Old Man’s Journey+ Review

May the Road Rise Up to Meet You

I have always been obsessed with fairytales and folk tales. My mother would often read to me from intricately illustrated hardcover books that she’d had since she was a child. Between bedtime stories, she hid these keepsakes away from my grubby little fingers in the bottom of her curio cabinet. When I thought she wouldn’t notice, I would sneak them out, poring over their storied contents. While I treasured fairytales, American folklore appealed to me most. Those stories “happened” here, to mostly ordinary people, like me. Old Man’s Journey feels so much like these stories that I couldn’t help but be drawn in.

Old Man’s Journey from developer Broken Rules tells the story of a nameless gentleman who looks very much like Santa Claus. The game opens with our protagonist deep in thought, surveying the sea and seagulls in flight from his cliffside home. He’s startled by the ringing of the postman’s bell and steps out to meet him. Upon being presented with a mysterious letter, the old man gathers his pack and sets out on an arduous journey.

Over the Hills

The Old Man’s Journey owes its charm to the illustrative style of the game. Clemens Scott’s hand-drawn environments are straight from a modern children’s book. That’s not to say that these vistas are childish. They’re truly stunning, no matter the age of the appraiser. The world feels alive, beckoning the player to explore, even though there’s not much extra to interact with past the earlier stages. Most of the environment is there to be manipulated with the sole intention of progression. In order to progress, players must tap and drag the land, then mark the spot where they want the old man to travel with a touch.

At first, I didn’t care for the gameplay mechanics. I felt that they were a bit too simplistic, but also somehow confusing. This confusion came from land placements needing to be in exact locations for progression. Landmasses must be overlapping in order for the old man to jump to the next hill. This can prove frustrating until players get a handle on things. However, once I understood the lay of the land, things moved much smoother and faster, and I was able to immerse myself in the story, which is the game’s main draw.

Old Man’s Journey does a great job of keeping gameplay simple and slowly, intuitively ratcheting up the challenges. Beyond the first several stages, I never truly struggled with knowing what my next move should be. Despite most of the land having a similar structure, areas felt unique because of their illustrative designs. Additionally, certain interactions with the scenery, people and objects trigger memories of the old man’s past, offering clues to his final destination.

Into the Unknown

The Old Man’s Journey feels epic in scope. I hesitate to describe it as Odyssean, yet it’s fitting. There aren’t a ton of people for our protagonist to interact with, but that’s also the point, as the trek is meant to be introspective. This largely personal journey also lends the world perspective as the old man traverses diverse environments alone. The world feels massive despite being a collection of several pieces of land on a screen. It also helps that the old man changes size based off of how near or far he is traveling on screen. This lends to the fabled feel of it all and reminds me of stories like Jack and the Beanstalk.

Like those classic tales, the Old Man’s Journey has a lot to say about Nature and man’s relationship to it. So many stories send their protagonists off into the wild, allowing them the perfect space for reflection. The Old Man’s Journey puts the old man alone in the middle of nature. In these moments of solitude, he’s able to reflect on his past, which we are revealed through cutscenes. These moments of reflection are usually inspired by some natural trigger or mundane wonder. Early on, we discover that the old man is a fisherman, and has spent so much of his life tethered to the land, both in terms of livelihood and recreation.

Now the old man traverses the wilderness as a means of transportation, manipulating the land to reach his destination. Several areas are populated with dilapidated buildings where the land rose to reclaim the space. While playing, I thought about how we mold the land, attempting to claim it for ourselves, and about how quickly our absence allows Nature to repossess it and of its unbridled indifference to humanity.

Moral of the Story

Old Man’s Journey isn’t concerned with challenging the player with puzzles, and is instead focused on telling a good story. This goal isn’t at the expense of an interesting experience, but more in the service of it. If the developers had increased the difficulty of the puzzles, the game would have been less immersive and impactful and the story would have surely suffered. Rarely was the flow of the game interrupted, so much so that when I tried to revisit certain levels, I often had a hard time discerning which one to choose. This wasn’t too much of an annoyance, since it was easy to get back to the level menu, and only served to surprise me in terms of how seamlessly the story was weaved.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Old Man’s Journey. By allowing illustration and storytelling to take center stage, the developers managed to set themselves apart from their puzzle and adventure game competitors. Old Man’s Journey earns its place amongst modern folktales by showing that Nature and humanity are inextricably linked, and that sometimes, if we take time for reflection on our journey, we might be rewarded at our destination.