Review: Old Skies (Nintendo Switch)
Old Skies is a time-traveling graphic adventure that takes a favorite premise in pop culture and does some unique things with it that I’ve never seen in a video game. It has a page-turning quality as you adventure through in-game chapters, solving puzzles in various periods of time. It offers captivating enjoyment that kept my wife and I on our toes, so to speak, ’til the end credits.
You play a character named Fia Quinn. Fin is an employee of the New York branch of ChronoZen, the company regulating time travel in the future. Wealthy clients can afford to purchase time-travel packages and, within reason, change aspects of their personal history deemed of low importance in the grand scheme. Being a story-driven game, the potential for spoilers is high. But let’s just say that there is more to your clientele than you might first expect. Fia deals with getting separated from them in the past, potentially getting them killed (or otherwise erasing their existence), and so much more, usually through little fault of her own. Here, the customer isn’t always right—consistent headaches for Fia, but definitely entertaining for us players.
Of course, Fia faces challenges individually. What if she meets the same people at different times in their lives? What happens if she runs into her other self? What if she inadvertently puts others in danger? Between missions, she chats with her colleagues, Nozzo and Duffy, gradually questioning her role in the whole time-travel setup. The game suggests a deeper mystery, an undercurrent of great secrecy with ChronoZen and its board of directors, but for better or worse, never really addresses it. Maybe in a sequel? Instead, it chooses to shift gears, focusing on Fia’s romantic life—a subplot that seems not to have been given the A-team storytelling focus. But more on that in a bit.
There is a small inventory of items and other tools at Fia’s disposal. That said, these puzzles often rely on character observations and interactions. Talk to everyone and exhaust every option, or at least most of them. Fia has plenty of choices, but they are misleading, as nearly all will lead to the same predetermined outcome. That’s certainly a less satisfying element, one we can’t help but think would’ve benefited from a more moderate approach. But the bulk of the writing is strong enough (save her aforementioned love life) that I can forgive it. I enjoyed learning more about each client, talking with HQ when things inevitably went awry, breaking into buildings, checking computers, and more. A couple of puzzles are even timed, adding a sense of urgency but done sparingly enough to enhance rather than exasperate. Everything works well in context for this style of point-and-click game, with standouts being puzzles that begin in the past and aren’t solved until years later.
Naturally, not everyone will love these puzzles, clever though they are, in their entirety. Several involve Fia dying, rewinding, and trying again. While it’s failure by design, it’s still failure. The rational part of me is asking, “Why doesn’t she just duck or take a step to the side to avoid the cleaver she knows is flying at her head? Why isn’t she authorized to fire her gun at an assassin trying to kill her and her client?” But it wouldn’t be a point-and-click game then, would it? These time loops thankfully have some good humor, as Fia remembers each of these prior instances and can joke about them. In fact, throughout the game, many moments had my wife and I laughing aloud. Keeping ripples in time from turning into paradoxes is darn fun and rewarding.
Earlier, I mentioned Fia’s romantic life. The game actually opens with her flirting with a guy in the local watering hole before he soon vanishes. She shrugs it off, as it’s difficult to form relationships outside of work with so many things in the timeline constantly changing and shifting around her. Later, she forms an attachment to a female character (Fia is one of several bisexual characters in this game). Unlike her initial encounter, which was a throwaway interaction, this relationship takes on a curiously sizable role, noticeably disrupting the game’s pacing, interrupting and slowing down the prime plot momentum, among other things. Worse, the ham-fisted way it’s stitched to the main games feels forced by a fraying thread.
Would it have come off this way if the writing were stronger? I suspect indie dev Dave Gilbert had clearer ideas in his head that didn’t translate in-game, either exhausting his best on the main plot or relying too much on less-skilled narrative consultants. It’s tough to get overly specific without crossing that spoiler line. But it’s a relationship that’s only believable if Fia is an obsessive narcissist prone to infatuation and lust, which conflicts with her established character traits (a sacrificing professional adult) to this point. Does it matter who her object of affection is if the work’s not there to make it natural? Thus, a doubtless well-meaning attempt at inclusivity has sincerity but lacks authenticity, feeling more like an underdeveloped pandering construct. It also means the game stumbles at the finish line, a non-spoiler criticism not unique to this review but still worth mentioning. But the fact that this deviation is more or less my only major criticism speaks volumes about Old Skies’ overall high quality.
Such unevenness is certainly no fault of the voice actors, to be sure. Sally Beaumont as Fia and Edwyn Tiong as Nozzo (think of him as the Al to Beaumont’s Sam if you know Quantum Leap) are the standouts. I’m unsure how the recording process worked, but they seem to have great working chemistry, even if likely doing their own solo sessions. Of course, both contributed to Loco Motive, one of my favorite releases from last year. Even when the writing for Old Skies comes up short, Beaumont makes me believe that maybe this awkward teenage mood shift of Fia’s simply comes with the territory of being a time-travel agent, and the melodramatic story notes are delivered authentically without theatrics. Likewise, when Tiong’s Nozzo questions some of Fia’s actions, I can buy that part of him gets it, even if he is understandably confused. I also enjoyed listening to both these and the other professional voice actors share various outtakes during the commentary. Speaking of…
After I beat the game (17-18 hours), I wanted to listen to some director commentary (worth a point on its own as an insightful replay incentive) to learn the thought process behind the aforementioned relationship and some character writing in general (no matter the year, most of these characters seem plucked from present day). While a fascinating extra inclusion, I wish there were an option to listen to it as the game played itself in the background. Maybe in an update? As a result, I’ll have to save the bulk of this commentary for when I want to reinvest the hours to replay Old Skies in full and hear it all. Given the high quality, I can ensure it will happen.
While the voicework (and commentary) are the main audio highlights, the music is no slouch. It does tend to get overshadowed, but it’s pleasant. Visually, I enjoy not just the character animations but all the subtle ones. The wind is present no matter the year, so things sway in the breeze, leaves blow in the streets, and birds fly through the air. There’s plenty of little attention to detail, too. The title screen changes depending on which chapter year Fia is currently in. The stores she walks past to get plot locales will change to reflect the era. One touch that especially hit me was seeing posters everywhere in post-September 11 New York, presumably of missing people. I recalled some of my own experiences from my younger years, seeing these in the months that followed. The presentation reflects care and skill.
A brief but important note. While the Old Skies is a Teen-rated game, it does have a couple of f-bombs and sexual content that could’ve easily been left on the cutting room floor without weakening the game any. Food for thought.
A narratively disconnected relationship makes Old Skies stumble badly at the end. But that aside, this polished release is generally great. I’d love to see a sequel that explores more of ChronoZen and its staff while jettisoning the romantic fluff to a side-story spinoff visual novel. The best way to make that happen is to check this title out. Old Skies starts brilliantly and maintains its grip with fun individual stories and an overall sci-fi plot that keeps ticking in mostly thoughtful ways.
