of moments in New York’s historical past, starting from the Gilded Age to the morning of September 11, 2001 to an impactful afternoon in 2042. Fia works for ChronoZen, an company that takes rich shoppers again in time to relive moments of the previous, clear up their long-forgotten mysteries, or change minor particulars about their life that they remorse. The work not often goes as deliberate, forcing Fia to adapt on the fly and deduce one of the simplest ways to get the consumer what they need with out affecting elements of historical past that the algorithm-following higher-ups have decreed should stay unchanged.
For higher and worse, Outdated Skies is extraordinarily linear, with just one answer to every of the issues that Fia comes up in opposition to. When it comes to narrative theming, I like this a lot–it reinforces that Fia’s destiny on this story is unyieldingly static and that the timeline generally should observe a set sequence of occasions. However this construction hurts the gameplay, too. There have been instances once I considered a strategy to clear up the issue at hand, and it did not work–forcing me to guess a bunch of random options instead–and if the fitting reply was nonsensical, I would develop irritated, particularly if the answer I would offered utilized a throughline of logic the sport had already established in an earlier puzzle. If I’ve to make use of money for Fia to bribe somebody within the very first mission, utilizing cash to bribe folks needs to be a sound approach of gathering data later when talking to people who find themselves clearly in search of money. And but, I do not suppose I might bribe a single different individual for the remainder of the story, regardless of cash showing in Fia’s pocket with each time jump–a fixed reminder of an merchandise I couldn’t use and was silly for pondering in any other case.
Granted, that drawback is not precisely new to the style, and Outdated Skies is not doing something brand-new with the point-and-click-adventure components. It depends on the tried and true technique of encouraging the participant to exhaust dialogue with each character, click on on the whole lot you may, and deduce what objects or clues are needed to beat every roadblock. The puzzles are a bit hit-or-miss–many of them do observe a logical practice of thought, and it is rewarding to accurately extrapolate the required steps Fia must take after which see your instinct end in success. However simply as many instances, particularly within the latter half of the sport when the puzzles begin getting pretty advanced, the answer feels illogical, as if the sport desires you to guess how you can proceed and preserve guessing till one thing works. Every time this occurs, it frustratingly slows the cadence of the story, which is the very best a part of Outdated Skies.
In every of the handful of circumstances that Fia will get, the story delves into themes of affection and loss, and the nagging itch of remorse that may typically accompany the 2. Fia and her coworkers are proof against the movement of time as a part of their job, so though the folks and locations round them are consistently in flux, the staff of ChronoZen stay static and unchanging. What’s posited as a possible boon early on is shortly revealed to be nearer to a curse. Fia and her coworkers cannot have significant relationships or get pleasure from most hobbies exterior of work–friends, spouses, and kids can turn out to be unrecognizable or be outright erased primarily based on timeline modifications, and flicks, books, eating places, and museums can stop to exist whereas Fia or her coworkers are nonetheless in the course of having fun with them. The one fixed Fia has exterior of labor is a bar that ChronoZen made proof against the time stream. Early into the story, she feedback that she even misplaced her residence once–there was a interval when historical past briefly modified, and her residence was quickly erased.
It is a lonely existence, one which methodically gnaws at Fia’s psyche and emotional well-being all through a lot of the sport, in addition to that of the participant by often eroding any sense of emotional stability with well-timed narrative-driven jabs to the intestine. The story does a implausible job of wounding you while dangling a crumb of hope that issues will get higher for Fia in case you can abdomen pushing her via only one extra workday. Fia’s rising desperation to seek out stability matches the pacing of the story and the participant’s personal craving for a contented ending that feels deserved however is clearly not assured, and also you simply should preserve going to see what sort of conclusion Fia will get.
There is a rising connective tissue between every storyline as you play, build up New York nearly as yet one more coworker proof against the total ramifications of time journey. Which you would not initially suppose, since New York has modified so much over the years–the nightlife of Prohibition is nothing just like the morning of 9/11, and the folks in a school city in 2024 do not look and act like these dwelling alongside the boardwalk in 1993. However Outdated Skies attracts connections between these characters and locations, sustaining sufficient of an identification for New York for the participant to latch onto.
And when you begin noticing these particulars, a much more attention-grabbing thriller develops: Is there extra to those connections past happenstance and coincidence? Is destiny actual? A number of of the characters that Fia meets have completely different opinions on the matter, and it is right here the place the sport does afford the participant some company within the path of the story, guiding Fia towards or away from a extra fatalist view. Disappointingly, it would not change the place Fia in the end finally ends up, however these selections do broach attention-grabbing questions concerning the nature of free will inside the context of the narrative and amplify the emotional penalties of Fia’s actions, intentional or not, after they affect Outdated Skies’ memorable characters.
Talking of, Outdated Skies has nothing however nice characters, every dropped at life with a set of unimaginable voice performing abilities. Actor Sally Beaumont (voice of Fia) is the pure standout, bringing a playful inquisitiveness and smug authority to the time-traveling hero that is punctuated by an lovely, awkward stammering when she tries to flirt, or barely contained desperation when she’s bottling up the rising feeling of helplessness. However I’ve to offer props to the 2 performances that made me snigger out loud: Chanisha Somatilaka’s Yvonne Gupta and Sandra Espinoza’s Liz Camron. The previous completely sells the exhausted enthusiasm of an skilled journalist attempting to welcome a newcomer to the trade, and the latter provides life to some of the chaotic and enjoyable “I am sizzling and younger so penalties be damned” characters I’ve ever seen. Though I already know the place Outdated Skies’ story in the end finally ends up, I need to replay the entire thing simply to go on that journey once more and as soon as extra hear these traces. Gosh, and the music? Particularly the songs with vocals? Chills, absolute chills.
With a set vacation spot, the journey needs to be the focus of Outdated Skies–which is nice for it, as the sport is a implausible journey. The memorable dialogue is bolstered by an unimaginable solid of voice actors, and the story is compelling from its surprising first hour to its timey-wimey ultimate moments. I am usually one to play point-and-click video games in small bursts to take a seat with every chapter of the story, however I discovered myself often enjoying Outdated Skies in giant chunks, going via a number of chapters in every sitting simply to see what would occur subsequent. And regardless that I did not get pleasure from each step there, the general bundle greater than made up for it with considered one of my favourite tales of this 12 months.