AER: Memories of Old (2017)

AER: Memories of Old (2017)

Genre: Adventure | Players: 1 | Developer: Forgotten Key

AER: MoO deserves praise for a number of things, but perhaps not so much as an actual game. That doesn't mean it's a joyless experience, though. I enjoyed much of it, for the brief time that it lasts.

Its biggest influences are Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda, specifically Skyward Sword (2011), which is the least fun I've ever had with a LoZ game, and Thatgamecompany's majestic Journey (2012).

It has a similar setting and makeup as SS, (i.e. set upon floating land masses in the sky, with a few dungeons/temples that must be visitied in order to progress) and attempts the same kind of soulful pilgrimage that Journey handled so perfectly.

Both the aforementioned games feature a wordless protagonist, as does AER. Her name is Auk.

Auk is a shifter, able to transform at will into a large bird, enabling her to traverse from one floating island to another with ease. The actual transformation is fluid and pleasing to do, performed by a single button-press, both ways.

The world itself is beautiful, a picturesque space with vibrant colours that suggests airiness and tranquillity, but the peacefulness is threatened by an ancient evil that's slowly awakening. As Auk gets closer to her goal, to what some believe is her destiny, she gets closer to the evil, also.

The flying is great; it's a responsive, intuitive, and lively way to get from place to place. The only issue I had with the mechanic is that there's no way to slow down the flight speed of Auk in her bird form, meaning it can be challenging to judge a proper landing without overshooting the intended target location. I found it easier to purposefully crash-land at the spot where I wanted to be - you take no damage from falls or crashes, so there's no danger in doing so.

The on foot sections, alas, aren't so good. During those times it has the feeling of a game that's been made in off-the-shelf PC Game Builder software. The distance covered is more than a natural step would take one, and it's floaty. Some of that may have been intentional — a way to keep Auk's dual nature of human and bird relevant to both states — but there's no real feeling of contact with the environment, which can affect the connection a player has to the game world.

The impreciseness is a major problem when trying to negotiate moving platforms, which happens from time to time in the temples. You can't just fly past them because you're stuck in the human form, which feels somewhat limiting after the freedom of the outdoor environment.

The locations seem perfect for exploration, but the loading times when entering and leaving indoor areas are agonizingly long, which can discourage it. But the truth is, though the world-building is fantastic, there's very little to do within it. If the developers had put as much thought and effort into 'gameplay' as the artists evidently put into their location, character and creature design, then AER could've been memorable for more than just its aesthetics and aspirations.

Another peculiar aspect is the in-game map. It's mostly blank at the beginning and fills in as you explore, just like many adventure games do, but it doesn't add the names of the places you've visited, and there's no way to mark locations for yourself. It seems extra odd when you consider that the game reveals its backstory partly though written historical records. Words and records are an important aspect of the culture, but Auk can't even chicken-scrawl an X on a map.

It was refreshing to play something that didn't ask me to fight or kill everything that wasn't an ally, but the journey can sometimes feel uneventful. I could go back and forth with what's good and bad for another half a dozen paragraphs, but it would all boil down to the same thing: it's beautiful to look at but lacks gameplay. Ultimately, its merits lie in presentation above all else.