Looking for a weekend puzzle game that's easy on the eyes and will tug at your heart? Check out Old Man's Journey, available on multiple platforms!
What's it about?
After receiving a letter with information that seems to upset him, an old man packs his things and heads off on a journey. Through a series of interactive puzzles, you help the old man travel through a visually stunning world. Occasionally, the old man stops to rest and reminisce about his past. The more you play the game, the more you learn about the old man's past and the choices he made that put him on his path.
How's the gameplay?
It's great! Old Man's Journey has no tutorial, no dialogue, no text to read. Just gorgeous visuals and soothing music are in store for anyone who picks up this game.
As you begin to play the game, you learn you can interact with the environment with your controller (in my case, the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con). In order to help the old man on his journey, what seemed like a 2-D game turns into a 3-D game when mountains, hills, bridges and more need to be moved in order for the old man to travel.
The levels gradually increase in difficulty and you find yourself interacting with more than just hills and mountains. I especially loved running into small groups of sheep and having to move them around for the old man to continue.
Three favorite things?
1) The game is visually stunning. I felt like I was playing inside of a painting the entire time. It was very easy on the eyes and had such nice amounts of colors. Bravo to the artists!
2) The game can easily be finished on a weekend day, which I found to be a huge plus. If the only games out there were ones that needed 80+ hours to complete, I'd never be able to get anywhere. I'm happy to say I played Old Man's Journey from start to finish, which isn't always the case with other games.
3) The storyline really pulled at my heart strings. As you play through the game, you see vignette flashbacks of decisions the old man made when he was younger and how they shaped his future. I found it amazing that a game with no dialogue and no text to read could make me so emotional.
Anything else?
Old Man's Journey was a really nice way to spend the weekend. It's pretty to look at and just as great to listen to (the background music was so soothing, I could leave it on all day).
If you're looking for a very challenging puzzle game, this may not be the one for you. But if puzzles aren't your main thing, then this could be a great indie purchase.
Old Man's Journey is available on the Nintendo Switch eShop as well as multiple platforms.
Disclaimer: Thank you to the team at Broken Rules for providing me a review copy of Old Man's Journey. All opinions about Old Man's Journey are my own. I played the entire game for this review.