AER – Memories of Old

Aer is a game of pure exploration. There are no enemies. There are no Game Overs. There are no upgrades. There aren't really puzzles (there sort of are, but they are so minor and simple and sparing that its hard to think of the game as having puzzle elements). The entire quality of your experience is going to be determined by how comfortable you are with this fact. The whole game world is open to you from the very beginning to wonder in. In this way it reminded me of Shadow of the Colossus a little; both games give you free reign inside their worlds. Particularly of note, the flight in this game is as exuberant as you'd imagine from the trailer. The soundtrack and art are both very suitable for the calm tone that this style of gameplay facilitates; the show is stolen, however, by the wonderful lore that suffuses the game. Forgotten Key has cultivated an original, beautiful mythology here, an accomplishment I applaud them for. Too many games today, I feel, take their setting and lore from preexisting materials, e.g. classic mythology, d&d, mad max, cthulu mythos... So to create something completely original that works as this does is a noteworthy accomplishment. There is also that same strain of wistful melancholy in this world that SotC has in it's own. One significant problem with this game though is that you don't get the same sense of weight to your journey as in SotC, and while the myths they've built are beautiful, I never felt I was really partaking in them myself. Also, since there is nothing to find in the way of upgrades or collectibles, the outlook that the journey itself is the reward is all but obligatory. If the prospect of walking around islands you know are empty just for the sake of having walked there doesn't appeal to you, or if you're a player who is always trying to rush from one game to the next, you might find this an unengaging, even tedious experience. Keep in mind the game is also very short; I completed in about 4 hours.

There has to be a name for these kinda games. Games like Journey, Abzu and the newly released Gris. Not quite a Walking Simulator but it's all about exploration. There are no enemies, no real quests and barely any puzzles aside from very rudimentary flip switching. You can explore the map to your heart's content from the get-go. Too bad that there isn't much to find. Since there aren't any enemies or upgrades to be found, all you'll run into is bits of lore. My only highlight was stumbling unto a circle of singing frogs.... And you can't even pet any of the animals you meet! What gives! I wanna pet the blue deers, dammit. The map is quite tiny. The story is just a very basic fantasy fairytale, the sort I've seen a million times before in other games: Humans are mean, corrupt world, great cataclysm occurs, new chosen one is to bring balance to the force, etc. Graphics are OK, though I really tire of these polygon vector graphics you see a lot in low budget 3D games. Music is fine I guess, I barely noticed it. I'm very I glad that I got this game gifted for free, it doesn't feel like a full commercial release, more like a mildly above average student project.

Aer is a platformer where you can turn into a bird and fly. The problem that instantly shows itself is that you can only turn into a bird outside, forced to do platforming in caves/dungeons. The platforming is fine, but it feels disappointing that the flying wasn't made use of in the dungeons. The dungeons have very simple puzzles which only avoided boring me due to the short length of the game. The ending is terrible, when you get there you will see a cutscene of a fight with the final boss starting. Then it fades to the credits. I suppose they planned to make a sequel. This ending was especially annoying due to the dungeon preceding it just being a walk through the dark following a light with no interactables or puzzles. If they do make a sequel I hope they take advantage of the flying. Even if the game looks really pretty, I cannot justify recommending it on that basis alone.

I really dig this game. Explore on the ground and in the air with no fear of enemies or attack. There is only one physical attacker in the entire game, encountered at the end, with a predetermined result played as a cut scene. This is a game of exploration played without timers. The dungeons have no lethal traps or bottomless pits, and you can fall for a half dozen stories without fear of death. The dungeon puzzles are mostly flip a switch that opens a door or extends a bridge somewhere. Graphics are not exactly cutting edge, but they're good enough to tell a story. The game is short, but there are lots of exhibits and side stories to discover. I do wish the developers had provided an epilogue to the main story for a more satisfactory ending. In a way I guess the frustratingly abrupt ending serves to emphasize that this game provides more value in the exploration than in the linear progression of levels or the achievement of beating the game. It's about the journey, not the destination. Can't say I agree that that's good enough reason for the devs to half-effort the ending as they did though. I would've knocked off a star for this, but I think the game's overall rating is lower than it deserves.