Old Skies Review

Wadjet Eye Games is that old flame that you just can’t get out of your head, no matter how much time passes. Such beauty, so many fond memories, and that “what if” concept of going back just one more time. From the mind of head honcho Dave Gilbert himself, we’ve seen unforgettable Adventure Game Studio-bred point-and-click classics like the Blackwell series, The Shivah, and the extremely ambitious and thoroughly satisfying 2018 release, Unavowed.

In the same breath, there have been those from external teams, cherry-picked for publishing, such as the sublime Technobabylon, gripping Primordia, and breathtaking Resonance. The boss himself is back now, ditching the old Adventure Game Studio engine to spruce things up for a comeback, with long-awaited fresh outing – Old Skies. Can this meddling into the expanse of time-travelling do enough to warp long-term fans back to the fold after so long, or does it prove to be a temporal misstep? After looking at the Switch version recently, it’s time to check it out on PC.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go back in time and meddle with certain events to change the future? Sounds rather like a movie, actually. In Old Skies, this is the central theme, except the protagonist Marty Mc… sorry, Fia Quinn – a time agent working for an agency called ChronoZen – zips back and forth through timelines. It’s not for personal gain, but at the behest of affluent passengers who wish to make their stamp on the timeline by altering prior events to a certain degree. Major events cannot be adjusted, neither can those with a large enough imprint on time, but anything that doesn’t result in a disruptive ripple is fair game.

Along the way, various moral grey areas are touched upon which are well played out throughout the narrative. Comical snippets come up along the way, complete with trademark-Wadjet Eye sardonic quips featuring in moderation. It keeps the mood just about light enough until the end. There are some subjects touched on that may disturb those with a sensitive disposition, though.

Some elements that you might expect could be changed to obtain a different ending can’t be, unfortunately. This flies in the face of the whole premise, since the point of the adventure plays to the idea of what can, might, perhaps will or won’t. What could possibly change thanks to that age-old idea of the “butterfly effect”. However, for the sake of artistic choice, some aspects are forced in without any ability to alter events, which makes the overall experience feel more linear than it really should.

This is where Old Skies sadly starts to fall down, with too many adjustments from prior point-and-click escapades in what seems like an attempt to stand out from the crowd. It’s even evident in the graphical approach. Right from the off, there is a stark visual difference compared with past efforts. Wadjet Eye has decided to shelve its use of the classic Adventure Game Studio engine that brought such a deep level of retro charm, mixed with the more modern character art, rich soundtrack, and strong voice-acting prowess. The newly integrated custom-built engine attempts to jazz things up for increased appeal. Sadly, though, it proves to be a mixed bag. Character faces look rather grim, and walking animations leaving a lot to be desired, amongst other flaws. It really does detract from proceedings and gets everything off on the wrong foot, sadly, since it’s the first impact upon loading.

Thankfully, though, other elements – like the atmospheric score and witty script – are sufficient to overcome the sometimes-low-quality appearance of the various characters met throughout this quantum leaping journey. Saying that, though, the story does suffer from bloat, touches of uninspired prose, as well as some enforced situations that some gamers may wish to otherwise steer clear of but can’t. Also, some new gameplay tweaks have been incorporated that leave a lot to be desired.

Old Skies has been in the works for numerous years now, and its original demo was quite enticing indeed. Then a new build popped up and it introduced a mechanic that permits a rewind function when things don’t quite turn out as planned. Intriguing, right? If implemented correctly, yes. Right from that demo, and carrying through to the final game, it becomes immediately clear that this isn’t a user-triggered rewind. Instead, it’s a game-enforced rewind, which is a whole different ball game. Suddenly, rather than being a useful feature, it becomes laboured, and even a hindrance far too often to progression over the duration of the adventure. It feels like a random gimmick forced in just for the sake of standing out.

To begin with, it’s actually amusing listening to the various conversation threads after Sam Beck… sorry, Fia, dies and then comes back repeatedly. Eventually it grows tiresome and even frustrating having to play through basically the same scene again, and again…and again until finally figuring out the best course of action. It even gets to the point where the old fashioned “gather random things and try x item with y object” system of old becomes hankered for! The rewind feature does get used later into the game as part of the way to solve a puzzle, which is a little more interesting, yet by that point it is such a nuisance that any initial grace has already washed away.

There seems to be so much potential lost with Old Skies, and it’s sad for long-term fans and supporters that have been hungry for more of the usual delights following the brilliance of Wadjet’s catalogue of hits. Whilst there is enough here for older fans to persevere with through to the end, sadly it misses the mark too often to be remembered as a classic in the same breath as past marvels. Also, it’s debatable whether those on the fence with the genre will be tempted to dive in, unfortunately. There are times where not reinventing the wheel would be preferable, and it seems to be the case here. To some degree, it almost feels like it was left in the oven to cook for a little bit too long.