Old Skies Steam Charts & Stats

It's been a little while since we've gotten a game actually developed by Wadjet Eye rather than published, but they made a decent comeback with Old Skies here. I don't like it quite as much as their previous game, Unavowed, as this one plays it a lot more safe and similar to the Blackwell Series, but it's still really good. If you're familiar with Wadjet Eye's prior games then you would probably expect yet another supernatural adventure, however this one actually veers heavily in the opposite direction being a science fiction narrative about time travel. Now, time travel is an extremely played out story-telling concept, and the very topic of it might make you balk. Lead Dev and Writer, Dave Gilbert is well aware of this which is why time travel is used as set-dressing for a character study just as the Blackwell series used the concept of helping spirits move on for the same. Old Skies centers around Fia Quinn, a time agent working for a corporation which has been put in charge of handling all time travel operations, Chronozen. She and her coworkers use technology that makes them immune to paradoxes and other changes to the timestream, meaning that any time one of them changes the timeline they remain the same while everything else changes around them even to the point of creating alternate versions of themselves given the circumstances of their birth is often different. This is the central theme and feeds the central question it asks you to consider: What would it actually be like to be a time traveller and would it be worth it? Each chapter gives differing perspectives on exactly whether time travel technology is really a force for good or not while also providing well-worn but interesting twists on the formula. Much like later Blackwell and Unavowed, this game is arranged into a series of chapters which are essentially just cases, though they play out entirely linearly and one at a time. Each chapter, Fia takes on a job from a client who wants to change or learn something in the past, and from there the game plays out similarly to the previous games where you slowly uncover what happened and what to do about it. Puzzle design is pretty straightforward, possibly even too much. I feel like a bit too many of the game's puzzles revolve around just going back and forth and talking to people about any new piece of information you find, especially in cases that involve two different time periods where you may have to consult the same person twice in a row in both past and future. Granted, I had the same problem with Blackwell, but Blackwell also often presented multiple problems for you to solve at once. Plus, the information was typically tied to helping the ghosts move on which created a bit more of a satisfying payoff. Here, even though the mysteries and stories of the chapters are plenty interesting, it can get a bit tedious. And that's not even bringing up the time loop puzzles which are literally trial and error. The art in this game is fantastic. Dave Gilbert's love of New York shines through brighter than ever in this game as its various locations and landmarks had to be rendered in many different time periods. The backgrounds are more beautiful than they've ever been, and everything's done up in high resolution HD as well. The sprites are... interesting. I'm 99% sure they're rotoscoped 3D models, and the new artstyle that they've been drawn with is a lot simpler and cleaner than I'm used to. It works really well even if I think some characters (which share no relation as far as the narrative establishes) wind up looking too similar to each other. While Unavowed wowed with it's fantastical imagery, this feels like a skill flex for artist Ben Chandler. I think it's honestly probably their best work to date. The music is strong as always being mostly jazzy. I felt like they could have branched out a bit more to give each time period its own distinct feeling, but going with a single style didn't bother me at all. So, I'd definitely recommend Old Skies. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't as ambitious as Unavowed, but it still managed to top the Blackwell games in terms of just being an extremely refined normal adventure game as well as having a better written story. Also, it defnitely had Gilbert's best ending to date. The ending to this game is the perfect, bittersweet sendoff and I recommend everyone play to see it.

Wadjet Eye Games continue to be a sure bet in the genre of point and click adventure. Old Skies has everything one could ask for in a time travel story: mind-bending causality, heartache, cruel twists of fate, and triumph! I found myself thinking, feeling, and laughing throughout every chapter. The voice acting is especially excellent. The heart of this game lies in the fantastic line delivery. One caveat: this is more of a narrative game than a puzzle game. The puzzles are engaging enough, but they aren't the focus. If you come to these games to pick up every item and use them on every interactable with you might come away disappointed.

Absolutely loved this! The game mechanics might not be phenomenal, but the story was captivating. Definitely joining my list of favourite time travel stories.

Such a great game. I love the story so much. Fia's voice acting truly makes the game excellent. One of the games I can't stop thinking about for a while.

Wadjet Eye games are always an intriguing take on the point-and-click genre. This one does not have the most engaging gameplay in this developer's catalog, with some pretty linear puzzles and a sort of watered-down version of the "notebook" investigation technique from Wadjet Eye's excellent "Blackwell" series. But it does have time travel, some great voice work from many of W.E.'s usual suspects, and (most importantly) a genuinely touching story about "paths not taken" that emerges organically from the protagonist's adventures through time. That story definitely elevates the game over its decent but uninspiring gameplay, and makes it a clear recommendation for me.

I am shocked this game has so much praise. Especially people commenting like "best Wadjet Eye game!" Some people said this should be on the Mount Rushmore of Adventure games! No, it's not true. This game features several interesting storylines. It's got an interesting setting, a world where time keeps shifting and time travel agents are always in flux. However, it's quite contradictory. They set things up in the game and then make up jargon-filled nonsense to prevent you from using what they set up. In some chapters, they make something up about the technology, and then in the next chapter, they contradict what they set up. It's like the worst kind of sci-fi writing. You start asking yourself... ok, why can't I do this? And then some character will be like "The booop blooop smooop thereom won't allow you to do this!" Ok...? I especially liked that Chapter 4 sets up a rule of time travel that in Chapter 5 they completely ignore. It's like the play testers or writing consultants didn't play or read the script somehow? It's baffling. So I would not recommend this game at all. Unless you just kinda, you know... shut your brain off? And who wants to do that?

A fairly solid somewhat-conventional point and click adventure game; tbh I would have preferred an Unavowed 2, but the narrative didn't overstay it's welcome for it's complete ok/fine puzzles. Light/medium recommend.

Unfortunately Old Skies is probably my least favorite between the Wadjet Eye portfolio of games. I did not like the new art style, I think their previous title, Unavowed, had more personality, atmosphere and character. Old Skies is too "clean", aseptic, and even if graphics were upgraded in a certain way, I found the game locations pretty lifeless. Probably this is an old pixel art aficionado speaking, but I would have preferred a more classical look. The story and the setting are pretty interesting, as visiting different locations in the past and investigating how small changes can indeed have a certain weight on the future, while in the meantime trying to solve different mysteries, is indeed fun and sometimes even mind bending. But I did not vibe with the whole narrative in the end, the characters are not particularly interesting, also due to a monotonous voice acting, and I need to be honest here, I was happy the game ended at a certain point because I was a little bit bored by the halfway point of my playthrough. There are no real puzzles, even the object based ones can be counted on one hand, as the player basically needs to go through written hints and clues, speak with some characters, and find the correct sequence of actions to execute in order to solve each case. I did not find the whole gameplay particularly rewarding, apart a couple of instances. I'm really sorry because this is the first time I'm negative about a Wadjet Eye, I almost played all of them but this was indeed not for me. If you like adventure games but never experienced a Wadjet Eye game, I would suggest to start from Unavowed first, and then go back in their catalogue, and maybe in the end come back to Old Skies. For all the others interested, this is barely a 6 out of 10 for me, and personally I can't recommend it to everybody indiscriminately.

Really fun point and click game with great graphics and interesting heavy story.

[h1] Highly accessible adventure game, with a fun premise, that goes surprisingly gloom[/h1] ”Dive into the past with time agent Fia Quinn as she embarks on seven trips through time. History is up for grabs”, does that sound like a story, where one of the core ideas is [spoiler]nothing you do really matters, and everything will change in the blink of an eye with no real reason?[/spoiler] Do not get me wrong, I love a lot about this game, but the way they approach the consequences of time travel – the very core of this game’s world building - leaves a lot to be desired. [h2]Downs/Nitpicks[/h2] The world building of time travel/the future. [spoiler]In short, too much is allowed to change in the future. Meaning a lot of people, art, companies, etc. can pop in and out of existence all the time. Now, the characters claim that a lot is not allowed to change with the rating, but in practice we see radical changes are allowed to happen all the time. Which is fine, until you think about it for a second. Not only does it make everything feel sort of arbitrary, because the game makes a point of changing stuff to show other people travel through time too, but then the time travel does not make sense as a business model. Because the people who buy the travels could just pop out of existence at any moment, and therefore not even have spent the money in the first place. The game feels a bit… unsure of its identity wanting to be a fun adventure on the one hand and a serious and heavy story particularly near the end on the other hand.[/spoiler] [h2]Where this game shines[/h2] - Superb voice acting, especially the main character - Quirky engaging supporting cast - Diverse settings - Intuitive gameplay and puzzle solving, - Tightly woven chapters, that make it relatively easy to approach problem solving - The ending [spoiler]was good and sweet, at least until after the credits vibed it away like everything else…[/spoiler]