AER: Memories of Old Review

AER Memories of Old (no colon, no hyphen) is one of those pleasant, relaxing games that you can work your way through in a couple of hours, and then very likely forget once you start playing something else. It is far, far from being bad, however it isn’t something that will stick with you. There is a lot to like about AER, but very little to love. It’s a snack game, but a high class, free-range 100% bio gluten-free recyclable-packaging snack game.

AER is an open-world puzzle/exploration platformer, of sorts, which places players in the boots of Auk, a pilgrim girl who can transform into a bird. This ability comes in handy, as prior to the events of the game a cataclysmic event tore the fabric of the universe asunder, meaning the world consists of floating chunks of land suspended in a vast bottomless sky. It’s like space, but with atmosphere. It’s in this destroyed yet beautiful world that you’ll spend the next 3-7 hours exploring.

You can either rush through the obligatory parts of the game in a breezy 3 hours to get the ending, or take your time to enjoy the scenery, explore and get all the 20 achievements (well, 19, because one is bugged) comfortably in twice the time. Like most artsy indie platformers, the story and lore of AER isn’t shoved right in your face, and only by digging through various optional tablets and conversations will you be able to make some sense of what is happening and why.

AER’s world is a charm to explore

AER is an open-world puzzle/exploration platformer, of sorts, which places players in the boots of Auk, a pilgrim girl who can transform into a bird. This ability comes in handy, as prior to the events of the game a cataclysmic event tore the fabric of the universe asunder, meaning the world consists of floating chunks of land suspended in a vast bottomless sky. It’s like space, but with atmosphere. It’s in this destroyed yet beautiful world that you’ll spend the next 3-7 hours exploring.

You can either rush through the obligatory parts of the game in a breezy 3 hours to get the ending, or take your time to enjoy the scenery, explore and get all the 20 achievements (well, 19, because one is bugged) comfortably in twice the time. Like most artsy indie platformers, the story and lore of AER isn’t shoved right in your face, and only by digging through various optional tablets and conversations will you be able to make some sense of what is happening and why.

The non-human NPCs have pretty neat designs

Gameplay, notably, lacks combat entirely. When in the overworld, you’ll spend most of your time in bird form, flying from island to island, in search of three temples. All of these temples are locked, and their corresponding keys are located nearby requiring you to solve a mini-puzzle, usually involving a magic lantern you acquire during the tutorial that lets you interact with the magical ruins scattered around. Once you have the key, you enter the temple, which is where the main puzzle elements come into play.

While in the dungeons, you cannot transform into a bird, and must rely on platforming and your lantern to solve puzzles and advance to a guardian at the center of the temple. Now, these temples are the meat of the game, however the issue is that the platforming is floaty and the puzzles are really, really easy. While a game like this isn’t meant to me too challenging, something a tad more complex would have been welcome. The controls are easy enough to wrangle once you’ve gotten used to them, but early on it feels like Auk is over-responsive, and one rather annoying fact is that you can’t turn in place. Even if you press a different direction from a stationary position, Auk makes the turn in an arc.

Visually, the game looks fantastic. It isn’t a graphical achievement in technicalities since the models are low-poly, there are barely any textures or particle effects and so on. It’s aesthetic direction rather than graphical fidelity that make it a good looking game. Thing is, we’ve seen all of this before. The game gives off serious Journey vibes with a healthy helping of Titan Souls mixed in. The areas I felt showed originality were the character designs of the guardians and the Void, and granted, those were absolutely spectacular.

The game’s world is also put together with noticeable care and passion. There are all kinds of small tidbits of lore scattered around the various floating islands, as well as a few cute small easter eggs, like an island with a small group of crabs making singing noises.

A number of charming tidbits are hidden among the floating islands

The storyline itself isn’t too complex. You’re a pilgrim tasked with venturing to the three temples scattered about the Land of the Gods in order to possibly heal the land and banish the Void attempting to consume it. The story doesn’t get any more complex than that, however the backstory of why the world went to hell and the various beings that inhabit it alongside humans is fairly well fleshed out, provided you do your exploration and don’t rush through the game. From Spirit Animals to a civil war and a usurper of gods, the lore and history of AER’s world is quite rich. In fact, this backstory is miles more interesting than the actual plot, which worst of all ends on a cliffhanger of the “will she or won’t she” variety.