Product Info

Platform

Switch, PC, iOS, Android

Publisher

Broken Rules

Developer

Broken Rules

Genre

Adventure, Puzzle

Players

1-2

File Size (Minimum)

2 GB

Release Date (NA)

May 17, 2017

Purchase From

eShop

Steam

Android

iOS

A beautiful point-and-click adventure, Old Man’s Journey is a linear story of life, love, loss, and hope told with handcrafted 2D art, ready to capture all of your emotions.

A Life to Remember

Old Man’s Journey is a visual narrative with puzzle-based elements which tells the story of the old man’s life, played out in gorgeous handmade visuals. During the journey, scenes of the old man’s life are cued at the end of each chapter as the old man witnesses an event that triggers his memory. His life-altering memories are played out during a single scene with absolutely no dialog, leaving the player to emotionally interpret the story as they see fit.

A Mysterious Letter Begins the Story

The old man’s story begins with a mysterious letter, which has the old man grabbing what he can in a bindle and heading out on his journey. Using a variety of input methods, the control of the old man is passed off to the player, with all control being point, click, and drag. Along the way, the old man will encounter terrain and objects that will prevent him from going farther, such as a broken path or livestock. This is where the imagery becomes more than just a pretty landscape, and the challenges come into play.

The Helping Hand

The scenery can be arranged to provide a path for the old man to move forward, and providing that path is critical to advancing the story. This can be done by using the Joy-Cons as a pointer, moving the on-screen hand with the control stick, or using the touch screen when portable. Utilizing one of the methods listed, the scenery can be moved around to guide a wheel downhill to break a fence or to provide a path for sheep to later roam. That said, there are moments where it can be initially unclear where to place the old man in order to carry out the next scene and, lacking any kind of hint system, they may require some thought. However, the relaxing nature of the game means there is no rush to resolve, as well as no brain bending puzzles to be found here, meaning any halt in advancement is very short lived.

Final Destination

While quite short, Old Man’s Journey tells a wonderful, if not emotional, story with little puzzles to solve along the way. The graphics present a lovely, transformable landscape that is very aesthetically pleasing and the music fits perfectly with each setting. Unfortunately, as expected with a linear, story based game like this, replayability is not something that is to found here. In addition, the game, whose price is nearly twice as much as other devices, has no extra content that can’t be found elsewhere, which is too bad. Even with that in mind, Old Man’s Journey and the story it tells gets a very emotional 4 out of 5.

A Nintendo Switch review code was provided by Broken Rules for this review.