So I began exploring the shattered floating islands – and fell in love. But after a few more wing flaps I decided that getting lost in this game is completely fine, because that is what it wants to be all about. Until I got into the flight controls I lost track of said kites. Shortly before I transformed, I was told to follow the kites to progress, but that’s easier said than done. When I first dashed through the air, my angsty gamer heart was looking for some sort of stamina bar – but there is none. I light my lantern (F) and hurry outside, press Space to jump and E and transform into a bird. And that’s all there is to know – I catch a dramatic glimpse of some dark presence and then the cave starts to collapse.
When I started exploring the cave I learned that my name was Auk and I was a pilgrim.
#AER MEMORIES OF OLD PS4#
The game begins in an ancient cave where the controls are introduced: WASD with E to interact, Mouse to look around (on Steam, PS4 version works with Gamepad). Games like Journey and ABZÛ followed a similar approach and I liked them very much, but AER provides much more freedom. A game of exploration to enjoy at my own speed. When I found out about AER: Memories of Old, it felt like a flashback to my childhood.
Exploring became a necessary task in order to find the next important quest item. I wanted to overcome challenges, kill the final boss, solve the riddles. I could do this for hours and I was completely absorbed into that world while doing it.Īs I grew older, I actually wanted to beat the games I played. I roamed the mansion in Tomb Raider and tried to figure out the coolest moves in Ecco the Dolphin. Flying in this game is fun, but the short run time, as well as the lack of any sort of challenge, a compelling story, or even a captivating aesthetic make it hard to recommend this game.Back when I was a child, I often just explored the safe area of the tutorial or the first stage, where little to no enemies were there to hurt you and you were able to freely explore the stage and enjoy the mechanics. Tl dr – AER is a family-friendly Open-World 3D Platformer where players can transform into a bird to explore floating islands in the sky. If you can find this at a good discount, this might make for a nice brief experience, but definitely don't expect much from this game. It's short 3-4 run time has a few nice experiences, but overall these aren't nearly as powerful as other games that try for this sort of thing, and are weighed down by the unclear goal structure. I will say that the mechanics for flying here are really enjoyable, but the lack of any strong goals or challenge in maneuvering during flight make this mechanic feel wasted.Īll of these complaints are not to say that AER is bad, but it lacks a real, compelling reason to keep playing it. Unfortunately, as I've noted, the audiovisual experience here is somewhat lacking, the story in this game (all delivered in text) isn't very compelling, and the world is interesting but not compelling enough to make it an end unto itself. Games like Journey, Gris, and Rime come to mind. The low challenge level in itself isn't necessarily a problem – there have been great Platformers that have used simple and easy gameplay to deliver powerful audiovisual experiences, a fascinating world to explore, or a wonderful story. In fact, the only real challenge present here is one of the game's larger flaws – it's often unclear exactly where you're supposed to go next. Players will enter numerous shrines on their journey where they'll find puzzles to solve, though these puzzles aren't really challenging either. At the very least I can say that this game's relaxing soundtrack is quite nice.Īs for the gameplay itself, AER is a light and simple affair for the most part – there's little here to challenge players, no life bar or risk of death despite the empty void underneath the player in the game's open-world overworld. It's disappointing to see a game with such low-fidelity visuals still struggle to perform well. The game uses low-poly 3D characters and environments to build its open-world,and while it is stylistically attractive, on a technical level it has severe problems, with shuddering framerates, lots of pop-in, and aliasing. The presentation here is a really mixed bag. This is a game set in a world of floating sky islands and ancient ruins where the player takes the role of a woman who can transform into a bird, traveling on a pilgrimage to multiple shrines which soon becomes a quest to stave off a looming threat upon her world. AER is a family-friendly Open-World 3D Platformer with some light Puzzle elements originally released on multiple platforms in 2017 and brought to the Nintendo Switch in 2019.