Developed/Published by Broken Rules
Released for Xbox One (3/4/2019)
Also on Mac/Mobile/PC/PS4/Switch
Old Man's Journey was developed by Vienna-based indie studio Broken Rules and has been ported to numerous platforms since its initial inception. Originally released in May 2017, Old Man's Journey made its debut on PC, Macintosh and mobile devices (Android/iOS). In 2018 the game would see ports for both the Switch and the PlayStation 4 before finally ending up on Xbox One in March 2019.
In the game you take control of an old man, going for a journey and reminiscing about the good old days as you stop to savor life along the way. One interesting aspect about the game is that despite the fact there is no spoken or written dialogue of any sort, the devs did a good job conveying a story you'll piece together from the just the visuals. Being an old man, the game has a laid-back pace to it and the puzzles aren't too taxing on the brain, allowing you to play through the game at your own pace with minimal frustrations. Old Man's Journey features a painted-art style to the graphics and the amount of animation put into this game is quite impressive, especially on the main character.
As you guide the old man along his journey, you'll traverse from one screen to the next, solving puzzles and reminiscing upon times of days past. The puzzles involve grabbing and manipulating the hills in the background (by moving them up and down) in order to create a path for your character to move onward. There's some nice variety throughout, but the puzzles all involve grabbing and manipulating chunks of land. One stand out sequence has the old man riding along in a train, requiring you to slide various track and bridge pieces into place to create a path for the train. At the end of each chapter, the old man will witness something that sparks some nostalgia and you'll get to view him daydreaming about his earlier years. The game features 15 chapters and will likely only take 1-3 hours to complete.
While Old Man's Journey is a brief experience, I enjoyed my time with it and would easily recommend it to anybody who likes a laid-back adventure/puzzle game. The story packs a lot of charm and the graphical style is simply beautiful. The short game length makes it an ideal title to load up on and play-through on a lazy weekend. These kind of titles are great to play while on Game Pass (which was on the service at the time of this writing) or else wait for a sale to get the most for your buck.
Looking at the user reviews for Old Man's Journey reveals a large number of negative reviews, all based on the fact that the game flashes up the "Permissions Needed" screen when you first load it up. Several of these reviewers clearly state that they never actually played the game after disagreeing to the permissions screen, which hopefully the people reading those reviews take into account. I'm not 100% sure why this particular title requests permissions, but I can assure you that agreeing to this statement is not going to submit any kind of revealing information about you to the developers. At most they can see your stats, friends list, achievements and that kind of general Xbox Live stuff. Read more about the permissions request here.
Final Verdict: Old Man's Journey is an adventure/puzzle game that doesn't last too long, but has a beautiful art-style and a story with some charm that makes it worth a look for those seeking a laid-back adventure.
Related Links:
Buy Old Man's Journey - Microsoft Store
Apps/Games Requesting Permissions - Xbox Overview
Broken Rules - Official Site
Old Man's Journey - GameFAQs
Old Man's Journey - True Achievements
Old Man's Journey Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
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