Editors’ Choice Games

Old Skies: A Point-and-Click Adventure Through Time

Review by Angie Kibiloski

It’s been a minute since I reviewed a PC game in the classic point-and-click adventure style. They used to be all the rage, but they rarely come across my screen anymore. I cut my gaming teeth on this genre back in the late 90’s-early 2000’s, and it’ll always hold a special place in my heart, so I was very happy to play the newest offering from Wadjet Eye Games. Old Skies is a dialog-driven journey that takes you time hopping across multiple eras, changing the timeline around you with your actions. As ChronoZen Agent Fia Quinn, you’ll embark on several missions across history with a variety of clients, all with different motives and goals, helping them complete their tasks or stopping them from altering the timeline more than they should. You’ll scour each new environment for information, chat copiously with clients and locals to unravel character details and plot points, and try not to get Fia shot, which she seems to have a propensity towards.

The first mission Fia is assigned starts as an easy tourist escort, bringing a client back to his favorite restaurant of his youth before he departs the world, but it quickly evolves into an investigation on his ulterior motives and whereabouts when he slips out of your custody. Is he there to cause mischief, right a wrong, save a life, or just explore more of his old haunts without a chaperone breathing down his neck? You’ll only discover the answers by looking at every interactable item, traipsing back and forth between every location the mission unlocks, and talking (and talking and talking) to every person you meet. I won’t spoil more of this mission, but it’ll definitely teach Fia not to assume any assignment is as easy as it first appears. In addition to exploring the exciting streets of New York in the bygone age of 2024, the subsequent 6 missions will take Fia back to the Industrial Revolution, Prohibition, the tragedy of 9/11, and more, each new chapter providing fresh intrigue and challenges.

Gameplay is very much story-driven, and requires patience and a methodical approach. You won’t be needing quick reflexes and button mashing skills here, rather you’ll rely on your logical puzzling, lateral thinking, and attention to detail to progress the game. There is a lot of talking, a lot of listening, a lot of reading, and a lot of exploration to be had, all taken at a leisurely pace while the story slowly unfolds. While there are no adrenaline-fueled chases or combat sequences, Fia can die in this game, although it won’t be permanent. One of the perks of being a time agent is the emergency rewind protocol, a very handy mechanic that respawns Fia back in time before the event of her demise, so that she can try to avoid that outcome. By reliving those moments, Fia can gather enough information about the circumstances and the person she’s facing off against to survive the encounter. I like this mechanic better than I expected, since it provides some funny commentary from Fia, and takes the gravity out of potentially getting her killed.

Each mission will present you with a wide variety of environments to explore, one unlocking after another. They’re all visually stunning, with a cool graphical style that blends detailed painterly backgrounds with comic book style illustrated characters. Combined with the jazzy soundtrack creating a chill vibe, you may find yourself enjoying just relaxing as you admire each space. Once you’ve gone through an environment, looked at every item, and spoken to every NPC, don’t think that you’re done with that scene, however. You’ll most likely need to revisit it multiple times as actions elsewhere unlock new conversations or reasons to interact with items. This location hopping can get a bit tedious at times, but that’s always been the nature of this genre, and part of the fun to me, where each environment slowly opens up more and more possibilities for interaction.

The voice acting is top-notch, and will talk you through all conversations, with in-person characters as well as Fia’s partner back in her home time, who she talks to in her head, or rather through her “subvocal” technology that those around her can’t hear. Voice acting can often make or break a game, and this cast delivered great performances, engaging my attention instead of making me want to skip. The non-conversational information will be presented on screen through pop-up bubbles whenever you roll your mouse over interesting items in a scene. Make sure to read them all, as even those that aren’t useful to the plot are still worth a chuckle due to Fia’s often witty quips about them. Both the verbal conversations and Fia’s contextual commentary were highlights of this gaming experience for me.

Wadjet Eye Games has kept the point-and-click flame burning for years, with a couple of my favorite contributions from them in the past being Unavowed and The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow. While I haven’t gotten through the entire game yet, I’ve fully enjoyed my time in Fia’s company so far, and Old Skies is set to join those others on my recommended adventure game playlist. If you’re looking for high-stakes action, quick-time combat, and intense skill checks, this title may not be for you, but if you like a great story-driven detective plot, engaging in copious conversations to learn about characters and unveil the next steps, and methodically uncovering details in a scene with no time pressure, this will be right up your alley. Grab your copy on Steam for $19.99 now, or wait for the Switch version coming in the future. Since this is a slow-paced game with more conversation than action, and my video editing skills are sadly lacking, I won’t be making a gameplay video for you myself, but you can check out Wadjet Eye Games‘ Official Trailer video for a small taste of what you can expect, with nicely put together snippets from across the entire game.

PC Minimum System Requirements:

• OS: Windows 7,8,10, XP SP2
• Processor: 2.7 GHz Dual Core
• RAM: 2 GB
• Disk Space: 4 GB
• Graphics: Direct3D, OpenGL, DirectX 5

MAC Minimum System Requirements:

• OS: macOS 10.13
• Processor: Any
• RAM: 2 GB
• Disk Space: 4 GB