This is an ongoing list where I attempt to do the following: Play, Complete, and Rank every video game in the known universe in order to finally answer the age old question "What is the greatest game of all time?" For previous entries find the links on the attached spreadsheet.

How did I do?

I feel like it has been ages since our last discussion, but it hasn't even been a week, so clearly 2022 already is dragging for me. Old Man's Journey was one of the last games I finished in 2021, and I probably played it for much longer then the game actually is, not for some unquenchable love for the game, but because my son would keep taking my game and playing it, and I would have to reset the checkpoints so I didn't miss any of the actual story bits. So let's dive into this indie game and see if it is the greatest game of all time.

Old Man's Journey is a game that tells about... well about an old man who is journeying to a destination that we as the players don't quite know of during the game. If I had to describe it, I suppose it would be considered a puzzle game, but the puzzles aren't really puzzling. You don't directly control the Old Man, you click in the world and he tries to walk to the spot on the screen you clicked (or touched). If he can reach the location then great, otherwise he will get closer but stop and grunt as a way to portray his confusion/frustration at not being able to reach the point. What you can control is any piece of ground that the old man is not currently standing on. You can raise and lower the elevation so that the old man can continue his journey accordingly. Every chapter relies heavily on this mechanic.

Now when I say that you can change the elevation, that isn't to say the solution to every puzzle is to make the ground flat. In reality each plot of land in the game is broken down to really an outline that you are trying to make intersect with an outline of the plot of land the old man is currently on. If the outlines intersect, then the old man can presumably pass from one area to the next without stopping. Each plot of land doesn't have limitless elasticity, as you can only pull things in one direction so far, so in some levels you might need to work out how to get him on a plot of land, that you can't pull all the way down to where he is currently standing. Any plot of land that the character is currently standing on, can't be moved. Apparently as God, you don't want to potentially have the old man trip or fall, so some puzzles work around this challenge, by forcing you to move the character on and off the same plot of land so you can move it to the position it needs to be on. I am sure I am doing an absolute shit job at explaining the mechanic, but seeing it in motion or playing it for 5 minutes will make the mechanic make sense.

Each chapter involves your character going from one location to another, whether that is going from the bottom of the screen to the top, or going from the left all the way to the right. For instance the first chapter takes you from the Old Man's house to a Hotel where he will presumably stay the night before continuing on his journey. At the end of each chapter, you get a single image of his memories, which will tell you what he is thinking about at that moment. For instance seeing a white sailing ship, might remind him of his seaside wedding, These rare moments of reflection are the story bits the game gives you as to why he is going on said journey. There is no dialogue or text on screen that tells the story to you, it feels similar to how the SIMS character's interact. I won't spoil the story (for what there is), but I will say that it is very easy to guess the ballpark at which type of story it is telling. That's not necessarily a downside, I am able to figure out a lot of story points, before the game explicitly tells me what I have figured out, clearly the objective for this game was to tell this tale.

Now before I complain about any issues I have with the game, I need to stress that I don't think this game is trying to be a difficult puzzle game, or tell a story that has never been told. I played this game, when I wanted something to turn my mind off with. I never had to work out a long convoluted solution to a puzzle, and even the parts I got the most hung up on, probably only stalled me for 5 minutes. For instance, one puzzle element that comes into play in some later chapters regard flocks of sheep that block your path. What you are supposed to do is create a lower elevation for the sheep to run to, allow your person to cross the path they blocked and then rotate, so that they go back to their original location, and you can continue moving forward. There was one of those puzzles, where I think the game bugged out on me and the sheep and the old man occupied the same space, and I had to keep moving the ground and clicking the sheep until one by one they "glitched" off my character and let me continue playing. Even when the game bugged out, it only took me 5 minutes, and I probably could have reloaded a checkpoint and it wouldn't have happened again.

So, if I had to lay out my complaints with this game, it is that it feels a little bit like empty calories. When I finished the game, I checked it off my list, made a small comment to my wife about the game, and then never thought about the game again, until this very moment. It's story, unless you are in a very specific similar setting as the main character, is probably one you won't think to ever revisit, and the puzzles aren't ones that you would necessarily go back to in an attempt to challenge your brain. Do all games need replay-ability, no of course not, but even outside of replay-ability, this game doesn't even have staying power in my brain for me to think about the message, story, puzzles, the game offered even 30 minutes after beating the game. This isn't going to turn into a debate about how long games need to be, or what the cost to time spent ratio needs to be to justify a game's creation, but I think I felt a little shocked about how quickly I completed it.

Flipping to the other side of the coin, I think this game is really nice to look at. It also is very aesthetically pleasing to play, as you move pieces into place like a jigsaw puzzle and then just watch the character move in the environment. It gets bonus points for being a touch screen game on the switch, because it just works so much better then trying to use a curser with a joystick, but even so, there aren't any areas where you need to act quickly so you can take your time regardless. Despite predicting the ending, I was still engaged enough to want to see all the screens of his memories, which is why I kept having to backtrack the chapters after I would discover my kid played and beat 2 or 3 areas without me watching.

Overall, I think Old Man's Journey can be an enjoyable bite size piece of content, but you can gauge your own enjoyment before you even purchase the game. If you don't want to play a meditative simple puzzler, then you won't find anything here. Want games to hold your attention for weeks at a time, then you can also skip this one, but if anything I have said intrigues you its certainly not the worst game to go get.

Is this the greatest game of all time?: No

Where does it rank: I don't have anything interesting to say here.. 76th greatest gameof all time, its not terrible, but easily forgettable, and while its not a bad game in any way, it's also just just meh. It is above "miitopia" (77th) and below "Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout" (75th).

Up Next

1. Dicey Dungeons (Switch)

2. Final Fantasy Theatrythm: Curtain Call (3DS)

3. Figment (Switch)

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion). Here. I added links on the spreadsheet for quick navigation. Now if you missed a blog of a game you want to read about, you can get to it quickly, rather than having to scroll through my previous blogs wondering when it came up.

Thanks for Listening.

Edit: wrote a silly story for fun, but it got a little too silly, so I scrapped it. Thanks though!

@ravey: I have no idea what this is.. but I enjoyed reading it.

The graphics and sound in this game are beautiful, but it does look like they could've done with more gameplay.

The interactions where it seems you have to click on random stuff to trigger things to happen that cause the memories to occur also seems bad.

@ravey: while I agree, I never had a problem figuring out what to click on. That's not to say that I clicked the right thing first time, every time, but I was never stuck at a spot for more then 30 seconds.